Unsettling fieldwork: Reflections of Whiteness and anti-racist practice in the pedagogies of fieldwork

Abstract

This commentary considers the racialised lens through which fieldwork, as a pedagogic practice in Geography, is constructed and experienced. Prompted by narratives in the seminal paper ‘Muddy glee’ exploring the gendered aspects of fieldwork, and my own experiences of delivering undergraduate fieldwork with demographically diverse undergraduate students from a London University, the paper offers a rationale for adopting anti-racist pedagogic practices in fieldwork. The universality of field experience is questioned as I reflect on how it is shaped by and mediated through racialised societies and spaces. The paper argues for the adoption of an active and explicitly anti-racist approach to fieldwork with academic teachers and their departments addressing how field practices are shaped by the normative Whiteness of our discipline and, more specifically, White Privilege. The paper continues by offering some actions that field leaders can take to ensure anti-racist practices in their fieldwork. It concludes by reiterating the positive tone of ‘Muddy glee’ by encouraging colleagues to challenge themselves to actively manage their field practices in ways that support ‘rigorous and critical reflexivity’ (Bracken & Mawdsley, 2004, Area, 36, 282), while centring the well-being of all our students.