De-centring the psychology curriculum: Diversity, social justice, and psychological knowledge

Abstract

The psychology curriculum has close ties to the histories and cultural traditions of industrialised societies’ white middle-class populations, so it is unclear how it may reflect the interests and values of students from a variety of ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds in contemporary higher education settings. To address this question, we established an innovative research project of de-centring the psychology curriculum, so that BA students from diverse backgrounds could familiarise themselves with cultural-historical, postcolonial, feminist, and other critical psychological approaches as well as reflect on the histories, contexts, and epistemologies of classic developmental psychological theories and research. We conducted focus group discussions with the students to explore their views on the introduced contents and approaches. The findings of our research form the basis for critical reflection on the possibilities and challenges of de-centring the psychology curriculum in contemporary university settings.