By Colette Mair

 In August 2022, the University launched a Decolonising the Curriculum community of practice. The idea behind this Community of Practice (CoP) was to bring together people from across the university in a variety of roles with a shared interest in decolonisation. 

“The Decolonising the Curriculum Community of Practice seeks to foreground existing and bring about new initiatives to change learning content, teaching and assessment practices that move away from a Eurocentric lens and embedding alternative and hitherto undervalued ways of knowing, teaching and assessing.” 

At that time, I had very limited knowledge of what this meant but I wanted to know more. I joined the launch meeting and was greeted by a friendly group of people who were happy to share their experiences and knowledge. The group later launched a reading list covering a range of topics from what it means to decolonise the curriculum to decolonising higher education.

In April and May of 2023, members of the CoP - Julia Bohlman, Nighet Raiz, Soryia Siddique, Dustin Hosseini, Michelle Welsh, Ashley Lewis-Cole, Samuel Skipsey and myself hosted two online workshops “Building Institutional Networks in Response to Decolonising the Curriculum” with 225 people registering for the first workshop (see final program) and 172 people registering for the second (see final program). The workshops aimed to bring together potential external collaborators to share practices and build networks.  Information from both workshops is available from two sources

Some highlights from the workshops, relevant to educators in Science and Engineer include:

Workshop 1

  • Strathclyde Science Internship by Felicity Carlysle-Davies who discusses a project that aims to decolonise STEM including current efforts and how these can be more widely applied across the Faculty of Science.
  • Decolonising computing: Towards a manifesto for education by Syed Mustafa Ali who discusses how computing science is colonial and sets out some propositions and principles for computing educators attempting to decolonise computing.
  • During session 1.3 'Help us along the path to decolonising maths!', a working group was formed around decolonising maths hosted but the University of Hertfordshire. For anyone interested in joining, details are given in Workshop 1 Padlet under session 1.3.

Workshop 2

  • Positionality Wheels Workshop: A project in progress by Jheni Arboine, who developed a hands-on Positionality Wheels Workshop to engage staff and students in their own positionalities, i.e., how they perceive themself, how they are perceived in their profession, and how they are perceived in the wider society. Jheni was open to offering this workshop to anyone interested.
  • Utilising student-staff engagements to advocate for decolonisation by Penny Dinh, who discusses the potential of Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) meetings for students to advocate for decolonising the curriculum. As a College that utilises SSLC School meetings to engage with class representatives to understand the student experience, then this is a potential avenue for us to consider.
  • Providing students with targeted help and support by Sam Grierson who discusses decolonising assessments. As a largely quantitative College who are currently reviewing its inclusive assessment policies, incorporating decolonial assessment support practices could also be a consideration.

You are welcome to join the Decolonising the Curriculum Community of Practice and tap into a wealth of insights, initiatives and resources aimed at reshaping education through decolonisation. It offers a fantastic opportunity to join in meaningful conversations, access valuable workshops and contribute to a more inclusive learning environment.



First published: 29 August 2023

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