Comparative understandings of ’race’ and identity in higher education: an examination of UK and Australian experiences

This paper will examine how the concepts of ‘race’ and identity are taught within the broad social science curriculum within the UK and Australia as part of a forthcoming collaborative study. It aims to critically and comparatively explore how degree-level students understand the concepts, ‘race’ and identity – specifically the meanings associated with the terms ‘Black’ and ‘White’. To date, and in contrast to research within schools, very little empirical research has emerged that pays due attention to the significance and the construction and maintenance of racialised identities within Higher Education and its effects upon the growing and diverse student local and international experience. Using our own undergraduate and postgraduate courses as a backdrop as well as our own status as academic staff who occupy ‘insider-outsider’ positions, we intend to reveal how ‘race’ and identity is constructed and maintained within the HE curriculum; how this compares across two countries and upon how this shapes the learning experiences of all our students