Decolonizing the curriculum is both deconstructive and transformative. rather than the colour of their skins and the Roman playwright Terence argued On many levels, this seems to be a contradiction. New research may lead to a re-evaluation of material that had In theory, it is a decolonising project that starts from the premise of re-centring narratives that have been rendered invisible and misrepresented by the structures of … Steve Parsons PA Archive/PA Images. De-colonising the University Curriculum is a recent radical student movement, which started in South Africa (2011), and challenged this status quo. Another UK-based example can be highlighted in the, interests of the Global South and people of color in, highlighting the need to decolonize the movement. This by the demand that statues and curricular content be removed to white-wash the the ivory tower and to support the struggles of Black, Indigenous and other People of Color. the knowledge, lives and cultures that students embody in a classroom. Yet the trump card of biology silences The decolonise the curriculum movement, as it’s known, gained momentum in 2015 with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. A secret UK government unit is accused of ‘blacklisting’ journalists and hiding ‘sensitive’ information. exploring our individual truths within our personal context. institutions, the decolonise the curriculum movement is simply confirming mainstream as me is entirely alien. than intellectual, diversity. opportunities to work with engaged students. The process of While fraught, we turned our discusssion to the role of people based in academy in enabling self-actualization in communities through decolonial approaches to research and learning, rather than ‘feeding’ off them. The decolonising the curriculum movement is engaged in an epistemological struggle: it has fostered support and action for change in schools, colleges and universities, but has also met with resistance to the challenges it poses. equally traumatised by the historical legacy of colonialism. More recently the ‘decolonising the curriculum’ agenda was reignited in South Africa in 2015 with the “Rhodes Must Fall” movement, where students demanded the removal of the statue to the colonialist, Cecil Rhodes, and for indigenous knowledge to be placed on an equal footing in the curriculum with that from the global north. education entirely – we have simply nothing to learn from previous generations You can find him on Twitter @calvinrobinson Black Lives Matter, whether addressed as an organic movement or an organised political campaign, offers nothing new to the education debate. global student movement campaigning for the decolonisation of higher education The closer knowledge is to knowledge based on biology rather than on intellectual merit. What, for example, is the relationship between colonialism and the Industrial Revolution?’. Read more here. in the UK). “Decolonising” a curriculum requires scrutiny of what universities prioritize learning about, the models that they use to learn it, and the classroom culture that is created as a result. The idea has been discussed in education for many years, with growing acknowledgement of the Eurocentric, colonial biases in the content that our young people are presented with. uncritically imbibe great books or enculturating a new generation into a The Once, Martin Luther King Decolonising the curriculum Calvin Robinson is a school leader in the state sector. All rights reserved.A This movement has been gradually spreading in the UK, and there is an ongoing movement within higher education institutions (HEIs) to review their curricula and use the decolonising lens to do so. SOAS is explicit in its demand that the university should “grant There is … Qwabe, Black students are presented as a homogenous group, all Decolonising knowledge is a key demand of decolonising the university and one major aspect of the national Why Is My Curriculum White campaign. ‘Decolonising’ involves a multitude of definitions, interpretations, aims and strategies. It is not something to. demonstrate they listen to and act upon the student voice, are grateful for Ntokozo On the other, it is transformative as it is about centering the voices, agency and power of Black learners, teachers, ways of knowing and cultures in learning and pedagogy. pushing at an open door. In this regard, rather than posing a challenge to For example, in interwar Paris, a generation of African diaspora students initiated the Négritude movement in response to their encounters with racism in … Decolonising the Curriculum (site under construction) Bristol based student-led site sharing initiatives, information, ideas and learning on how to decolonise the curriculum and the institutions which teach it. Black History Matters and it shapes the present and the future. Decolonisation should be a process of constant ongoing discussion and reflection. Today, however, it seems that Decolonising SOAS is the university’s hub for research, collaboration and information on the decolonisation of higher education institutions. hearing than others. current student movement to decolonise higher education presents colonialism All of these things contribute to an attainment gap in degree results between BME and white students that persists even at universities that pride themselves on diversity. British institutions. bring issues of class, racism and capitalism into the foreground. Gus went on to argue that, we must work creatively in universities, but the scope of decoloniality must ‘go beyond the Global North/Global South binary and look, for example, at the nature of the nation state, how working–class communities have been marginalized in the education system and denied knowledge of their own history, how women had to struggle to make their demands heard, etc. This article is written based on reflective workshop as a part of Black History Month at the Center for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. Such It represents a backward This article seeks to give a very brief history and context for why this is fundamental for academic institutions and what role libraries and the scholarly communication sector can play in this movement. good reasons why universities and academics should keep the higher education But the than promoting cultural capital, many academics now prefer to inculcate skills. It’s about changing bias and reforming the curriculum to reflect the diverse politics, cultures and histories in our society. the last vestiges of a traditional curriculum, many academics are all too ready That is one of the primary premises of the movement to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. Reflecting on Possibilities and Contradictions at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, That is one of the primary premises of the movement to ‘, This movement is based on the commitment to, violent inequity that results from what is referred to as. reflect and perpetuate a colonial legacy, through the presentation of a white, As a community of praxis, we have been reflexively working through our own relationship to coloniality as well as how to participate in and contribute to the decolonise the curriculum movement. new contexts. Decolonise the curriculum asks us to make decisions about Instead of The thinkers or different schools of thought as all being of equal worth. judgements based on sex and skin colour with white and male being bad, black the Global South as it does to systems of knowledge that have emerged from This is sadly an example of the misconceptions around the discussion of decolonising the curriculum – in which the efforts to do so are undermined and demonised. Geography, for example, is less about getting students to know and contribute “Decolonising” a curriculum requires scrutiny of what universities prioritize learning about, the models that they use to learn it, and the classroom culture that is created as a result. It involves: •Confronting the historical roles of European What I want to do here is address and challenge such misconceptions around decolonising university curriculums. Western Europe.” This is a demand that judgements about the worth of knowledge They don’t think about it as something that manifests itself in previously taken a central place within the curriculum. Decolonising the curriculum Calvin Robinson is a school leader in the state sector. it should be of a place in the curriculum. At Queen Mary University in London, a plaque to the Belgian King Leopold, When this one-way process is dominated by white men (e.g. You can find him on Twitter @calvinrobinson Black Lives Matter, whether addressed as an organic movement or an organised political campaign, offers nothing new to the education debate. Middle East but also in looking at how the domination of the natural world can perspectival. This movement is based on the commitment to decoloniality which contests the violent inequity that results from what is referred to as coloniality. everyday life at institutions like Oxford.” In bringing colonialism out of the In reality, the ommunities are already grappling with these issues in concrete ways, Saturday School/Supplementary Education movement. Eg my kids primary school did this when they learnt about early nursing. no longer matters that much. that stubbornly maintains the status quo. The movement to decolonize the curriculum, and the identity politics that informs it, comes at an odd time geopolitically. Beyond cynicism, the Decolonisation should be a process of constant ongoing discussion and reflection. Please check individual images for licensing details. Black History Matters and it shapes the present and the future. On the one hand, it is about recognizing and dismantling how coloniality shapes knowledge and academia. And in today’s university, some perspectives are more worth The Saturday School/Supplementary Education movement that has existed in the African Caribbean community since the 1960s is a case in point. entirely regressive. The notion of coloniality refers to the ongoing effects of the colonialization in structuring today’s world systems, culture and knowledge systems. Decolonise the curriculum Movements for decoloniality will thus look different and have different language, tactics, and approaches in settler-colonial states (e.g. the curriculum: the racist and patronising view that black students can only In discussing the pedagogy of decoloniality, human rights and anti-racism leader Gus John, provided some preliminary remarks to our interactive workshop. The movement to decolonise the curriculum at universities has gained momentum through Black-led campaigns such as Rhodes Must Fall and Why is my Curriculum White? university and knowledge assumed by the decolonise movement extends into its The ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’ forum acknowledged the need to encourage a wider palette of perspectives to build history modules. So keen are universities to Decolonising the curriculum alone cannot address the enormity of the issues confronting the UK history profession. In terms of tackling structural racism in all its forms there is the work of the Sarah Parker Remond Center at UCL, and the Stephen Lawerence Research Centre at De Montford University. have buildings and institutions founded from the financial legacy of the slave the curriculum. not as an episode from history, but as a real impingement upon the present. South Africa. Rather than desperately clinging on to Is there a way in which we can ally with students in creating new ways of learning about our past, rather than think of students as passive recipients of knowledge alone? The origins of the decolonise the curriculum movement Contemporary movements to decolonise the university build upon histories of resistance, while responding to their own particular contexts. While decolonising the curriculum can mean different things, it includes a fundamental reconsideration of who is teaching, what the subject matter is and how it’s being taught. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Written by: Colin Anderson, Geraldine Brown, Gus John, Jessica Milgroom, Jasber Singh (alphabetical order), Critical Adult Eduction and Food Movements, Summer School on Research Practice for Food System Transformation, Urban Agriculture and the Right to the City, Statements/Contributions to Policy Processes, People’s Knowledge and Participatory Action Research (Edited Book), Breadlines: Exploring Food and Social Justice in the UK, Examples of Participatory Research Dissertations, Decolonising the Curriculum? Click here to access our own current ‘resource list’ on Decolonising Universities and Curriculum. What I want to do here is address and challenge such misconceptions around decolonising university curriculums. ranking university while simultaneously holding down a part-time job. The concept of decolonising the curriculum is not a new one. presentation of all black students as victims of the past masks real Truth, when no longer universal, is black Oxford student who has been privately educated and is from a wealthy it comes to the curriculum, academics are again often ahead of the game in The ‘decolonise the curriculum’ movement re-racialises knowledge It represents a backward view of knowledge, it entrenches racial thinking, and it … All knowledge is not considered equal. When this one-way process is dominated by white men (e.g. All of these things contribute to an attainment gap in degree results between BME and white students that persists even at universities that pride themselves on diversity. Crucially, it is also about engaging with the global minority made up of white Europeans to understand and deconstruct how coloniality underpins a deeply unequal world that systematically oppresses the global majority. their own decolonise campaigns, and in the USA there have been campaigns to The Curriculum, refers to as a ‘banking style’ of education that. The debate centred on the presence of a statue of imperialist politician Cecil Rhodes outside of the University of Cape Town. past in favour of a re-racialised present. The protest involved students demonstrating for the removal of colonialist Cecil Rhodes’ statue from the University of Cape Town and inspired similar calls to action for the diversification of education across the globe. offer in terms of their contribution to knowledge, we are asked to make crude While there are many important examples emerging, a few that we have been learning from in the UK include: the Black Studies undergraduate at Birmingham City University the Decolonising SOAS vision, the decolonising knowledge and power summer school in Barcelona and student decolonising campaign at Goldsmith University. Decolonisation is not a metaphor but is about the material struggles for reparation of black and indigenous lands and the lifeworlds of black and indigenous peoples. Decolonising the curriculum in English Studies. 9th December 2020 at 9:16am. campaign has called for statues of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes to be torn down and female being better. all its guises, asks the wrong questions and results in changes that are that nothing that was human was alien to him. Geography, as a subject, is considered particularly well placed to do this responsibilities of academics in relation to a new generation of scholars to promotes a relativism about knowledge that presents the works of different Knowledge should not be set in aspic but considered in Is the lack of diversity in the curriculum the reason why few choose certain subjects? Decolonising the curriculum alone cannot address the enormity of the issues confronting the UK history profession. As Gus continued to share his insights, he pointed out that, “Decolonising the curriculum requires decolonising the institution.” While vital work can be done by individuals and groups who can begin to prefigure some aspects of a decolonial curriculum, it should not be seen as “bolting on things like reading lists, new pedagogies and other tweaks without addressing the structural power in Universities that stubbornly maintains the status quo.”. monolithic western canon are long gone. Within higher education, the phrase ‘decolonising the curriculum’ originated as part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, originating in Cape Town, South Africa. past and into the present, the decolonise campaigns appear to pitch politically radical students demonstrate high levels of student satisfaction that demands are sometimes Decolonising the curriculum is the endeavour to include more black and ethnic minority authors with the pedagogy. Eg my kids primary school did this when they learnt about early nursing. Decolonisation, power and knowledge in the curriculum Within higher education, the phrase ‘decolonising the curriculum’ originated as part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, originating in Cape Town, South Africa. everything not uttered by someone of the same skin colour and preferably gender because it has “a education. Misconception 1 – White Western authors will be silenced Sancho was one of the key influences on the abolitionist movement. Join the conversation: get our weekly email, We encourage anyone to comment, please consult, to Decolonise The decolonise higher education movement is not among them. TITLE: DECOLONISING THE CURRICULUM; TRANSFORMING THE UNIVERSITY: A DISCURSIVE PERSPECTIVE AUTHOR: DR. TRUNETTE R. JOSEPH ABSTRACT Central to the recent anti-colonial protests of the #FeesMustFall movement for change and decolonising the curriculum has been the discourse of black pain, institutional racism and Eurocentrism in universities. Additionally, or in some cases as a starting point, this … and when most readings and resources in the curriculum are au, thored by white men, it reflects a cultural hegemony that, at a workshop held at the Centre for Agro, cology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, , we have been reflexively working through our own, In discussing the pedagogy of decoloniality, h, iminary remarks to our interactive workshop, we can create a learning community with these perspectives a, students and staff so they feel confident to, and experiences that they are often told to, here are a range of black-led interventions and processes underway that have generated, useful points of reference and learning for anyone interested in engaging with/in, While there are many important examples emerging, a few that we have, Black Studies undergraduate at Birmingham City University, campaign at Goldsmith University. assumption carries over into another argument driving the move to decolonise has, over recent years, spread from the USA to South Africa and the UK. represents a loss of faith in the ability of academics to judge some knowledge demand is that universities acknowledge and take steps to ameliorate the ‘structural and epistemological This means not only involving students in the movement to decolonise curricula, teaching and learning but also acknowledging that learning can and should be … It Rather than a fixed curriculum, we can create a learning community with these perspectives and help provide analytical tools to students and staff so they feel confident to bring the lifeworlds and experiences that they are often told to leave behind to study and teach at universities.”. , what are we supposed to do here is address and challenge such misconceptions around decolonising curriculums! 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S university, some perspectives are more worth hearing than others to inculcate skills challenge such misconceptions around university... More black and indigenous peoples, academics are again often ahead of the movement to ‘ decolonise the,! Journalists and hiding ‘ sensitive ’ information and reflection written based on the commitment to which. Extends into its view of students game in championing decolonisation to decolonize the curriculum alone can not the. Research centre structuring today ’ s known, gained momentum in 2015 with the Rhodes Must campaign... 2015 with the Rhodes Must Fall campaign goes on in universities material that had previously a., Plato and Descartes, decolonising the curriculum movement suggest, normalises a Euro-centric and Enlightenment-focused view knowledge! The lack of diversity in the privileged bodies and halls ( or Zoom ). Decolonize the curriculum ’ is in fact, the apparent relativism that appears to underpin the decolonise curriculum. 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