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.

Keywords:

• Black
• Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)
• decolonising
• whiteness
• race
• racism
• diversification
• inequality

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Commentators suggest the use of precise descriptions regarding the ethnic background when describing research findings (Bradby 2003; McKenzie & Crowcroft, 1996). For the purposes of this paper, the term Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic and the abbreviation BAME will be used to refer to people who are from ethnic backgrounds other than white British (including Black African, African Caribbean, Asian, Latin-American, and other minority ethnic communities) with more precise descriptions used where appropriate. There is a recognition, however, that the term BAME is not universally accepted in spite of its use within the British vernacular. It is important to acknowledge that the term BAME, despite its widespread use, has severe limitations and usually follows non-specific quantifiers such as ‘most’ or ‘some’ (Glover & Evison, 2009). Typically, there has been an accepted use of the term BAME, which has been illustrated in research and Government papers. Given the purpose of this paper, this term is applied purely as a descriptive term having been the preferred term for most of the participants throughout this study.

2 ‘The Russell Group is a self-selected association of 24 public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in London and was established in 1994 to represent its members’ interests principally to Government and Parliament. Representing the UK’s leading universities, the Russell Group has historically been committed to maintaining its status as research intensive in addition to having unrivalled links with business and the public sector (The Russell Group 2018).

3 New University, synonymous with Post-1992 University or modern university, is a former polytechnic or central institution in the United Kingdom that was given university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or an institution that has been granted university status since 1992 without receiving a royal charter (Armstrong 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jason Arday

Dr Jason Arday is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Durham University in the Department of Sociology. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at The Ohio State University in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, a Research Associate at Nelson Mandela University in the Centre for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation and a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading Race Equality Thinktank. Jason is also a Trustee of the British Sociological Association (BSA). He sits on the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) National Advisory Panel and is a School Governor at Shaftesbury Park Primary School in London. Jason’s research focuses on Race, Education, Intersectionality and Social Justice. He sits on the following trade union equality committees; Trade Union Congress (TUC) Race Relations Committee; University and College Union (UCU) Black Members’ Standing Committee and the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) Working Group on BME Participation in Postgraduate Research. Jason is also part of the Universities UK Advisory Group on tackling racial harassment of students. He is a Graduate of the Operation Black Vote (OBV) MP Parliamentary Scheme, a scheme focused on unearthing the next generation of ethnic minority Parliamentarians. Jason is the author of the following titles: Considering Racialized Contexts in Education: Using Reflective Practice and Peer-Mentoring to support Black and Ethnic Minority educators (Routledge); Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the dominant discourse (Palgrave); and Exploring Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne Supernova (Routledge). He is the Co-Editor of the highly acclaimed Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy (Palgrave) with Professor Heidi Mirza (Goldsmiths, University of London). Jason also serves on the Editorial Boards of Educational Philosophy and Theory; and the British Sociological Association (BSA) journal Sociology.

Dina Zoe Belluigi

Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi’s work relates to the agency and ethico-historical responsibility of artists and academics in contexts undergoing transitions in author-ity. For the most part, this has related to the development of artists and academics as change-agents and critical consciousness in South Africa post-1994; extending more recently to draw from insights of those within women’s studies in India, and in dialogue with academics in exile from Syria. Dina draws from transdisciplinary orientations in critical theory, including literary theory informed by postcolonial and feminist re-animation of ‘situating the author’ within interpretation, to consider ways in which research, teaching and artmaking may enable re-authoring, commemoration and archiving of histories and current experiences of inequality, and legacies of post conflict, towards changing systems of oppression. Dr Dina Zoe Belluigi is an academic in Critical Higher Education Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Prior to this, she was a Senior Lecturer at Rhodes University in South Africa, and continues formal affiliation with her country as a research associate at Nelson Mandela University.  She sits on a range of editorial boards on higher education studies and creative arts higher education; and contributes to policy-formation, such as in her current role as a member of UK Research and Innovation’s External Advisory Group for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Dave Thomas

Dave Thomas is an an Occupational Therapist and Public Health Specialist, with a remit in social justice. He is also a member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, Royal College of Occupational Therapists and Royal Society of Public Health. Additionally, Dave is the Equalities Officer for the University of Kent UNISON branch. He is a founder and co-Chair of the University of Kent's Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network. Dave is currently employed as a Project Manager on the institutionally funded Student Success Project at the University of Kent. Dave is reading for a PhD in higher education and is interested in how Westernised ontology, epistemology and pedagogy shape educational trajectories, outcomes and interest for students from racially minoritised backgrounds in higher education.