Struggling for the anti-racist university: learning from an institution-wide response to curriculum decolonisation

Abstract

Increasingly, institutions are amplifying work on race equality, in order to engage with movements for Black lives and decolonising. This brings universities into relations with individual and communal issues of whiteness, white fragility and privilege, double and false consciousness, and behavioural code switching. Inside formal structures, built upon cultures and practices that have historical and material legitimacy, engaging with such issues is challenging. The tendency is to engage in formal accreditation, managed through engagement with established methodologies, risk management practices and data reporting. However, this article argues that the dominant articulation of the institution, which has its own inertia, which reinforces whiteness and dissipates radical energy, needs to be readdressed in projects of decolonising. This situates the communal work of the institution against the development of authentic relationships as a movement of dignity.

Decolonising the curriculum: students’ perspectives in criminology

“…For 'diversity' to move beyond the 'boxticking', it should drive meaningful and long-lasting changes. This involves recognising the structural racism that continues to influence our universities at present, and making sure that structural disadvantages that results in attainment gaps for minoritized ethnic students are being carefully addressed (Arday, Zoe Belluigi, and Thomas 2021;Andrews 2019;Banks 2020;Hall et al 2021;Shannon et al 2020;Winter, Webb, and Turner 2022). It also involves constantly 'reviewing knowledge biases, not only in terms of curricula' (Cheang and Suterwalla 2020, 880) but also between students and staff, and students and each other.…”

From Activism to Organizing, From Caring to Care Work

“…We agree with Lynch, Ivancheva, O’Flynn, Keating, and O’Connor that “Without a governing ethic of care in higher education, the ambition and self-interest of the few will override the educational and research interests of the many. And … the undermining of care has serious negative implications not only for women, but also for students, staff and for the culture of the organisation itself” (2020, 170).…”

“…4. The journal Teaching in Higher Education features articles in the last two years on antiracist efforts to "decolonise curriculum" (Hall et al 2021) and on the consequences of technocratic theories of efficiency for BIPOC faculty who often work on "colored people's time" (Streamas 2020). If we include articles about students and staff, that number increases exponentially.…”

Operationalizing Antiracism in Higher Education Community Engagement

“…Higher education was created to sustain this system of oppression. As Hall, Ansley, Connolly, Loonat, Patel & Whitham (2021) discussed in Struggling for the anti-racist university: Learning from an institution-wide response to curriculum decolonisation, the role of higher education in sustaining current power structure as:…”

“…Furthermore, when we seek to infuse antiracist principles into community engagement, we move counter to the traditional lens through which community engagement is conducted, which often includes individuals providing service to the community through non-reciprocal relationships. This is traditionally a Eurocentric perspective of interacting with the world (Hall et. al, 2021;Yep & Mitchell, 2017).…”