Proclamations and provocations. Decolonising curriculum in education research and professional practice (original) (raw)
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Decolonising curriculum in education: continuing proclamations and provocations
London Review of Education
There is no denying the importance and increased significance of interest in decolonisation in education and the wider social sciences. This article aims to bring a continuing contribution to an evolving and important discussion. The methodology of this work allows a range of academics from different cultural contexts to voice their decolonising proclamations. The authors of the article are a combination of White, Black, Asian and mixed-race academic researchers in higher education who have come together to proclaim their viewpoints. They draw upon their research and apply professional practice in relation to differing aspects of generally decolonising education and specifically decolonising curricula. As a group, we believe that the notion of decolonising applies to all sections of education – not only to primary schools, but also to nurseries, secondary schools, colleges and universities. We hope this article will encourage more research, advocacy and action within education and i...
Decolonising the curriculum beyond the surge: Conceptualisation, positionality and conduct
LONDON REVIEW OF EDUCATION, 2021
In recent years, there has been increased interest in, and work towards, decolonising the curriculum in higher education institutions in the UK. There are various initiatives to review university syllabuses and identify alternative literature. However, there is an increasing risk of turning ‘decolonisation’ into a buzz term tied to a trend. We fear that decolonisation within academia is becoming an empty term, diluted and depoliticised, allowing for superficial representations that fail to address racial, political and socio-economic intersectionalities. In this article, we examine several initiatives to decolonise the curriculum with a focus on the field of education as a discipline and medium. Based on our analysis, we engage with three main themes: conceptualisation, positionality and conduct. The article concludes that decolonisation cannot happen in a vacuum, or as an aim disconnected from the rest of the structure of the university, which leads to diluting a wider movement and turns into a box-ticking exercise. We argue that there needs to be a deconstruction of asymmetrical power relationships within academic spaces to allow for meaningful decolonisation in practice. This requires a real political will, a change in the structure, and in the hearts and minds of those in decision-making positions, and a shift in the practices of knowledge production.
MAKING IT INCLUSIVE: REFLECTIONS ON DESIGNING A TRAINING SESSION FOR 'DECOLONISING' THE CURRICULUM
NYS TESOL Journal, 2021
Graham-Brown shares her experience of “Decolonising the Curriculum” while designing a training session for ESOL teachers. Graham-Brown imparts her planning strategies for the training session, which is rooted in a UK ESOL context and was developed against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement. She reveals how she adapted a framework to support ESOL teachers to develop inclusive materials, and help learners to identify intersectional exclusion. The helpful scripts she includes not only identify challenging themes for ESOL teachers, but also offer much-needed guidance and support. In September 2020 I was asked to deliver a session called 'Decolonising the Curriculum' to trainee teachers preparing to teach adults in colleges, as part of their postgraduate teacher training programme. At that time, discussions of 'decolonising the curriculum' had become more prominent in the UK, responding to both the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustice in America after the murder of George Floyd, and the UK national context of the experiences of people from Black and minoritized backgrounds. Conferences featured sessions discussing the lack of representation of diverse people in education curricula and the issue with accounts of historical events. This included questioning the use of language in presentations of national and world events 1. UK-based calls to 'decolonise the curriculum' had originated in student bodies of national universities, where students and academics had identified problematic representations of historical figures and events, and use of reference books and materials created by authors of white male backgrounds (Charles, 2019). A definition from Keele University is that decolonising is about rethinking, reframing and reconstructing the current curriculum in order to make it better, and more inclusive. It is about expanding our notions of good literature so it doesn't always elevate one voice, one experience, and one way of being in the world. It is about considering how different frameworks, traditions and knowledge projects can inform each other, how multiple voices can be heard, and how new perspectives emerge from mutual learning. (Keele University, n.d.).
Case Study: Decolonising the Curriculum – An Exemplification
Social Policy and Society, 2021
Coventry University has made a strategic commitment to address the dimension of ‘race’ in its learning and teaching. Central to this is the establishment of a cross-institution curriculum change initiative called ‘Curriculum 2025’. The case study shared here details how we are approaching this task and some early reflections. Two things are explained: first, the provision of resources for staff who want to learn more about possible actions to take; second, our approach to working alongside course teams on new materials, often designed as reusable learning objects. An example of such a learning object is discussed which uses Wikipedia to enable students from diverse backgrounds to examine critically academic texts, books and other resources to understand how their learning may be skewed in favour of Western-originated thought and to identify alternative perspectives. The student activity also provides a co-creation opportunity, in that students are discovering the curriculum for them...
Alternation - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa, 2020
This article is an examination of challenges posed by decolonial theory for communities of learning in societies in which racism is pervasive. As racism is also an inheritance of colonialism, it draws sustenance from institutions developed for the efficiency and flourishing of colonial practices of disempowerment. Universities are among those institutions. Decolonial responses are dedicated to decolonising everything from curricula to interactions between universities and the wider community and across staff, students, faculty, and administrators. The author explores, critically, some of the metatheoretical debates that distinguish decoloniality from decolonisation in this process that often their ironic impact on expanding the norms of academic norms, in market forms, to the wider society through academic publishing and varieties of social media.
What does decolonising education mean to us? Educator reflections
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South
The #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall student protests accelerated the call for a decolonised higher education space. Much complexity and debate exists around the notion of a decolonised curriculum, how to frame it, describe it and/or enact it. Within this debate, the positionality and identity of individuals who design, implement, and evaluate curricula are important. The purpose of this article is to reflect on how theory-informed pedagogical reflections can assist in our understanding of decolonisation. The four educator reflections include our personal accounts of pedagogical philosophies, methodologies, and practices. A major focus is social work, which aims to enhance the well-being of all persons especially the disadvantaged, the marginalised and the voiceless. Through belonging to a community of practice, we embarked on the process of articulating our voice, positionality, and identity and how this informs our teaching, which is both personal and political within a South Afr...