EdD Student Blog: Kate Williams

Kate Williams is an educational researcher and campaigner against afro hair discrimination in schools – and currently studying for her EdD with us at the Institute of Education. This is in response to her own daughter’s experiences in school and aims to compliment Ruby’s own campaigning.  Kate’s campaigning work is genuinely groundbreaking and provides an example of how our EdD students develop ideas, evolve great writing and enact change. Kate’s reach and impact from this work has been wide and comprises a video (see below – with thanks to Sas Amoah at the Open University) and a wide range of press and media interaction.  These are great ways to publish work but to reach the relevant audiences, and as Kate has shown, make waves with her research skills!

In this interview, developed with The Open University’s Black and Minority Ethnic Network, Lenny and Kate Williams reflect on their daughter Ruby’s experiences of hair discrimination and share how they took the pain of what happened and turned it into the motivation to protect others.  You can read more at this link.

Runnymede Trust Blog: Afro Hair Matters

Schoolsweek: Hair policies

The Teacherist: Hair, Discrimination and its Impact