Racial Equity Resources

Resource for Racially Equitable Public Engagement: Mapping my positionality in public engagement

on this page
  1. Let's Explore "Racialisation"
  2. Explore the framework

This exercise explores how your life experiences and identities shape your connections with others and your work. You will examine how power and privilege, including race, shape how we work in public engagement.

Our social identities, like race, gender, class, and where we come from, influence what we notice, who we listen to, and how at home we feel in different spaces. 

In public engagement, practitioners often hold positions of authority, acting as “gatekeepers” to institutional resources, platforms, and decision-making. 

This activity helps you map your personal positionality, examine where racial privilege or minoritisation impacts your work, and take clear, reflexive steps toward racial equity.

This is adapted from Transforming Science Centres and Museums (Dawson, Mignan Jenkins and Dancstep - 2026).
 

 

updated on 15 Oct 2026
Estimated time: 35 minutes
3 minutes read

A note on wellbeing

You’re warmly invited to use this reflection in a way that feels right for you. Only write down what you’re comfortable with, and share as much or as little as you like. Thinking about power, inequality, and privilege can bring up many feelings: pride, discomfort, even guilt. All of these are natural. If you notice strong feelings, be kind to yourself, pause, and let your curiosity guide you.

Read more about protecting your wellbeing: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/racial-equity-resource-homepage-test#expandable_content_9163

Let's Explore "Racialisation"

Before you start the exercise, we invite you to explore what racialisation means.

Race isn’t something you’re born with; it is not a biological fact. It’s a social construct, an idea that people and societies have created over time. Racialisation means that society puts people into different groups based on race, and gives those groups different levels of power and opportunity.

Everyone is part of this process, including white people. They are also seen through the lens of race, as the majority group in UK society.

Knowing whether you are seen as part of the majority or the minority can help you understand how power works in your day-to-day work and relationships. This awareness can help us make public engagement racially equitable.

 

Racialised majority

When a group is racialised as the majority, places like universities, museums, or research centres treat their identity as the default, standard or neutral. Because it is treated as "normal," majority racialisation often operates invisibly to those who hold it.

Racialised minority

When individuals or groups are racialised as minorities, their identity is marked as "different," "other," or specialised. In public engagement settings, they often bear the burden of representing their entire racial group, navigating institutional hyper-visibility, or facing assumptions about their knowledge and authority.

Explore the framework

Select different parts of the framework to work through below. Each link will take you to a new page where you can work on one element of the framework. We advise that you work through it chronologically, starting with 1.1. However you may prefer to drop in and out of different sections.

Please find the plain text word document and worksheet at the bottom of this page.

 

Part 1: Personas and Attributes

1.1: Personas

Personas provide a way of understanding the different roles that public engagement professionals often play in their work.

1.2: Attributes

Attributes are the personal qualities and behaviours that underpin effective PEP practices.

Continue exploring the framework online