Partha Chatterjee:

There are differences in the way in which different disciplines actually share a certain globally universal content and others which have more specific content in relation to particular regions and nations and their specific historical and cultural situations. So, for instance, if one looks at the social sciences in India, for instance, and one takes the major disciplines, one would find that the discipline of economics, at least the way it's taught, in most recent times, very largely follows, one might say, almost the pattern of the natural sciences, in that there are the same canonical texts and the same history of the discipline as followed everywhere else in the world. On the other hand, if one takes the example of sociology and anthropology in India, it's very interesting to note that there is a very, very lively and well-developed field called ‘Indian sociology’, which has developed -- and that is largely because of the existence in India of the institution of caste, which does not exist, in quite this form, anywhere else in the world. And because of the study of caste, which has become almost the basic staple of Indian sociology and anthropology, caste, and as well as the various indigenous communities of India -- which under colonial times, they were referred to as tribes -- now, this has produced, you might say its own disciplinary form, with its own textual studies, its own ethnographic methods. This is a content which does not exist anywhere else in the world, or, if caste is taught elsewhere in the world, it would be taught with reference to the discipline as it prevails in India. So, this is a very distinct feature.

Maisha Reza:

While the principles of decolonization and the potential outcome is consistent, how it can be done, and the actions that need to be employed can look quite different in various disciplines. So I think how to get there might differ, but we all could ask ourselves several questions. And we have to continue asking these questions throughout our practice.

… I have in the past had discussions with colleagues who believe that decolonization is more relevant to the arts, to history to literature, mass media fashion, but not in science, because after all, DNA is DNA. How do you actually decolonize DNA if it is a fact? So I would say that it has taken a longer time for colleagues in the STEM disciplines to get on board the movement because they took some time to understand its relevance, though they might have agreed with decolonization in principle. So it comes back down to the application and understanding how to take action within specific disciplines.

Samir Saha:

What we teach is knowledge derived from books written by either American experts or British experts. So, this thinking is more or less…springs out of colonialism. To have a decolonized outlook, it is better to have authors, competent authors, from this country writing textbooks of engineering and technology -- which is not there. We can see even in 1930s, eminent scientists wrote books on thermodynamics, but this did not continue. So, when we are developing technology, technology development means solution of the problems of the country inherent locally. So, we should apply the global/Western/colonial knowledge to solve the local problems, but this is not happening, because the teachers are not comfortable with local problems -- because, see the comfort is not there, because they are not acquainted with the local problems. There should be more local visits, local problem solutions, whatever it be – sanitation, pumping, rainwater harvesting, beat, solution of using energy…We must know the data, even raw data. See, utilizing wind energy, utilizing solar energy, which are really absolutely free sources of energy -- is much more important than learning nowadays, because of the climate change thing and other things that these fossil burning technologies that we still go on teaching. So, I think those who will go for decolonization of curriculum, should think in this context also: that climate change mitigation is possible only if the technologies which are renewable, which are locally available, which are available in distant places, they should be utilized, the teacher should be acquainted with utilization of those things. And of course, ultimately the student should be brought into data with the teachers in solving because these are not difficult things the these localities can be visited. It is visited in some of the disciplines, and I think in those disciplines, it will be easier to give a decolonized perspective to those disciplines like zoology or geology, etc.

Aveen Hameed:

We are really lucky because geology is a global science. So we study geology all over the world, we work with a range of partners in different universities, and different research institutions all over the world. And that's great because it means we work with a diverse range of people. And we study a diverse range of things. I think the really interesting thing about geology and mining is the mining industry itself. The mining industry has an interesting history because of its links to the imperial power and former colonies. But I think the way that the mining industry is moving forward, is changing. And it's addressing a lot of those legacy issues. In many cases, you had expat workers, or British workers or white workers, running mines in producer countries, that's changing dramatically. Producer countries are upskilling their own people, they're sending them all over the world to study, they're also setting up their own education provision, to train people locally or in country. And this is all wonderful news. This is exactly what should be happening. This is enabling producer countries to take control over their resources take control of the decision making. It's also allowing staff from producer countries to actually participate in the international mining industry, you know, they're taking on positions and senior positions and international mining companies, and getting the experience of working in a range of a range of countries. Doing so allowing local people to manage their own resources is key to reversing some of the colonial legacy, particularly when it comes to environmental and social impact.

Tom Currie:

When we're thinking about the decolonization, I think for every different discipline, you have to think about how does decolonization affect what it is that we do in our own discipline. So something like biology, for example, we can think about issues such as the the history of race, science, or eugenics, or what we used to be known as kind of social Darwinism, and how that was an important aspect of the history of the development of evolutionary thinking. Although now we kind of understand that the kind of the basis for those ideas is both kind of scientifically wrong, but also kind of ethically wrong as well. Some of those ideas that were that were kind of being first kind of began being explored and proposed in kind of the kind of the 1800s still have a legacy in how science is still in our discipline, conducts itself today, but also sometimes in the, in the public understanding of science, on the ways that science can be misused by certain groups. So we need to have an awareness of that history, when we're thinking about what it is that we teach, and how we go about doing biology.

Layal Hakim:

Decolonizing maths doesn't only lie in how we can learn more about the historical points of view, but also in terms of looking at those currently less represented and see and how they understand and that how they learn mathematics, how do they associate as mathematicians? Nowadays, we have a lot of students coming from various educational backgrounds. And the way they learn and the way they were exposed to new mathematical mathematical theories could be very different to those in European countries. And it's very important for us as educators to understand how they were taught how and how they personally learn and associated with mathematics and its theories. Having this understanding really helps us understand how there are different approaches to learning and understanding mathematics.