Decolonising your reading list

In the local UK context, reports show that BAME students do not perform as well in HEIs as White students with a 13% awarding gap between them in achieving a 1 or 2:1 degree. When we analyze the staff and faculty BAME staff are poorly represented in senior positions and university leadership positions. Out of 19,000 professors employed in UK HEIs, only 400 are BAME women, that is a shocking 2% and highly non-representative of the UK population (UUK & NUS, 2019).

Despite the disproportionate challenges and hurdles that BAME students undergo to get into universities, they still do not stand on an equal playing field with an unequal chance of success as compared to their White counterparts (UUK & NUS, 2019). In fact, even when entry grades and poorer socio-economic circumstances were controlled for, BAME students still displayed an awarding gap (Gowers, 2019). Eliminating the BAME student’s awarding gap requires persistent leadership and will from the HE sector.

This awarding gap could be attributed to a poor sense of belonging. BAME students feeling a poorer sense of belonging has been linked to their degree outcomes (Cureton & Gravestock, 2019). Belongingness is crucial to both the retention and success of students in universities (Thomas, 2017). Belonging also goes beyond personal relationships and extends to “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow, 1993). Black and Asian students have been reported to have a poorer sense of belonging and are at risk of feeling uncared for. This is amplified by the very low number of BAME academics and the inability to relate to White staff who do not have the cultural competency to comprehend and relate to a BAME student’s perspective. As a result, making the sense of belonging in BAME students more challenging to achieve (Cureton & Gravestock, 2019). 

A huge step towards representation is to diversify the reading list. The reading lists, where students are encouraged to do further reading and form the foundation of their knowledge resource is usually White and non-representative of the diverse local student body. The resources we have been providing in higher education are more aligned with the demographic profile of the academics, White European. Reading lists play a significant role in decolonizing our higher education institutes and is a low hanging fruit in attempting to deconstruct the set pool of familiar resources that has been established (Shcucan Bird & Pitman, 2020).

Module and programme developers and those involved in education delivery are becoming increasing aware of current global issues of social and ethnic tension, in particular those of ethnic discrimination, ‘othering’ and racism. The past colonial legacy and current neo-colonialism influence the way we as educators develop and share our knowledge and experience with our students. These tenacious tentacles must be removed from our curriculum. We ought to highlight contribution of people in education, science and medicine regardless of their ethnicity and birthplace; eradicate signs of colonial and neo-colonial bias in science and education development and delivery and raise awareness of the value of diversity in higher education while recognising and respecting differences; address the persistent presence of under-representation of ethnic and protected characters in education, science, medicine and health education and in knowledge creation arena. Reviewing curriculum, its content and assessment and student support requires an overhaul of its design. Imbedded within this work requires a revision of educational resources (such as reading lists) we offer to our students. It is important that we encounter our biases and work to address this issue of under-representation of ethnic and ‘other’ knowledge creators and acknowledge their contribution by combating Euro- or West-centric view of science in our curriculum.

“History is always written by the victors” is a quote that often plays on my mind. It’s easy to rationalise this in the context of many things, as it seems clear – those who win, can dictate how things happened retrospectively.

But this quote doesn’t necessarily reflect what constitutes “victory”. For one side to “win”, the other must “lose”. Western culture has largely been explained through a palatable and easy to digest way that overlooks what was required to become the victor. Colonialism is often touted as this intrinsic thing that British people should be proud of, as “Britannia Rules the Waves”, but what did that rule actually entail?

It’s not easy to explain to the unwilling that the various “victories” throughout Western history have been won through exploitation and domination of groups and cultures who do not align with the Eurocentric, Caucasian status quo. For centuries, colonisation has profited from exploiting the resources of various countries and silenced those who rallied against the decision to do so. As such, it has generated a power dynamic through which minority groups have been prevented from climbing up the ladder, as the countries before it have systematically prevented them from doing so.

The reason for decolonising the reading list is simple – for too long, marginalised groups have been prevented from saying how they have played their part in the advancement of society, often at their own expense. Too many horrors have been overlooked, or swept aside, to present the “winning narrative”.

The time has finally come to not let these voices be silenced anymore, and for that, it is up to those of us in positions of privilege to uplift these groups and challenge racist and problematic historic practices, so that we can move forward on the next cultural chapter as equals, as allies.

“History is always written by the victors” after all.