Decolonising the Curriculum Staff Workshop

While decolonising the curriculum has become more and more visible at the Birmingham Business School, there are still questions from staff members on what it means, and what can they do in their specific roles at the Business School to decolonise.

The “Decolonising the Curriculum, Where, why, and how to begin” workshop was designed to explore and understand not only the 'why' but also the 'how' of curriculum decolonisation. The workshop aimed to spark an individual roadmap on decolonising the curriculum. It accommodated everyone, whether they had not started or were at the outset of their decolonisation journey or wanted to deepen their existing practices. Prior to the workshop, a survey was sent to staff to find out to what extent and in what areas have they engaged with decolonising initiatives.  People completed the survey and indicated multiple ways in such they were involved with decolonising the curriculum.

The workshop included presentations from various colleagues who offered insights on how they have proceeded with decolonising the curriculum in their roles at the Business School. Sami Bensassi and Christian Darko discussed how their involvement through the creation of new modules in their field that accommodated variations in terms of diversity in the lecture materials and research, and particularly was catered for the specific content being taught particularly in Dubai.

Edward Granter offered his approach of making attempts to work in a more accommodating manner with his international collaborators and students including for instance learning mandarin, Ann-Christine Frandsen provided her take on teaching accounting where she has collaborated and invited Marcia Dunkley from the Black Heritage Walk in Birmingham, and finally Fatos provided her take on reimagining a classroom environment where she brings in various plants in her sessions that are not only representative of her Turkish heritage but also deconstructs the colonial view of how a classroom is arranged and structured.

The workshop provided some insights and resources for those intending to start decolonising their curriculum. The image below is a list of actions.

For more details on how to start your decolonisation journey, you can use the following CANVAS course dedicated to decolonisation.