What does ‘decolonising the curriculum’ really mean?
Traditionally university courses have disproportionately focussed on topics that exclude certain groups, and provide a eurocentric perspective on the world. BME people, women, LGBT+ people, disabled people and people from the global south are often underrepresented both in the curricula that is taught, on module reading lists and makeup of staff. This underrepresentation limits the range of topics and perspectives in higher education and also has the potential to disadvantage students from the marginalised groups.
Decolonising the curriculum is about embedding liberation and equality in all aspects of the university from changing course content (new modules, different perspectives, more diverse reading lists), changing the way courses are taught, updating assessment methods, developing central support training, resources, funding and changing recruitment practices.
A decolonised curriculum would provide different perspectives on topics, encourage critical thinking and initiate debate leading to discussions on issues that are important to underrepresented groups in our society but usually never taught in our education systems. A good example of this can be found in History where colonisation is usually only taught from the perspective of the British Empire and hardly ever from the side of the communities that were colonised. This has an adverse impact on our society today as people go on to cherish the period of colonisation, while failing to recognise the inhumane treatment of local communities during this time, which included forced adoption of English language, destruction of cultural heritage, slavery, racial and religious discrimination, illegal occupation of land, businesses and institutions and killing of thousands of innocent civilians.
In order to teach a curriculum that is truthful and does not look at topics only through a eurocentric lense, we also need to diversifying reading lists, teach the research of the global south, deliver mandatory liberation and equality training to all the staff (e.g. Race Equity training) and employ academic and professional staff from liberation backgrounds, providing them with good working condition so they can prosper and thrive in their careers.
Decolonising the curriculum is a massive piece of work involving cultural and structural change which will not happen overnight. The key ingredient in achieving this change is the student voice. To make this work effective and sustainable we need students to start the conversation. This is why the Sheffield Students’ Union launched the Education for Our Future campaign with a specific strand ‘Is my curriculum too white?’ so students can have a platform to educate themselves and contact us to ask any questions.
There are many things you can do in your departments and around the University to start the conversation by:
- Talking to your Academic Reps (who are trained on issues like decolonising the curriculum and BME attainment gap) who can raise this at staff/student committee.
- Questioning your tutors and encourage others to do the same
- Using Feedback Forms to inform your department about the exclusiveness of the courses you are being taught.
- Getting involved in #readingfordiversity campaign being run by the libraries in order to diversity their collection of books. You can tweet at the library by using this hashtag to request/suggest any book that the library does not currently hold.
- Attending training sessions/keep educating yourself. The University and Students’ Union run several workshops on decolonising the curriculum throughout the year so keep an eye out.
- Supporting the work of Representative Committees of the Students’ Union. They do some incredible work on issues like decolonising the curriculum.
We need universities to provide a truly global education which can prepare today’s youth to tackle the inequality and injustices taking place in our societies. It is crucial that the Higher Education curriculums be decolonised so our education system can represent all the members of our society and to achieve this the universities need to change the content of their courses, their teaching methods and their employment practices.
Chat to your tutors, contact us, become an Academic or join our Representative Committees, whatever action you take, start the conversation.
Find out more about Education for Our Future.
