Decolonising the school experience through poetry to foreground truth-telling and cognitive justice

Abstract

While attempts to decolonise the school curriculum have been ongoing since the 1970s, the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the world have drawn urgent attention to the vast inequities faced by Black and First Nations peoples and people of colour. Decolonising education and other public institutions has become a front-line public concern around the world. In this article, we argue that poetry offers generative possibilities for the decolonisation of Australian high school (and university) curricula. Inspired by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to knowledge creation as intergenerational, iterative and intercultural, and by postcolonial and decolonial theories, we explore ways in which poetry events can begin decolonising and diversifying the school curriculum. We suggest that poetry creates spaces for deep listening with the heart (dadirri) that can promote truth-telling about colonial histories and the strengths, achievements and contributions of First Nations Australians. These decolonising efforts underpin the Wandiny (Gathering Together) – Listen With the Heart: Uniting Nations Through Poetry research that we discuss in this article. In these ways, we argue that decolonised curricula create the conditions for cognitive justice in schooling that is an important precursor to other forms of social justice, such as equality, diversity and inclusion.

Decolonising the school curriculum: a special feature

“…Philpott cautions that the curriculum as process does not mean 'cancelling' Western music, yet a good place to start is to consider the powerful role of Western art music in music education. Manathunga et al (2022) bring an Australian perspective to the special feature. The authors examine the ways in which poetry can afford generative opportunities for the decolonisation of high school (and university) curricula.…”

Decolonial and anti‐racist perspectives in teacher training and education curricula in England and Wales

“…Furthermore, this special issue has predominantly focused on subject specialisms such as languages and the humanities. Decolonial and anti‐racist approaches across a diversity of subjects is considered by Glowach et al as part of this special issue, and subjects such as science (Gandolfi, 2021); music (Philpott, 2022); poetry (Manathunga et al, 2022); and geography (Nayeri & Rushton, 2022) have started to be considered elsewhere in the literature. In this scenario, we believe that teacher educational and training curricula which draw on disciplinary expertise also require disciplines to grapple with their own colonial entanglements as vital to the ongoing work for scholars and practitioners in this area.…”