Face Values: Visible/Invisible Governors on the Board and Organisational Responses to the Race Equality Agenda

Abstract

This article explores institutional responses to the race equality agenda in the context of further education (FE) and sixth form colleges. More specifically, it examines the experiences of black and minority ethnic governors within the environment of recent legislative changes to improve the representation of black and minority ethnic people in governing bodies and senior management within the sector. Using data from interviews with black and minority ethnic governors and diversity managers, the article explores the negotiations that participants made within these institutions as black and minority ethnic people. This exploration is framed by a problematic of visibility and invisibility – a ‘double bind’ which can restrict the role that black and minority ethnic governors are able to undertake within some college environments. The author claims that the modalities of these informal dynamics inform and affirm a conceptualisation of colleges as the ‘proper’ location of white male subjectivity.