Anti-oppressive practice training

Increasingly leaders in the field are turning away from terms like equality, diversity and inclusion, or unconscious bias, and using the term “anti-oppressive”. But what does anti-oppressive mean, and why should we prefer it to these other terms?

This session can be offered in a number of different contexts such as therapy, education, and to assist organisational change. It is tailored to think about the ways in which we can bring in anti-oppressive principles both within our relationships with clients, customers and students but also in more wide reaching, institutional approaches.

Depending on length, the training can cover:

• The story we tell with the language we use – why this matters
• How not to be afraid of terms such as structural, systemic oppression
• Not our fault, but our responsibility: dealing with guilt and accepting the work
• Tools for dismantling unequal structures
• Critical thinking and its use for analysing the bigger picture
• Moving away from good and bad people: how organisations and individuals learn to be reflective
  
  

Beyond unconscious bias training

Unconscious Bias training has rightly been criticised as not enough on its own. Studies demonstrate that knowing about the problem is not enough to effect change. But how do we move forward? If we know that structural bias is disadvantaging certain groups in a way that is almost invisible to those not affected, how do we not only bring this into people’s awareness but also start to make things better?

Depending on length, the training can cover:

• Understanding unconscious or structural biases: how they are created and maintained
• Ways of challenging bias within our institutions/practices
• Unpacking the ways individuals and institutions defend their biases
• Effective organisational strategies for tackling the impact of bias
• Gain an overview of the different types of unconscious bias and its impact
• Consider how bias leads to inequality, exclusion and marginalisation
• Understand the impact of bias on organisations overall