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'.