Attempting to break the chain: reimaging inclusive pedagogy and decolonising the curriculum within the academy

Abstract

Anti-racist education within the Academy holds the potential to truly reflect the cultural hybridity of our diverse, multi-cultural society through the canons of knowledge that educators celebrate, proffer and embody. The centrality of Whiteness as an instrument of power and privilege ensures that particular types of knowledge continue to remain omitted from our curriculums. The monopoly and proliferation of dominant White European canons does comprise much of our existing curriculum; consequently, this does impact on aspects of engagement, inclusivity and belonging particularly for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) learners. This paper explores the impact of a dominant Eurocentric curriculum and the Decolonising the Curriculum agenda within higher education and its influence upon navigating factors such as BAME attainment, engagement and belonging within the Academy. This paper draws on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) theoretical framework to centralize the marginalized voices of fifteen BAME students and three academics of colour regarding this phenomena. Aspects examined consider the impact of a narrow and restrictive curriculum on BAME students and staff and how the omission of diverse histories and multi-cultural knowledge canons facilitates marginalization and discriminatory cultures.

Supporting students in developing critical global citizenship: examples from the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms

“…The current debate in western HE about decolonising the curriculum and moving away from predominantly western-centric curriculum content while simultaneously increasing diversity and inclusion (cf. Arday et al, 2020), underlines this necessity. Furthermore, this promotes the notion of ethno-relativism, i.e.…”

“Can East Asian Students Think?”: Orientalism, Critical Thinking, and the Decolonial Project

“…There also remain questions about East Asian students' perceptions of others, which may result in further awareness of how East Asian students view and treat other ethnic minority students, or how they may engage in what has been called "reverse Orientalism" whereby they generalise and stereotype the West/Westerners, either positively or negatively [70] (pp. [6][7][8]. This article started by referring to Walter Mignolo's succinct response to the question: "Can non-Europeans think?".…”

“…In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that "coloniality has survived colonialism not only in the economic, social, and cultural arena but also in academia" [7] (p. 79). This perception, which notes that coloniality continues to shape knowledge production and hierarchies within academia, has led to the intensification of calls to decolonise the university [8][9][10][11][12]. As I have explained elsewhere, the decolonial project within academia has a number of facets which attempt to undo the marginalisation of scholars, scholarship and students who are peripheral in academia due to a colonial hangover which has resulted in a continued stigmatisation and exclusion along the lines of ethnicity, nationality and/or language [13] (pp.…”

“…Useful and genuine knowledge is not to be found there. [64] (p. 27) This internalised Orientalism is why, even though a better representation of ethnic minority academics in universities may be a worthy cause [8] (p. 2), Western academia will not necessarily be decolonised if the demographic of academic staff is diversified, as ethnic minority staff may still perpetuate Orientalist narratives. In this regard, East Asian scholars should alert themselves to Smith's warning to ensure that they themselves are engaging in critical thinking and are empowering, rather than injuring, their community:…”

Ethnopedagogical practices of preservation and reproduction of the traditional culture of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North and Siberia (the case of Krasnoyarsk region)

“…Формирование представлений о культурной сложности и многообразии, которые происходят при реализации этнопедагогических технологий, в критическом ключе обсуждают британские исследователи Дж. Ардей и соавторы, полагая, что в ближайшее время необходимо пересмотреть некоторые образовательные программы и реализовать деколониальный дискурс в этих программах [7].…”