Thrilled to announce that @maddipow.bsky.social and I have just submitted our edited book, Teaching Open Science to the publisher! ✨️ 📖 🌎

It comprises 12 beautiful chapters on topics such as teaching #ReproducibleResearch, developing #OpenEducationalResources, & #DecolonisingTheCurriculum

Lovely celebratory dinner for the co-editors of our forthcoming book ‘Innovations in Decolonising the Curriculum: Multidisciplinary Approaches’. It’s been a fantastic journey of collaboration and learning #decolonisingthecurriculum #decolonisinghe

Image of a map from a historical textbook (1914) showing the map of the ‘Dominion of Canada’

It’s been a pleasure to have had Pia Russell, @UCL’s 2023 ‘Liberating the Collection’ fellow, work on the @IOELibrary’s #historicaltextbooks collection. Read about her work on #decolonisingthecurriculum @UCLSpecColl’s blog blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... #academicsky #edusky #textbookresearch

This is the first thing that came to mind listening to this @Seda_UK_ webinar...

#decolonisingthecurriculum

How to get started? Do something. Do anything. Don't get overwhelmed by the enormity of it - start with something, anything, no matter how small. Take the first risk, then the next one feels less and less... #decolonisingthecurriculum

Remuneration is important. If you want to recognise students as partners, then treat them as such. Everyone else at the table is being paid for their valuable time - why should students give their time to you for free?#decolonisingthecurriculum

Do our students trust us? Do they trust us to genuinely see them as partners, as having a stake and a voice in their own education? Do they trust us to do things solely for their benefit and not because the OfS told us to? #decolonisingthecurriculum

We need to make education a space in which students feel included and centred. Such a key issue, with engagement and attainment and retention being such priorities for universities. #decolonisingthecurriculum

How to address staff diversity - we mustn't look at students as just passing through academia - we want them to view as the academy as a place for them long-term, somewhere they can continue on to PG studies, research, a possible career. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio's response to those who deny racism: basically, just go around them! Don't let people like that hold you up.

Dr Jason Arday says similar - don't waste gas and air on people who just want to argue and hurt.

#decolonisingthecurriculum

The first step is to decolonise ourselves. It requires us to look within ourselves, examine our own practice, examine our own biases, assess our impact, open our minds to alternative approaches. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Doing nothing is not an option. Anti-racist strategies and approaches need to be in place. We need concrete examples in place to use to support and educate staff, resources staff can draw on - crowd-sourced material and solutions. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Learning outcomes don't change. But decolonisation makes a richer, more empowering educational environment and allows students to contribute and shape their own education and allows them to develop political and sociological awareness. #decolonisingthecurriculum

The approach has to be top-down, of course, to get leadership buy-in, but also bottom up - people need to be brought along on the process and encouraged to contribute and listen and step up. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Our classrooms are global villages - full of a wealth of diversity, prior knowledge and learning, different cultures. #decolonisingthecurriculum

It's about challenging the organisation to think differently, act differently, be different. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Academics are not being asked to disregard the canon, but to disrupt the conventional wisdom. More representation of non Western authors and an awareness of the context in which scholarship and knowledge is produced. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Using an example from Roehampton about a student's vocal disappointment in how the curriculum did not reflect the diversity of the student body kickstarted a conversation at Roehampton about #decolonisingthecurriculum

Marilyn Holness from Roehampton now talking about how we embed some of these ideas into practice. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Allies need to be visible. They need to be noticeable. They need to stand up and stay standing. We have the luxury of choosing WHEN we want to champion causes - others don't have that luxury. We need to be committed and in for the long haul. #decolonisingthecurriculum

If you want to help your society make a shift to a future that we can all thrive in, it has to be personal, you have to bring your heart and soul into it - it can't just be 'academic' or intellectual. #decolonisingthecurriculum

In order to find a way in life, marginalised communities need to find a way into society, and that is not easy for them, as the systems and structures have not been designed with their participation in mind - it's all an uphill slog. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Dr Stryker Calvez from Saskatchewan (having to get up very early in the morning!) talking about the indigenous communities struggle with decolonisation - something they've been dealing with for a long time! - and their experiences with reconciliation. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Decolonisation is a concept that requires you to go on a journey with yourself, your institution, the sector and wider society. It's not just about helping others, it's about helping all of us. We all benefit. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Decolonisation is a practice and mindset, as well as a concept. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Using an example from Bristol - just as you have theory and practice when learning, so within anti-racism you have both theory and practice. Anti-racism can't just be something that is read about in class, the pedagogy has to reflect that theory. #decolonisingthecurriculum

We can't view decolonisation as just an academic issue. The issue is much wider than that - what happens in universities doesn't happen in isolation from the wider community we are all a part of. #decolonisingthecurriculum

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, NUS UK Vice-President Higher Education, now stressing that students need to be at the centre of any moves towards decolonisation. #decolonisingthecurriculum

We need to use the power of the collective to dismantle the embedded structures of racism, rather than consciously or unconsciously upholding them. So it's on all of us! #decolonisingthecurriculum

We have to believe that racism can be tackled, and in our lifetime. We have to do everything we can to dismantle these racist structures both within the academy and within wider society as well. #decolonisingthecurriculum