The School of Education's Decolonising Co-Creation Work

Step 1: Engage

Step One is about supporting a dialogue between staff and students in order for them to share thinking about equality and inclusion more generally, before moving to think more specifically about decolonising.  This will allow individuals to identify what needs to be addressed, in turn exploring the ways in which institutions and knowledge have been colonised, and what this entails in relation to specific disciplines and departments. 

This step is crucial to the development of shared values and aspirations needed for a general willingness to think about curricular change in relation to decolonisation. 

It is about engaging students and staff in what decolonising the curriculum means to them, using the University definition to identify how this relates to their area of study. It aims to support thinking about the positionality of knowledge and the roles that we play within the structures of knowledge production. 

Step 2: Learn

Reading more about decolonising initiatives in HE can engage colleagues through learning. Recommended reading is available. Colleagues are invited to collaboratively develop and share this list. This step encourages thinking around the kind of curricular activities that can support learning in this area and the specific topics that may fit well in relation to the programmes offered by each department. 

Central to this is embedding the knowledge, skills and attributes linked to equality and inclusion on a departmental basis. This use of the Student Graduate Attributes framework within academic studies will increase critical thinking, global and cultural-historical awareness and in turn set the ground for the decolonising agenda.

Departments are encouraged to identify topics, skills and values that are needed to pursue the decolonising agenda and that they would like to integrate within their existing and developing courses.  Student co-creation and collaboration should be continued at this stage to create responsive and meaningful action plans.

Step 3: Apply

This step highlights the importance of opportunities to apply skills, knowledge and values in order to embed learning.  It provides encouragement for staff and students to think about immediate in-course opportunities, but also an emphasis on applying these tools within personal lives. The aim here is to get individuals to critically reflect on everyday practices, narratives and sources of knowledge in order to be more racially inclusive in their own lives and to be supportive of a decolonising agenda. 

Apply initiatives from learning done by student engagement in steps two and three to modify curriculum content, create inclusive learning environments and set objectives in terms of metrics and data - for example in relation to their awarding gap. Elevate has resources to help departments start taking action. Apply in the community and then as long-term opportunities beyond the programme of study.

Step 4: Share

Sharing learning with others, reinforcing learning as well as developing collaborations and partnerships across campus and beyond. The aim is to accelerate progress by sharing good practice collaborating to solve any challenges we may face related to the decolonising work and race equality more generally.

Step 5: Influence

Step five is integral to our view of the University of Sheffield students as future leaders. Many of our graduates go on to take up leadership roles around the globe and to hold positions where they have the opportunity to influence others. In creating a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive world, our graduates have a key role to play and so this step foregrounds leadership skills and qualities. Preparing our students to graduate with skills that allow them to translate the decolonisation agenda in the workplace, respecting diversity and being critical of structural inequality and racism. Linking to decolonising, are our students leaving University with an ability to critically think and question knowledge and information, with an awareness of its origin and its potential colonial ties?

Departmental curriculum content should have decolonisation principles embedded within it, with clear processes to review and modify content such that they become exemplars of good practice. Departments should have clear processes in place to assess the awarding gap in their area and to be able to comment on this at Faculty and institutional level as well as report externally, as appropriate.