Decolonising globalised curriculum landscapes: The identity and agency of academics

Vicente Reyes,Henry Koge,Phil Taylor,Kevin Richardson,Sharon Clancy

doi:10.14324/lre.19.1.26

Abstract

This article explores how academics in a higher education institution (HEI) make sense of the challenges that they encounter in a neoliberal context typified by an increasingly globalised curriculum landscape. Two key questions are explored: What are the contours of the shifting boundaries which define the ‘global curriculum’ in HEI contexts? How do academics navigate and make sense of this fluidity in an uncertain and disputed landscape? Using reflections on practice emanating from the redesign of educational courses to respond to a rapidly changing student cohort, this inquiry takes an auto-ethnographic approach, offering the perspectives of five academic staff from a UK-based HEI through the lens of their lived experiences, and acknowledging the emerging shifts in identities that they experience and the need to confront tensions in this curriculum space. We conclude that our own scrutiny of, and critical reflections on, our identity and positionality as teachers and education practitioners represent a form of decoloniality, enabling us to find ways to share what we know without excluding knowledge outside it and to welcome contributions and possibilities beyond our own experiences. In terms of how we should act, we recognise that it must be through a dialectic that does not seek cultural supremacy or sovereignty.

Highlights

How do academics in higher education institutions (HEIs) make sense of challenges in a neoliberal context typified by an increasingly globalised curriculum landscape? These critical challenges reflect the constant need to reframe what is defined as ‘global’ in view of powerful market forces that impact HEIs and consequent shifts that occur in academic identity and agency
We explore them through the reflections of five academics on their own teaching practices and attempts to provide critical, timely and relevant learning experiences within a global syllabus with distinctly Eurocentric traits
We argue that neoliberalism has created a context where HEIs have become marketdriven sites where all relevant stakeholders – academics and students – are constantly being moulded to become productive economic actors in a market-driven society

Summary

Introduction

How do academics in higher education institutions (HEIs) make sense of challenges in a neoliberal context typified by an increasingly globalised curriculum landscape? These critical challenges reflect the constant need to reframe what is defined as ‘global’ in view of powerful market forces that impact HEIs and consequent shifts that occur in academic identity and agency. How do academics in higher education institutions (HEIs) make sense of challenges in a neoliberal context typified by an increasingly globalised curriculum landscape? We explore them through the reflections of five academics on their own teaching practices and attempts to provide critical, timely and relevant learning experiences within a global syllabus with distinctly Eurocentric traits.

Results

Conclusion