Decolonizing the Curriculum? Transformation, Emotion, and Positionality in Teaching

Abstract

This article explores what it meant for us (the authors) to work with decolonial debates and approaches within the teaching of fashion history. By reflecting on the ways we live our politics, not only in our teaching but also in the writing of this journal article, our aim is not to model ideal course structures or decolonial techniques, but more to argue for the importance of shifts in consciousness as the single most important strategy. For it is in the transparency and positionality of our practices as teachers and writers -including a carefully negotiated resistance to and compliance with the expected structures of teaching and writing -that we suggest what a decolonial praxis could entail and what its value might be, together with the potential longer term impacts of decolonising the curriculum.There are many highly dedicated and inspiring educators who want to see a broader curriculum and who want to respond to current debates around decolonising cultural institutions. This goal, as direct as it sounds, is an impossibility without deeper systemic changes to behaviours, expectations, habits and value systems. In the face of this, how can any one person make a difference on their own? And, more profoundly, can any changes be accomplished to allow individuals to teach from the

How to Take Over and Revise a Medical Ethnology Course in the Post-Everything Era

“…The late 2010s and early 2020s has seen increasing calls for 'decolonialising the classroom,' which build upon much earlier work (Cheang and Suterwalla 2020; see also the Special Issue: Decolonizing Anthropology in Teaching Anthropology 2021, 10 ( 4)). Although there is not full agreement on what this means in practice, it is broadly about "centering perspectives and voices from marginalized populations" and "addressing and dismantling the harmful legacies of colonial and imperial powers" (Primiano et al 2020, in reference to Zembylas 2019.…”

Acknowledging Identity and Intersectionality—A Transformative Framework for Design Education Futures

“…A group of design educators and scholars who question dominant design discourses is considering how decolonial and pluriversal approaches can foster necessary change (see Cheang & Suterwalla 2020;Angelon & Van Amstel 2021;Noel et al 2023). Decolonising design scholars argue for the comprehensive reconfiguration of design education to embrace other ways of becoming and being a designer, rather than just removing Eurocentric content from courses (Schultz et al 2018).…”

“…Abdulla et al (2019) describe many current decolonisation efforts as insufficient in lacking a 'radical transfiguration' of deeper structures. Cheang & Suterwalla (2020) acknowledge that dismantling Eurocentric bias is uncomfortable; while many dedicated educators may want to see a broader curriculum that includes decolonising discourses, this is impossible without deeper systemic changes to behaviours, expectations, habits and value systems.…”

“…We seek to disrupt this by presenting alternative ways of teaching design that acknowledge there is not 'one' universal design history, but many histories of designing, where multiple competing and divergent concepts and realities can complement and challenge each other. Here, we join others who seek to emphasise local histories as they have always been and continue to unfold alongside dominant design histories (Cheang & Suterwalla 2020;Angelon & Van Amstel 2021;Noel 2022).…”

Learning from “The Sounding Object”: Sound Design in the Critical Reimagining of Museum Object Narratives

“…For example, design historians Sarah Cheang and Shehnaz Suterwalla have described their innovative approaches to decolonizing the fashion history curriculum through a "performative, polyvocal approach to design history"; their approach involves active explorations of positionality and processes of making as history-writing: "Through a combination of our DIY [zine making] and storytelling approaches, we developed alternative design history practices that were embodied and dialogic." 17 Cheang and Suterwalla's model shows how embodied approaches can operate hand-in-hand with critical historiographical work in design history research and pedagogy. Another example is "The Making and Knowing Project," based at Columbia University's Center for Science and Society, which deploys craft and laboratory practices as methods for research in the history of science and material culture.…”