Decolonising the Curriculum - Stephanie Martin

In this latest #ThinkEducation podcast episode, Chris and Judith talk to Stephanie Martin, co-founder of Edvance Education Consultants, about decolonising the curriculum: what this means from both a philosophical and practical perspective – including some tips on how we might approach this at a nursery level!

 

We asked Stephanie for her thoughts on the process of decolonisation within TNE and how we can attempt to navigate this process – and sometimes dichotomy – of expectations, quality and reality.

 

Stephanie talks passionately about the need for representation and multiple voices to be heard; not for the deletion of history but rather for a more critical awareness towards motivations and contexts.

 

We talked about the difference between diversity and decolonisation and how simply including multi-cultural examples in our teaching is a good start but more must be done to critically address issues and discuss varying perspectives.

 

We talked about the term decolonisation itself and how it can be viewed negatively, or even misunderstood.  The need to reflect and anlayse the past should not be conflated with its eradication.  Increased awareness and understanding comes through discussion and engagement and to remove history is not the same as changing the way that we view our future, or even our present.  Perhaps we need a new term that more accurately reflects what we are trying to achieve with this process.

 

As is often the case, we ended up talking about Shakespeare and the way we can provide access points to our students by elevating their status and raising the profile of their own experiences through placing them firmly within the narrative in our classrooms.

 

Decolonisation is about how are we evolving, what have we learnt from the past, and what lessons can it teach us about our future. There is a beauty in this discussion as we are all learning from each other.

 

#decolonisingthecurriuculm #diversification #curriculumstudies #internationalisation #internationalhighereducation #languagelearning #ESL #windowsandmirrors #madeleinemiller #nataliehaynes #patbarker #littlepeoplebigdreams

 

https://www.edvanceconsultants.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-martin-0118638b/?originalSubdomain=ae

 

Recent Publications by Stephanie;

Breaking Chains of the Past: Decolonizing Education for a Brighter Future

Ethics and Integrity in Teacher Education (Springer, 2022)