Supporting Anti-racism module is divided into five sections:
- Overview to Supporting Anti-racism – this section
- The role of museums
- Anti-racism at an individual level
- Anti-racism at an organisational level
- Putting it into practice
Supporting Anti-racism is for everyone who works in and with museums, and those interested in joining the sector. This module aims to raise your awareness and build your confidence in taking action for anti-racism. Everyone can be part of dismantling racism and advancing racial justice, and this module provides space to consider what this can involve in museums.
At the beginning of each section we will share the section’s learning objectives and ask you to reflect on what you want to know, what you currently know and how it relates to your practice. This will help you develop your own learning objectives.
Your learning is further supported by different optional exercises grouped under the four headings:
Reflecting – exercises associated with thinking about your own professional practice, organisational practice and sector practice, and assessing your knowledge and experience to consolidate your learning.
Doing – exercises associated with action, making notes on documents, seeking further information, watching films.
Connecting – exercises associated with making connections with specialist groups, colleagues within and outside the organisation/ sector, and with other learners.
Reading – exercises associated with reading case studies, reports, standards, books, articles and papers.
We hope by providing a mix of information, exercises, resources and signposting you will be able to develop your confidence and competence around your own practice in relation to taking anti-racist action. This module links to resources about the UK, US, Canada and more. All the resources can offer relevance to challenging racism in the UK.
When working through this module, remember the responsibility to develop your anti-racist practice is yours and yours alone. It is not the responsibility of those with lived experiences of racism.
In this module we will be considering issues related to racism. This means some of the module material references topics such as colonial violence, racialised violence and murder, as well as other sensitive and traumatic areas. Where the latter of these are in external links a warning will be posted to keep you informed so you can monitor your engagement.
We recognise that engaging with this module’s content could be emotionally intensive for some learners, especially those with lived experiences of racism. The following list includes suggested sources of support and you can access the Museums Association’s Wellbeing hub.
On the right-hand side you will see how far (percentage) through the module you are. You will also see the next lesson coming up. Click the top of the right-hand bar to expand the column and view all the lessons in the module. If you take a break from the platform to return to the module later you will need to log in and go to your dashboard to continue.
You will find below downloadable pdfs of the following: Course links; contents list and language and terminology. These may be helpful as you go through the module.