This event is part of the School of Education's Bristol Conversations in Education research seminar series. These seminars are free and open to the public.
Hosted by the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE)
Speaker: Dr Jessica Oddy (Senior Research Associate at School of Education, University of Bristol; Director of Design for Social Impact Lab)
The Transformative and Anti-racist Educational System project (SETA) secured US$10 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to enable transformative long-term changes to Brazil’s systems and institutions that sustain racial inequities. This talk starts by giving an overview of the University of Bristol's partnership with ActionAid and the wider SETA project. Over the past couple of years, the University of Bristol has been working on a global survey on anti-racist education initiatives, and we are about to embark on the second stage of our research, which will involve co-designing research with global anti-racist education initiatives alongside building a global community of practice to share their important work of key anti-racist initiatives across the world.
Next, I will talk about my work using the Black Radical Tradition (BRT) to inform my research praxis. The BRT represents a rich and vital framework that challenges conventional educational paradigms. Rooted in the struggles against racism, capitalism, and colonialism, the BRT offers a radical lens through which to critique and reshape educational practices. Drawing on compelling case studies of community-led educational research in Sudan, Jordan, the UK, and Brazil, I will demonstrate how the BRT confronts the omissions of colonization, capitalism, and enslavement within contemporary educational praxis. Through this exploration, I aim to highlight the radical potential of the BRT not only to critique existing educational structures but also to inspire innovative, justice-oriented research practices that center on equity, liberation, and social transformation. The BRT challenges us to reimagine research as a tool for societal change, empowering researchers to engage in transformative work that fosters inclusive, anti-oppressive educational environments.
