Struggling for the anti-racist university: learning from an institution-wide response to curriculum decolonisation

Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Connolly, Paris; Loonat, Sumeya; Patel, Kaushika; Whitham, Ben

Abstract

Increasingly, institutions are amplifying work on race equality, in order to engage with movements for Black lives and decolonising. This brings universities into relations with individual and communal issues of whiteness, white fragility and privilege, double and false consciousness, and behavioural code switching. Inside formal structures, built upon cultures and practices that have historical and material legitimacy, engaging with such issues is challenging. The tendency is to engage in formal accreditation, managed through engagement with established methodologies, risk management practices and data reporting. However, this article argues that the dominant articulation of the institution, which has its own inertia, which reinforces whiteness and dissipates radical energy, needs to be re-addressed in projects of decolonising. This situates the communal work of the institution against the development of authentic relationships as a movement of dignity.

Citation

Hall, R., Ansley, L., Connolly, P., Loonat, S., Patel, K., & Whitham, B. (2021). Struggling for the anti-racist university: learning from an institution-wide response to curriculum decolonisation. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(7/8), 902-919. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1911987

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 29, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 20, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 29, 2021
• Journal: Teaching in Higher Education
• Print ISSN: 1356-2517
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1294
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 7/8
• Pages: 902-919
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1911987
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1911987