Decolonising the curriculum through praxis: A cross-disciplinary exploration putting theory into practice   

Universities aspire to be many things, not least socially embedded catalysts for transformational change. The production, nature and validity of knowledge is not a neutral project and calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ have grown steadily louder since the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall campaign in Cape Town. This understanding presents us with profound challenges and opportunities that we need to be engaged with and open to. This panel will explore their understandings of what ‘decolonising the curriculum’ means to them, the ways in which power and knowledge are distributed, its impact on pedagogical strategies and practices and the potential implications for staff and students.

You will hear from academic colleagues across the University’s new School structure about their initiatives to interrogate the impact of colonialism on knowledge production, address what we would like to term ‘the opportunity gap’ and explore different initiatives in designing decolonised and anti-racist modules and assessments. Drawing on different subject expertise, the panel will look for common characteristics to ‘decolonising the curriculum’ while remaining sensitive to disciplinary differences. In this way, the panel seeks to offer a supportive meeting space for critical inquiry and reflection.