Initiating decolonial praxis: childhood studies curricula in an English university

ABSTRACT

English universities aim to attract students from various backgrounds. However, the needs of such cohorts require curricula to be relevant and accessible to an audience that does not necessarily identify as traditionally academic. At disciplinary level, there have also been calls for increasing the plurality of knowledge practices and perspectives. Here, we consider our efforts to reflect on and decolonise Childhood Studies curricula through three topics: global childhoods, disabled childhoods, and transgender/gender non-conforming childhoods. These case studies illustrate a decolonial turn in students engaging with differently constructed childhoods through content that challenges their thinking of childhood from a Western heteronormative, non-disabled perspective. We begin to decolonise our curricula through working with children’s voices and challenging practices that marginalise children and position their experiences as ‘other’.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood Studies
• decolonising curricula
• voice
• othering

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Dr Shannon Morreira, the editorial team and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on previous versions of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dimitrina Kaneva

Dimitrina Kaneva is Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Dimi previously lectured in early childhood studies and has also worked on research projects exploring student voice and participation in schooling in challenging circumstances at the University of Manchester, including the Coalition of Research Schools and Leading Partners in EAL. Dimi’s research interests are in the field of English as an additional language (EAL), early years and childhood studies, with a particular focus on children’s voice and agency. Dimi’s current publications are in the area of global childhood, children’s rights, and agency. Most recently she has written a chapter with S. L. Corcoran entitled ‘Homeless and/or street-connected childhoods: contemporary challenges within international convention frameworks’ which has been accepted for publication in The SAGE Handbook of Global Childhoods in 2021.

Jo Bishop

Jo Bishop is Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Huddersfield, UK and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Education and subsidiary programmes. Jo has worked in post-compulsory education since 1993 teaching across a range of vocational courses, which prepare people for employment in schools, care and youth work settings. Jo’s research interests encompass systems and processes of pastoral care interventions within English state schools. She is particularly interested in the experiences of paraprofessionals who are tasked with delivering such provisions. Jo is also interested in the emerging literature-base regarding trans* and gender non-confirming childhoods. Jo’s most recent publication is: Bishop, J. and Sanderson, P. (2017) Marginalized, Misunderstood, and Relatively Unseen: Using Institutional Ethnography to Explore the Everyday Work of Learning Mentors in an English State Secondary School. In Reid, J. and Russell, L. (eds) Perspectives on and from Institutional Ethnography Bingley: Emerald Press.

Nicole E. Whitelaw

Nicole E. Whitelaw is Senior Lecturer in special educational needs and professional development at the University of Huddersfield, UK and course leader for the BA (Hons) Special Educational Needs, Disability and Inclusion and the Postgraduate Certificate in Special Educational Needs Coordination. She has previously worked as a secondary school English teacher and a teacher of autistic teenagers in a special school. Nicole has a particular interest in working with young people with profound learning difficulties. Nicole’s on-going PhD work focuses on participatory research with autistic pupils in a special school. Her doctoral research aims to co-create a research environment with children where they can share their ideas and views about love, family, and relationships. Nicole is interested in the intersections between disability studies and decolonial studies and the notions of voice.