Decolonising the Higher Education Curriculum: Engaging with Liminality

Abstract

‘Decolonising the Curriculum’ (DtC) is now a well-established phrase in the vernacular of higher education institutions (HEIs). The recent movement can be traced back to the 2015 Rhodes Must Fall campaign at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the parallel campaign at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK), where students rebuked the colonial legacies in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and called out the predominantly ‘White’ syllabi they were taught. In the 2014 film ‘Why is My Curriculum White?’ produced by University College London as part of a broader National Union of Students campaign, students expressed the many ways that their education was incomplete, with critical elements missing, omitted and excluded from their curriculum.1 It is important to note that colonialism has taken many forms over time, with many different impacts on higher education. Rizvi et al. (2006) highlight that understanding the legacies of colonialism helps overcome ahistoricity, recognising that identity and difference should not be reduced to essentialist terms or binary logics (see also Bhaba, 1994). Nevertheless, it is clear that students in these movements conveyed their frustration with the way in which monoculturalism was normalised and reproduced in their educational experiences. At the centre of these calls is a recognition that education is intrinsically linked with power, functioning both as a tool of empire and colonial thought, and therefore a critical space to expose and challenge the ongoing impact of colonialism. One of the key sites to expose and challenge the impact of colonialism, to initiate resistance and transformation, is the higher education curriculum.