Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses
Tabs
Decolonising the Curriculum
Decolonising the Curriculum
Why decolonise the curriculum?
There’s a problem with trying to decolonise curricula because as explained by Professor Jason Arday, we need to understand what we mean by colonising and the legacy of its effects before we address decolonising. And if the educational culture we are working in and with is not receptive to change then no checklists or policies or strategies will work, they may even create a bigger problem.
So, you may well ask why include decolonising the curriculum here as a resource sheet? Because this resource sheet offers ways to start to develop conversations between students and educators and between educators about acknowledging colonisation and its legacy. Through these open discussions within our institutions and across our Alliance, together we can strengthen educational cultures which embrace social justice and address racism.
5 key points about decolonising the curriculum in in-person or online courses
- As a point of departure, it would be wise to acknowledge what influences our own lens on the world and where we are positioned in terms of privilege. Resources like Harvard’s Implicit Association Test (IAT) may help raise awareness of implicit biases. Please note your test data will contribute to a research data set. Publications listed in the references below and resources available on https://unlimited.sdu.dk/ may also be helpful to generate awareness. It is recommended to work on raising awareness of possible biases with others, as constructive dialogue in a safe setting can help keep the process open and effective.
- If you are looking for ways to generate discussion about decolonising curricula? Try this list of referenced quotations compiled by the ‘All In! Regularising Ethnic Presence in the Curriculum project team’ (University of Nottingham, UK). The quotations provide starting points for discussions about acknowledging, deconstructing, decolonising and sustaining curricula change.
- The Inclusive Curriculum Health Check (University of London, UK) offers a checklist approach for reviewing the inclusiveness of a course. Checklists like these are most productive when they are used to generate discussion and raise awareness. Taking the time to review how different students will experience a course is already signaling this is valued practice.
- It can be hard to know where to start with decolonising curricula, especially when the impact of colonisation is not obvious in the subject discipline. Try the small step approach advocated in Case Study 1 in Decolonising the Curriculum Resource 2023, p.16. University of Reading, UK. Start by listening to students’ concerns about decolonisation and inclusion, select non-stereotypical images, when sharing examples choose names which reflect diversity, and be open about poor representation of diversity in subject areas or cases.
- Co-developed and co-taught EPICUR courses and pathways can provide students with authentic opportunities to compare and constructively critique individual, local, national and international positions and perspectives. Regardless of the subject area, having the opportunity for students to learn together, opens us possibilities for novel thinking and new ways to see the world.
Decolonising the curriculum in practice
In the blog ‘Decolonising the Classics Classroom: Diversity & Representation in Visual Aids’ Rob Hancock-Jones, explains how he exploits stereotypical and more accurate visual aids when introducing and teaching classical studies. By drawing on and critiquing media portrayals of classical times, the educator encourages critical appreciation and enquiry.
Decolonising the Curriculum Resources and Decolonising the Curriculum Resource 2023 (University of Reading, UK) offer case studies for subject disciplines including law, economics, speech and language, psychology and mathematics.
Links to resources for decolonising the curriculum
for in-person classes:
Decolonising the Curriculum: What is it? Why do it? (Teacher and Advisor Conference, York, UK) Review a conference presentation on the design and impact of a series of social justice modules using anti-racist pedagogy and included in different study programmes.
The Building the Anti-racist Classroom (BARC) Student Journey Game, available to download. ‘The game has been developed for UK university staff who are committed to or involved in developing interventions that address racial discrimination and inequalities in higher education. It can be played by both academics and members of professional services staff.’
for online classes:
Read about a MOOC on ‘Indigenous peoples’ experiences and struggles in the 21st century’ and their reflections, amongst others on the need for safe, online dialogic spaces during the course Decolonising the Curriculum Resources p.15 (University of Reading, UK)
References
- Benson, Buster. Cognitive Bias Codex. (2016) Available at https://betterhumans.pub/cognitive-bias-cheat-sheet-55a472476b18 visualisation and descriptions of a wide range of cognitive biases to which we can be susceptible.
- Bhambra, Gurminder K; Gebrial, Dalia and Nişancıoğlu, Kerem (ed.) (2018) Decolonising the university. London: Pluto Press.
- Hurford, Donna and Read, Andrew (2022) Bias-aware Teaching, Learning and Assessment. UK: Critical Publishing.
- Thomas, Dave S. P & Arday, Jason (ed.) (2021) Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education- Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Internationalising the Curriculum
Author(s)
This resource sheet has been co-written or written by
- Donna Hurford (SDU)
Related Resource Sheets
Next steps
If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.
Local teaching support units
EPICUR Institutional Coordinators
Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu
University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl
Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de
Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at
University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk
University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr
Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Decolonising the Curriculum (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Donna Hurford, University of Southern Denmark. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .
Last edited: 23. Jun 2025, 09:05, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]