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Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum Symposium presentation
Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum Symposium presentation
One of the first presentations of the project's results were made at the Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum Symposium in Summer 2023. The student interns presented a poster which can be found below.
Workshop within the Teaching and Learning conference
Workshop within the Teaching and Learning conference
The students then presented the findings in a workshop within the Teaching and Learning conference again in Summer 2023. They presented the various themes alongside scenarios which invited discussion.
Curriculum changes within the Psychology department
Curriculum changes within the Psychology department
Based on the results, several steps have been taken within the Psychology department:
EDI Academic Skills module
As part of the compulsory Academic skills module offered to students within the Department, the DDC committee got a small pot of funding from the Psychology department to develop an EDI-related aspect to the module. Within this module, students engage in a range of material related to sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, gender and social class; and then complete a range of multiple choice questions.
Some example material can be found below:
EDI Year 2 Option module
As part of the funding received from the Psychology department, the students also developed a Year 2 option module (which shall be launched soon!). The module aims include:
To give students a deeper understanding of diversity-related issues within education and how this needs to be addressed.
To provide an opportunity to critically evaluate the origins of curriculum content and to consider diversity across their course materials.
To adopt an interdisciplinary approach to explore areas of the curriculum that are acting against decolonisation and diversification efforts.
To highlight the contributions made by diverse academics to their relative fields.
Some example material that will be covered in the module can be found below:
Contributions of typically ignored scientists in colonisation efforts and the shady backgrounds of those most known in the field
Tokenism in terms of race (poetry) and queerness (film)
White males being the standard participant / limits to minority participants
Taking examples from disability and cross-cultural research in order to consider how researchers use these examples in practice
Anti-racist practice in real life
Module diversity feedback assessment
Based on the results, the Psychology department has also added an item which allows students to evaluate levels of diversity within the material taught.
See the example item here -->
BAME students' experiences of Psychological research
The DDC students and Karisha George successfully obtained YCEDE funding for a small research project exploring BAME students' perspectives on Psychological research. Through focus groups, several themes were identified:
1) Theme 1 - Superficial: Attempts to diversify research are shallow - more focused on ticking the box of having included participants from various demographics; rather than a step towards real change based on insight gained from the input of diverse participants.
2) Theme 2 - Biases: Perceptions of psychological research (and psychology as a wider field) as being preferential towards the ‘standard’ white majority sample.
3) Theme 3- Incentives: Several factors were identified that increase participation.
4) Theme 4 - Reasonable adjustments: Adaptations needed to increase participation of the modern university student was outlined
Keep your eyes out for what we will do based on our results!
Curriculum initiatives within the Economics department
Curriculum initiatives within the Economics department
Following the findings of the project, a student-led Diversifying and Decolonising the Curriculum Initiative has been established at the Department of Economics, which will give students the opportunity to work with various members of staff for enhancing the diversity of the economics curriculum. The activities of the initiative suggested by students will include:
Researching the ways the material and the reading lists in a sample of modules across different years can be diversified.
Analysing the gender and the ethnicity of the authors, and the geographic scope of the papers used in the essential reading lists of a sample of modules.
Making suggestions for diversifying the speakers at departmental talks and events for students.
Developing a survey to gather views on what students know and think about the diversity of the economics curriculum.
Creating a website for the initiative to share their work with a wider audience.
Interdisciplinary curriculum changes
Interdisciplinary curriculum changes
Curriculum Review Workshops
Curriculum Review Workshops
The Departments of Psychology and Economics have launched curriculum review workshops within each of their departments. In both departments, a pilot of modules being taught will be included.
Within the Department of Economics this is organised by the Diversifying and Decolonising the Curriculum Initiative, which invites staff and students to collaborate on increasing levels of diversity in the curriculum. Students will be working in groups and have leads for each module, who will regularly share their progress with the wider initiative and receive comments.
The steps taken in the Psychology Department are similar - staff and students within the Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum committee will take charge of meeting with the staff members to discuss any particular areas they would like the students to focus on. They will then also invite students within the wider department to also comment on any suggested changes within these areas, before working together to develop a proposal.
Department of Psychology | University of York
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