From diversification to decolonisation: navigating the challenges and opportunities for school teachers to reimagine the curriculum

Swain, Spencer and Wood, Margaret and Su, Feng and Meredith, Margaret and Pennington, Andrew and Jagdev, Manjinder K (2026) From diversification to decolonisation: navigating the challenges and opportunities for school teachers to reimagine the curriculum. PRACTICE. ISSN 2578-3858

Text Decolonising Think Piece Submission resubmission.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 14 March 2028. Download (237kB)

Abstract

This think piece examines the transformative potential of decolonising the school curriculum through the lens of knowledge justice and epistemic equity. Drawing on our experiences of working with school educators and relevant literature, this article explores how teachers in England could embed decolonial principles into their pedagogical practices to challenge Eurocentric assumptions, broaden epistemological inclusivity, and foster critical citizenship. The article distinguishes between diversifying and decolonising the curriculum, emphasising that the latter requires a fundamental rethinking of knowledge systems, power relations, and pedagogical intent. Examples of classroom strategies across humanities, science, and mathematics illustrate how decolonial approaches can make learning more culturally responsive and socially meaningful. The piece concludes by arguing that systemic support, whether through school leadership or policy reform, is vital to move beyond individual efforts towards sustained, collective transformation. Decolonising the curriculum is thus positioned as both an ethical and epistemic imperative for equitable and sustainable education. In summary, this piece seeks neither to replace Western knowledge with Indigenous or non-Western knowledge nor to merge different traditions into a single, undifferentiated curriculum. Rather, the aim is to create pedagogical spaces where students can examine different knowledge systems in relation to their histories, methods, purposes, contexts, and limits.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	This is the author accepted manuscript version of an article, accepted for publication in Practice: Contemporary issues in practitioner education. The final version is available from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25783858.2026.2734725
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2026 14:25
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2026 14:25
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4982

Actions (login required)

View Item