I was recently considering the similarities between what happens in a secondary school environment and how this can play out in the workplace more than a decade later. What can workplaces learn from schools and what type of values and conduct should parents and society seek to embed in and expect of young people, so that respectful, tolerant, and inclusive workplace cultures are the natural future result?
Having a dyslexic daughter and having discussed the impact of this on her, I am aware that teachers’ own individual sub-conscious or overt bias against children with special educational needs can impact adversely on their treatment of special educational needs pupils. For example, when setting and printing exam papers, teachers should adopt an inclusive approach and consider making reasonable adjustments to the way in which exam papers are laid out and presented in respect of their type face, font type and font size and the colour of paper on which it is printed, to allow dyslexic pupils to be able to read the exam paper in the same way that their fellow students without special educational needs can.
Reasonable adjustments such as this are quick, easy and not expensive to implement, they are inclusive of all pupils and have no negative impact at all on the non-dyslexic pupils. The same or similar adjustments can easily be made in the workplace for neuro-diverse employees in consultation with them in respect of reading materials which employees need to review either in hard or soft copy.
Teachers who focus on the differences of special educational needs children in a divisive rather than an accommodating way, can lead to further stereotypical behaviour and negative prejudice against them, which can have the effect of further isolating and excluding them in an exam environment in which they need to feel comfortable in order to be able to perform to the best of their ability. In stark contrast, teachers who adopt an inclusive attitude and focus on the commonality between their students can accommodate easily the needs of both able bodied and differently able special educational needs children. These lessons also easily translate to line managers in the workplace too.
My son was subjected to anti-Semitic abuse at school last week, his black and mixed-race friends were racially abused, a Muslim friend was abused on the grounds of his religion and another friend was abused on the grounds of his nationality. This abuse was perpetrated by one pupil against several diverse pupils with different protected characteristics.
Whilst the abuse which my son and his friends suffered were on the grounds of different protected characteristics, such as race, nationality or religion or belief, the focus of the parents of the children who were subjected to this abuse was not on the different grounds upon which their children were discriminated against, but instead we focused on the common impact which such prejudicial and discriminatory abuse had on each of our children and we sought to bring about positive change through collective action. We were comforted by the fact that our children, despite coming from different racial and religious backgrounds, supported each other and together bravely reported the abuse to the school who took immediate action to stamp out this discriminatory behaviour and have put many initiatives in place which make clear their zero tolerance policy to all forms of discrimination and prejudice and to encourage inclusion and authenticity.
What we have in common and share between us is so much stronger than our diverse differences, and can bring about positive change for the benefit of all, in a way which focusing solely on our differences and diversity, which can be divisive cannot. The single child that picked on our collective children attempted to come between them and isolate and exclude them from each other by focusing on their differences, i.e. their different races, nationalities, religion or beliefs, whereas our children at the ages of 12 and 13 were mature enough to focus instead on what they have in common to defeat such discrimination, which has no place in society, schools, or the workplace.
I am hopeful that the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us all to focus on our commonality and values of kindness and empathy. We should unite as a community both in schools and the workplace to fight exclusion on grounds of diversity and/or protected characteristics. By focusing on what we have in common and by acting together as a common unit, authenticity will in time become more important than diversity and it is authenticity in my view which leads to true inclusion.
Being able to truly be yourself, whatever protected characteristics you may have, and being able to bring your whole self in a genuinely authentic way to school or the workplace, knowing that you have the support of a diverse group of friends or work colleagues who together will stand up for each other and speak out against all forms of discrimination, prejudice or abuse on the grounds of any protected characteristic, means that each and every one of us can use our own unique attributes, differences and protected characteristics which make us who we are, in a way which benefits not only ourselves or a small minority group, but the greater good of our schools, our workplaces and society as a whole.
It was sad to see how concerned my son and his friends were about ‘snitching’ on the child that had subjected them to discriminatory abuse, and how anxious they felt about whether the child would seek to take retaliatory action against them for reporting his conduct on his return to school following his suspension. This drew parallels in my mind with the genuine concerns that whistleblowers have in the work environment. Perhaps if more work is done in schools to redress this concept of being a ‘snitch’ if you call out inappropriate conduct, in time maybe more whistleblowing concerns will be raised in the workplace without fear of retaliatory repercussions or victimisation of the affected employee.
As it turns out, by befriending the child who discriminated against him and accepting his apology, my son will hopefully help to break down barriers caused by fear of the unknown and turn this child into a powerful ally who will be an asset to society and his future workplace.
If we work hard to try to change the dial in schools now on these important issues, workplace cultures could reap the resulting benefits in the future by genuinely becoming more inclusive.
