ORCID

Abstract

Decolonisation is a socio-political movement which challenges Eurocentrism and post-colonial notions of power. This has numerous implications for higher education institutions (HEIs), where the content and delivery of curricula may be seen as products of colonial legacy. The decolonisation agenda has increasing support from students, the academy, and regulatory bodies, which together are invoking HEIs to act. This paper reports on research undertaken within a UK HEI, which benchmarked the extent to which programmes followed characteristics of (de)colonised curricula. A survey, based on existing open access resources, was completed by 99 staff and 290 students across four schools. Findings suggest differences in how curricula are perceived by staff and students, and between white and minority ethnic student groups. Given growing global interest in decolonisation and associated social justice themes, this research has important applications for other HEIs.

Publication Date

2024-01-02

Publication Title

Innovations in Education and Teaching International

Volume

61

Issue

1

ISSN

1470-3297

Acceptance Date

2022-09-06

Deposit Date

2022-09-27

Embargo Period

2024-03-06

Funding

Like other pedagogic justice agendas, engagement with decolonisation is driven by context. At UK sector-level, student activism has been supported by the National Union of Students (NUS, ). However, at institutional level, most activity has been observed in HEIs with a diverse student cohort; typically, those in London and the Midlands. Many UK HEIs do not have diverse student cohorts to drive interest, diverse staff to contribute insight, or expertise to deliver support. Batty, found that only 24/128 UK HEIs were actively pursuing decolonisation as an institutional priority, and 36/128 offered staff development in the field. Notwithstanding sectoral guidance on race equality (e.g. Advance Advance, ), there is less support for educational developers and lecturers attempting to establish key features of (de)colonised curricula, identify its relevance to their discipline and students, and make evidence-informed changes to practice.

Keywords

belonging, culture, curriculum, decolonisation, representation, word

First Page

181

Last Page

192

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