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Just thought it prudent to remind colleagues that conflating decolonising with diversity, inclusivity, an
d/or even anti-racism is harmful. While these are all related constructs, decolonising is specifically about intentionally correcting the harmful and inaccurate narratives that have been created through colonialism and used to build structures, processes, and ways of thinking that still exist today.
Decolonising - as is in the name - is about reconstructing the world taking into consideration the legacies of colonialism. I have taken a personal interest in this work having come from Trinidadian heritage, having attained all of my qualifications in the Caribbean from Caribbean HE institutions, and having studied under some of the best modern day postcolonial scholars in Education.
It was not until I returned to the UK, and began working as a pedagogic practitioner in HE that I realised the value of my postgraduate qualifications in postcolonial education. The conversation on decolonising has become very much a buzz lately, with local MP's (who I am confident have no idea what decolonising really is) dismissing it as harmful and a fad. It is also met with good willing people in HE who want to make change and seek to embed decolonising in their work to improve outcomes for all students.
Its become interesting to me that despite the good intentions of some, and the very poor intentions of others, there is harm being done on both ends. I'm sure we can all agree that dismissal of a concept out of ignorance is problematic, which is why I will not spend much time discussing the leadership of this country (that's only a small reason why). But it is important to understand that in conversations about decolonising, it can also be just as harmful to be well intended, and still not understand what we are doing.
We water it’s value down when we reduce it to ‘inclusivity of all learners’ and ‘diversification of pedagogy’.
I am increasingly seeing colleagues creating decolonising posts, including decolonising in their strategies, and working toward a decolonised curriculum. All wonderful ideas. I have even seen institutions creating their own institutional definitions of decolonising - and this is also problematic for so many reasons. Decolonising requires more than what any University can offer and so to think this work is ever going to be a project with a completion attached to it, is an inaccurate thought. It is also about accuracy, power, structural change, and societal change.
Why is Decolonising not diversity?
Diversity is about creating engagement with a wider perspective, whether in the curriculum, in staffing, in student bodies, etc. like adding more global perspectives/authors to your reading list.
Inclusivity - is about including more, or making more included like teaching culturally relevant pedagogy, or engaging with social issues that affect your students in the classroom.
Anti-racism - what it says on the tin.
Decolonising - colonialism created a society (a world) that perpetuates eurocentric ideologies as the best way of seeing the world. This is obvious in some cases and extremely subtle in others. Principles of decolonising will subsequently lead to and engage with diversity, inclusivity, and anti-racism, but they are not one and the same.
An obvious example: English language being considered a universal language when the majority of the world do not speak English. This has implications for knowledge exchange, where those who do not communicate in this language first, nor understand how to engage in our processes of knowledge exchange automatically get excluded from being ranked as world leading scholars, getting consultancy work, or being recognised for their work at all. The perpetuation of English as the primary language was an intentional part of colonialism to ensure that indigenous peoples felt inferior in their intelligence and in need of the White English saviour to educate them. This was and is still evident in curriculum for schools in places like Trinidad and the wider Caribbean, India, and many parts of Africa. These countries had their own languages, cultures, and ways of being that have in some cases been lost all together as a result of colonialism and its legacies.
So when HE institutions in the UK profess to decolonise, but speak about it as inclusivity, diversity of pedagogy, and even anti-racism, they miss a few fundamentals of what decolonising is. As this is a blog and not a book, I'll stop here and provide some key resources that have helped me explain this to colleagues and students alike.
Leaders/change agents in HE who are attempting decolonising should preferably engage with research on colonialism, and postcolonialism written by authors with lived experience before embarking on whole institutional initiatives to decolonise.
It’s ok to say that you do not know what it is, and it’s ok to ask for help on how to do it effectively.
It is harmful to do what you want with work that was created to stop oppression.
It is harmful to create your own meanings for concepts that were created to stop oppression.
It is harmful to engage in work that is anti-oppressive without understanding who the work was intended to be done by.
It is harmful to engage in work that is anti-oppressive without understanding who the work was intended to be done for.
Some of the BCU events I coordinated in 2022 on Decolonising HE Academic Practice
Dr. Norrel London - link to research
Dr. Eric Williams - link to amazon purchase of Education in the British West Indies
Paulo Freire - Link to amazon purchase of pedagogy of the oppressed
Leon Moosavi - link to article The decolonial bandwagon
Homi Bhaba - link to video in conversation with Oxford Uni
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