Conferences and events

Davina Whitnall

About the speaker:

Davina Whitnall has worked in Organisational Development for over 20 years and draws on her experience to support learners in realising their potential. Her approach is ‘hands-on’ and she is clearly passionate about the training she delivers and develops. Davina is Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead for The Learning & Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC) at The University of Salford, and also has her own Consultancy as a Confidence Coach and Development practitioner, specialising in career development, writing enhancement, research impact, EDI and leadership. She provides an insightful perspective on enabling learners particularly those in higher education and research environments to develop effective strategies and create their own personal authentic approach.

About the session:

Decolonising pedagogical practice remains a challenge in Higher Education (HE) despite institutional and sectoral steps to improve and change practice. This session facilitates a discussion that aims to question current practice, asking 'are we doing enough' and how to ensure the steps taken by institutions or the sector more generally are effective to challenge and change the HE environment. Using the idea that 'to decolonise we need to deinstitutionalise' will form the basis of the provocation. This idea is based on a sociocultural approach to teaching in increasing awareness of anti-racist pedagogy and policies (Adams et al., 2008). The focus is in 'Dismantling Structures of Domination' within the world we live and the systemic structure that exists in HE. Therefore, if we wish to decolonise, we must first deinstitutionalise, highlighting the need to examine the cultural patterns and organisational structures that maintain present-day racial inequalities (Salter et al., 2018).

This perspective emphasises changing the 'structures of mind' in context that reflect and reproduce racial narratives. In the discussion, we invite examples of dismantling practice such as taking learning into real-world contexts, deinstitutionalisation as well as decolonisation, moving beyond approaches that merely scratch the surface of decolonising pedagogy and identifying critical impacts and practices.

Session intended learning outcomes:

During this session participants will be encouraged to:

• Reflect on Decolonising pedagogical in Higher Education generally and specifically in their home institution.
• Participate in a discussion that aims to explore and challenge current practice.
• Consider the idea that 'to decolonise we need to deinstitutionalise' as a sociocultural approach to teaching for increasing awareness of anti-racist pedagogy.
• Generate ideas and examples of practice based on 'Dismantling Structures of Domination' within the world we live and the systemic structure that exists in HE to develop potential actions and ideas for further development.
• Examine the cultural patterns and organisational structures that maintain or challenge the deconlising narratives.
• Identify decolonising pedagogy practice and critical impacts that could shape and inform the deinstitutionalisation approach to form an initial model to progress collective action in the sector.

References:

Adams, G., Biernat, M., Branscombe, N., Crandall, C., & Wrightsman, L. (2008) Beyond Prejudice: Toward a sociocultural psychology of racism and oppression. In G. Adams, M. Biernat, N. R. Branscombe, C. S. Crandall, & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Commemorating Brown: The social psychology of racism and discrimination (pp. 215–246). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Salter, P. S., Adams, G., & Perez, M. J. (2018). Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417724239

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Dr Gurnam Singh PhD, NTF, FRSA

About the speaker:

Dr Gurnam Singh is an activist researcher, writer, and educator whose work is dedicated to highlighting and disrupting systems and mechanisms of power, privilege and violence that lead to human suffering and inequity. Currently, he is Hon Associate Professor of Sociology University of Warwick and Visiting Fellow in Race and Education, UAL, London. Formerly, he was Associate Professor of Education at Coventry University. In 2005 was completed a PhD at the University of Warwick focussing on anti-racist social work. In 2009 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) for his work on critical pedagogy and higher education, and in 2018 was accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA). He had published widely on a range of areas, including, race, racism, anti-racism, diversity, decolonisation, ethics, higher education, and social work. His most recent publications include:

• Singh, G. (2023) Decolonisation, whiteness, and anti-racist social work. In The Routledge Handbook of International Critical Social Work (pp. 343-357). Routledge.
• Singh, G et al (2021). Beyond BAME: Rethinking the politics, construction, application, and efficacy of ethnic categorization. Higher Education Race Action Group (HERAG).
• Singh, G. (2020). Now You See Me, Now You Don’t! Making Sense of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Experience of UK Higher Education: One Person’s Story. The Palgrave Handbook of Auto/Biography, 543-560.

About the session:

Despite resistance from right wing media, across the western world, academic institutions have seemingly been embracing the idea of decolonisation. The demand for decolonisation of the university incorporates calls for a more diverse and inclusive curriculum, increased the representation of racially minoritized staff in the academy, and the decentring of Eurocentric and colonial foundations of academic knowledge production.

Though decolonisation is seemingly motivated by a desire to promote social justice and address historical injustices, in this presentation I will argue that there are three significant flaws in the way the project of decoloniality has been conceived and implemented within the academy. These are: a poor understanding of the very forms of oppression that the decolonisation project seeks to confront; a misunderstanding of the nature of the modern neoliberal university; and a failure to break free from the very systems of classification that were established to rationalise the colonial project in the first place. The paper concludes by exploring ways in which these institutional flaws may be overcome.

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John Boddy and Adrianne Arendse

About the speakers:

John Boddy

Head of the Fashion and Textiles Institute at Falmouth University, John studied Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design where he assisted Alexander McQueen prior to establishing his own fashion label, freelance pattern cutting consultancy and successful career in costume design.

As the university lead for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Access and Participation Planning, John’s academic interests explore the development of active, impactful pedagogies that focus on conscious practice through coalition and the decentring of archaic and divisive curricula.

Adrianne Arendse

Adrianne is a practice-agnostic creative agitator who runs Mayn Creative, a small agency that facilitates short-term projects for students and alumni of Falmouth University. He is also co-lead of the Belonging Module recently run in Falmouth’s Fashion and Textiles Institute. His work centres on the cultivation of practitioners’ growth and self awareness as it relates to their practice. This is informed by his cultural background, broad industry experience, interest in and study of the human elements affected by what can be loosely described as EDI as well as his reading of Indigenous knowledges and psychologies and Black misandry.

About the session:

The session will explore student and departmental staff engagement, to include: whiteness (privilege, defence and fragility), resistance to change, perceptions of ‘losing’ subject specific content, varying degrees of interest in EDI/decolonisation/decentering and the concept of an absent, or frugal ‘toolset’. The session will also focus on the fostering of authentic allyship, the personal impact on delivery staff (heavy lifting, lived experience, decompression) and academic/racial power balances.

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Katie Stripe

About the speaker:

Katie is Senior Learning Designer on the Attributes and Aspirations short course for postgraduate students across Imperial College. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technologists and has an MEd in University Learning and Teaching with the project 'Who does inclusive learning actually include?'

After working in the Czech Republic as an English Language teacher Katie returned to the UK to complete a teaching diploma. She has worked at Imperial College for 10 years in a range of roles relating to education technology and learning design.

She also works on inclusive learning projects including, developing inclusive curricula using digital personas and removing bias from admissions processes.

About the session:

The word decolonise is loaded.

Decolonisation could be counter productive to making academic practice more inclusive.

This provocation will ask questions of the audience and challenge their thinking on decolonisation, with the aim of making the conversation about inclusive practice more broadly. Uncertainty caused by the nuance of language can lead to misconceptions, misunderstandings, and unconscious and/or systemic bias. By exploring the word ‘decolonise’ with the audience I would like to establish what we, as higher education professionals, mean by the phrase and how that impacts the way we go about decolonisation personally, and institutionally.

By sharing aspects of my research, which defined 22 recommendations for making teaching in higher education more inclusive, I will ask questions of the audience; share why decolonisation was not one of the recommendations; and invite the audience to challenge me.

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Lucy Panesar

About the speaker:

Lucy Panesar, SFHEA is Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Kent. Previously, she worked in educational development at the University of the Arts London, where she led on the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine, LCC Changemakers and the Decolonising Wikipedia Network.

About the session:

Most university lecturers are required to complete a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) in which they learn from and with Educational Developers about what good pedagogy entails. The PGCHE is therefore an important site to develop and model decolonised or decolonising academic practices. As a module convenor and lecturer on the University of Kent’s PGCHE, I can change the PGCHE curriculum to promote decolonisation as part of addressing persistent racial inequalities within the University and sector, supported by Kent’s Anti-Racism strategy and the decolonisation actions it contains. Working toward more inclusive practices is also consistent with the UK Professional Standards Framework, to which PGCHE courses are aligned and which requires participants to meet standards of equality, diversity and inclusion in their PGCHE submissions and teaching observations.

However, when it comes to addressing decolonisation directly, certain challenges arise: in overcoming the antagonism this provokes in some; in helping others to make sense of this in their specific disciplines; in rethinking canonical readings and resources in educational development; and in understanding what true decolonisation means for universities rooted in colonial structures, ways of knowing and ways of valuing knowledge. In this talk, I reflect on recent efforts and associated challenges in decolonising knowledge on Kent’s PGCHE.

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Dr Mirjam Hauck

Professor Roberto Guerra

Professor Madson Diniz

About the speakers:

Dr Mirjam Hauck

Dr Mirjam Hauck, Associate Head of School (Internationalisation and EDI), Director, The Open Centre for Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University UK.

Professor Roberto Guerra

Professor at the Department of Administrative Sciences at the Federal University of Pernambuco (DCA/UFPE). Permanent member of the Graduate Program in Hospitality and Tourism (PPHTur) at UFPE. Doctor and Master in Business Administration by the Graduate Program in Business Administration (PROPAD) at UFPE. Graduated in Business Administration from UFPE. Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at DINE/PROPESQI (Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Dean of Research and Innovation office director) at UFPE and member of the scientific committee of the Society and Culture line of the National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Tourism (ANPTUR) . He works mainly on the following topics: entrepreneurship, innovation, culture, cities, tourism and society.

Professor Madson Diniz

Professor at Experimental School for Licenciateship Teaching and Tourism and Hospitality Department. Graduated in Liberal Arts from the Federal University of Paraíba (2001), Master's in Liberal Arts from the Federal University of Paraíba (2004) and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the respective institution (2010). He has experience in the areas of ​​Critical Applied Linguistics, with emphasis on Linguistic Theory (orality, writing, subjectivity, identity, otherness and Literacy), Language Teaching and Literature, Popular Cultures and Digital Media, Inclusive Linguistics and Sustainability Linguistics. He also works in research and analysis in​​language policies, internationalization of higher education and decolonial internationalization/ decolonial virtual exchange practices. Transversal themes such as the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030), Inclusive Education, Linguistic Rights, Human Rights and their interfaces with Legal Sciences and Language Sciences are also objects of interest. Since 2020, he has served as Director of International Relations at the Federal University of Pernambuco.

About the session:

Drawing on case studies from the EU ERASMUS+ funded VAMOS project we will introduce Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE) (Hauck, 2020; Klimanova & Hellmich, 2021) that aims to ensure more equitable and inclusive student exchange experiences. These are - we propose - characterised by the following elements:

• The use of low-bandwidth technologies
• A focus on students underrepresented in IaH, e.g., from low socio-economic backgrounds
• Student exchange project topics informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as a distinct way of addressing wicked problems
• Wherever possible, integration of local student outreach work with businesses, NGOs, and charities to support SDGs achievement.

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Dr Amina Doudi

About the speaker:

Dr Amina Douidi is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Intercultural Communication consultant in ELT. She holds a PhD in Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics from the University of Southampton, UK, where she investigated interculturality in Algerian English textbooks and language classrooms. She is a DEI reviewer for publishers and pre-sessional EAP tutor for HE. She also acts as co-editor of the TESOL ICIS newsletter championing contributions from teachers and researchers from the Global Majority.

About the session:

The colonial legacy of academic publishing continues to sustain Eurocentic and exclusionary approaches to knowledge production and dissemination. For researchers, decolonising their practice in a system that serves as a gateway to knowledge can be challenging.

This talk will provide advice for researchers looking to adopt decoloniality in their academic publishing practices. We will explore the barriers that researchers face in decolonising their writing, and provide practical insights into how to overcome these barriers.

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Robert Williams, PhD

About the speaker:

Robert Williams is a political ethnographer of modern garrison states and neo-colonial forms of empire. He teaches Sociology and Technoculture(s) at The University of Akron, USA.

About the session:

Recent calls to decolonise the academy largely assume that most of us can easily recognise what constitutes coloniality and the ways in which higher education is entangled with colonial histories. Yet many of the crystallised legacies of racialised dispossession and everyday practices of gendered and racialised discrimination exhibit a strong preference for anonymity.

To address this problem, we need to improve identifying and ‘seeing’ the non-innocent ways of coloniality in the neoliberal orientations of our departmental relationships and disciplinary methods. This lecture begins by asking what coloniality in the academy is and what does it look like? When we can take a hard look around us to not only identify coloniality but see how it unfolds, we are left better prepared to address it. Seeing coloniality is a powerful tool to communicate our collective intolerance to inequality and other harmful behaviours in the academy.

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Nikki Woods

About the speaker:

Nikki is a Lecturer in Criminology and 25 years of teaching in higher education.

About the session:

I am an Asian criminologist with a White name! I came to this institution and noticed how ‘White’ it is. How am I perceived and interpreted by my White students. Do they see my name and make an understanding, or a judgement which may change when I walk into the teaching room. I don’t fit my name! Does this make a new guise when I enter the lecture or the seminar. The purpose of this provocation is to analyse the reconstructing of the meaning of racism and its facets for hegemonic Whiteness in higher education. Most of my teaching takes place in an undergraduate criminology degree, where the cohort of students tend to be mainly White. I am aware of my particular power position I inhabit.

As their lecturer, I hold the position if ‘institutional power’ (Bondi, 2004) given to me by my institution to teach and assess my students. How was this power received in the classroom. This and my positionality warranted the need to decolonise knowledge and share it by reconstructing the meaning of racism through the shared practice, designing, and running a new Module titled, ‘Identity, Equality and Crime’ for Level 6 undergraduate students. To do this, the Module was designed to include an eclectic group of topics related to racism.

The content was deliberated over discussion with former students and colleagues how to deliver, share and instil empathy of different lived experiences of racism. Using a variety of interactive learning tools and e-learning for the one-hour lecture and two-hour seminars, the evaluation and face-to-face delivery and feedback was phenomenal. It is these rich testimonies and practice I would like to share and offer as a discussion of what is ‘acceptable knowledge’ and what are/were the challenges during the Module to deconstruct the students’ knowledge. It is fascinating to receive and share these testimonies from my White students who reportedly largely “we would not have received this invaluable education or compassion and empathy without your sharing your journey as a person of colour in higher education. It is important to scaffold our learning as educators as the same for our students.

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Dr Barbara Adewumi

About the speaker:

Barbara conducts research for Student Success and for the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE). She was part of the Decolonising the University Kaleidoscope Collective in 2019.Her research focuses on academic progression, closing the awarding gap and belongingness of racially minoritised students. Leads on the Diversity Mark program collaborating with students and staff to diversify reading lists and module resources. Currently researching on the Academic Excellence Scholarship longitudinal project mapping the journey of students’ learning and social experiences. Research interests include Black middle-class aspirations for their children, critical race theory, and race in education. She is co-editor of the forthcoming book Race, Capital, and Equity: Challenging differential academic attainment in UK universities Palgrave Macmillan series. She is also co-chair of the BAME staff network.

About the session:

A group of activist students at the University of Kent felt empowered to create transformative ideas to decolonize their university curricula. In the Kent Law School (KLS) students were invited to take a critical approach to legal studies. Students from the diaspora, international students from Asia, the Caribbean and parts of Africa formed a collective to talk about their concerns of belonging and critiqued the reproduction of a Eurocentric legal canon. In 2019, (facilitated by Dr Suhraiya Jivraj) Decolonize the University of Kent Collective was born. Through their research, a ‘manifesto for change’ was launched with recommendations made to the institution on how to decolonize knowledge, value global contributions to knowledge and create anti-racist pedagogical practices.

Four years on, I question whether the recommendations of the manifesto have made an impact on achieving institutional change at Kent. Bhopal reminds us that the institution is ‘one of those occupied spaces where rhetoric does not translate to outcome’. In this presentation I will discuss the persistent obstacles and the ongoing need to strip the white walls in academia, I ask the audience to join me in discussing whether students and staff can truly decolonise knowledge without decolonising the university.

References:

Thomas, D.S.P., Jivraj, S, (2020). Towards Decolonising the University: a kaleidoscope for empowering action written by Decolonized University of Kent Collective. Counterpress.

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Musharrat J Ahmed-Landeryou

About the speaker:

Musharrat J. Ahmed-Landeryou is Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy at London South Bank University.

Two days a week her role is a Student Success and Antiracist Education Practitioner for AHP. She is leading the decolonising the AHP curricula strategy in her school. Since June 2020 Musharrat has been prominent in campaigning for change in occupational therapy to become active and impactful in disrupting institutional racism and discrimination within the profession. This has resulted in cofounding BAMEOTUK Network which instigated others to form the networks LGBTQIA+OTUK and ABLEOTUK, all the networks will be working closely with Royal College of Occupational Therapist.

Musharrat has contributed to recent book publications in relation to her campaigning interests. She has also contributed to the academic community through conference keynotes and presentations, webinars/podcasts contributions and other academic publications. She has developed an international reach and partnerships to work collectively to collaborate in disrupting institutional racism and discrimination within the profession.

About the session:

The decolonising approach decedes from the structures that maintain the coloniality in the education system because it is incommensurable with western centrism. Core to the decolonising approach is the centring of collaborations with Black and minoritised groups, students, and staff, to start, coproduce, monitor, and evaluate change, and it is unclear how institutions are engaging with this. Hence not interrogating and disrupting the colonial replay in the curriculum and institution through actions, is thus recolonising knowledge and education. The approach acts to dismantle colonial reproduction in current education systems and structures for knowledge dissemination and production, and which discriminate and disadvantage the Black and minoritised groups. Decolonising is political, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-racism, anti-discrimination, anti-oppression, and for reparations, equity, and justice.

This presentation will frame the critical discussion following Smyth’s (1989) reflection framework to create actions towards liberatory change:

• Describe – explain meanings of decolonising education and institution, and the author’s experiences of doing this so far.
• Inform – analyse the author’s situation/s regarding decolonising approach within their institution.
• Confront – explore how our past and present is shaping our current experience of decolonising education and institution.
• Reconstruct – reimagine collective activism in academia to enable the decolonising approach.

The framework is relevant to use when there is power imbalance, when the person/s reflecting feel disempowered by the establishment.

References

Smyth, J. (1989) developing and sustaining critical reflection in teacher education, Journal of teacher education, 40(2): 2-9.

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