Working Towards a More Inclusive Reading List within the Context of Decolonisation

Next week I'm looking forward to delivering a session on inclusive reading lists at the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education’s Quality Insights Conference. This is taking place fully online on 23 and 24 February so please do check out the full programme and book a place to join us! The details of my lightning talk session are below, drawing on similar themes from the recent event I presented at that focused on Decolonising the University within and Beyond the Curriculum.

This lightning talk will present visual slides to share key learning and areas for reflection with respect to auditing a reading list within the context of decolonisation. This evaluation was inspired by good practice across the sector to develop more inclusive curricula and, particularly, to diversify reading lists that will better support learning and reflect our diverse student body. The evaluation of the resources for the initial module on a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education aimed to: A) evaluate how to make the reading list more inclusive of diverse authors and perspectives, and B) model good practice so that students on the module (who are also staff teaching across the university) may conduct similar work in the future. The evaluation analysis focused on ethnicity, gender, and national origin of authors. This brief presentation shares initial findings from the audit of the 2021 resources for the module (inherited from colleagues) as well as enhancements made in advance of the module running in autumn 2022. It shares reflections on the findings and also offers a provocation for others who may seek to conduct similar work in future.

By the end of this session, delegates will have reflected on the power of the resources we use in learning and teaching, and the importance of making the curriculum more inclusive. After seeing one approach to auditing a resource list and efforts to enhance it, delegates will have learnt about key findings and challenges from this evaluation.

 

A Three-Pronged Approach to an Inclusive Curriculum: Reading List Decolonisation, Learning Agreements, and Inclusive Assessment

The University of Winchester has been running the Decolonising the University within and Beyond the Curriculum symposium for several years now, and I was delighted that this year it was open to others beyond Winchester to join the fantastic conversations. I was quite nervous to present on the topic since it can be sensitive and I was aware that others have been working on decolonising curricula for much longer than me, but I was relieved to have a supportive audience and that my presentation was well-received with colleagues interested to learn about the practical steps I had taken.

During this presentation, I shared steps I took to audit and decolonise a reading list, develop a shared learning agreement, and enhance assessment to make it more inclusive of diverse learners participating in the Designing and Facilitating Learning module at the University of Stirling. The reading list audit revealed a propensity of UK-based, white authors which then led to revamping the resources to include more diverse perspectives. I worked with the other tutor and the students to engage in developing a learning agreement together to foster an inclusive and supportive learning community. Furthermore, the move to a portfolio-based assessment that I introduced was seen to be a more inclusive, authentic, and creative form of assessment. 

This presentation explored how the practical approaches of the reading list audit, learning agreement development, and portfolio assessment contributed to decolonisation efforts at the modular level. These three elements helped our learning community examine questions of race and representation in terms of academic perspectives from the literature, the backgrounds of the module teachers, and the diverse student body. Participants learnt about these three approaches to decolonising the curriculum and examined what approaches may work best for their own contexts. We reflected on the power of the resources and approaches we use in learning and teaching, and the importance of an ongoing, enhancement-led approach to making the curriculum more inclusive.