Prelims

Half Title Page

The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum

Series Page

The BERA Guides

Critical Insights into Educational Research and Practice

About the Series

Published in partnership between the British Educational Research Association and Emerald Publishing, The BERA Guides are short, research-informed yet accessible introductions to key, interdisciplinary topics impacting education research and practice.

Books in the series present a summary of the research on the topic, charting how scholarly thought and practice have evolved over time, and offering critical takeaways and suggestions for future work within and beyond academia. With the guides viewed as ‘primers’ on each topic, the series is for use by a broad academic audience, including early career and established researchers, postgraduate students, and practitioners.

Published in the Series

The BERA Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools: Exploring Frontline Support in Educational Research and Practice; Edited by Michelle Jayman, Jonathan Glazzard, Anthea Rose and Aimee Quickfall

Forthcoming in the Series

The BERA Guide to Practitioner Research: Developing Professional Knowledge in Educational Research and Practice; Edited by Kate Mawson, Claire Tyson, Tom Perry and Joyce I-Hui Chen

The BERA Guide to Education for Environmental Sustainability: Creating Environmentally Just Futures in Educational Research & Practice; Edited by Elizabeth Rushton and Lynda Dunlop

The BERA Guide to Outdoor Learning: Place-Responsive Pedagogy in Educational Research and Practice; Edited by Lucy Sors and Ruth Unsworth

Title Page

The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum

Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice

Edited by

Marlon Lee Moncrieffe

British Educational Research Association, UK

Omolabake Fakunle

University of Edinburgh, UK

Marlies Kustatscher

University of Edinburgh, UK

Anna Olsson Rost

Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21–23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

Editorial matter and selection © 2025 Marlon Lee Moncrieffe, Omolabake Fakunle, Marlies Kustatscher, and Anna Olsson Rost.

Individual chapters © 2025 The authors.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83549-147-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-144-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83549-146-1 (Epub)

Contents

About the Editors

Marlon Lee Moncrieffe is President of the British Educational Research Association. He teaches in primary school education and higher education. His international award-winning interdisciplinary action research and his academic and non-academic publications are framed by decolonial theories for critical thinking on educational policy, pedagogy, curriculum and culture, history, and sport.

Omolabake Fakunle is Chancellor’s Fellow, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Decolonisation Lead, Curriculum Transformation Project at the University of Edinburgh. Her award-winning research, teaching, and consultancy focus on inclusivity in internationalisation, employability, and decoloniality. She is keenly interested in the intersection of research, educational policy, and practice.

Marlies Kustatscher is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is a Co-convenor of the Race and Inclusivity in Global Education Network and a Member of the Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group. Her research interests include childhood and intersectionality and participatory arts-based methodologies.

Anna Olsson Rost is a Senior Lecturer on the PGCE Secondary (history) programme at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her main research field is the history of education, but her research interests also include ‘hidden histories’ and teacher education and learning – with a particular focus on decolonial and anti-racist pedagogies and curricula.

About the Contributors

Zuhra Abawi is an Assistant Professor of Education at Niagara University. Her work focuses on how discourses of race, equity, and identity are negotiated, mediated, and socialised in education. Her most recent co-edited collection is Enacting Antiracist and Activist Pedagogies in Teacher Education: Canadian Perspectives, Canadian Scholars Press.

Farah Akbar is a Lecturer in Language Education. Her interest lies in the areas of language learning and teaching especially in evaluation and design of instructional materials, assessment literacy, language identity, community building at higher institutions – all underpinned by the notion of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Rachel Berman is a Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her teaching and research focus on ‘race’ in early childhood settings. Her work has appeared in the International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal, the Journal of Childhood Studies, and Children & Society, among others.

Abigail Branford works as a Post-doctoral Research Assistant on the Oxford-UCL ‘portrait of the teaching of Empire Migration and Belonging’. Her recently submitted doctoral research explored how the British Empire is understood by students in secondary schools in England. More broadly, she is interested in the role of educational institutions in postcolonial knowledge production.

Katharine Burn is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oxford. She is the PGCE Course Director, and her research focuses both on history education in school and on teachers’ professional learning at all career stages. She is particularly interested in how teachers learn through engagement in and with research.

Frankii Charles is a Registered Social Worker, Lecturer, and Former Social Work Student at Oxford Brookes University, UK, where she co-led a student discussion and advisory group for students from the Global Ethnic Majority to reform curricula.

Jill Childs is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her work on anti-racism has won a number of national awards, including Silver Social Worker of the Year Awards for University of the Year (2022), and she was Team Leader for the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence by Advance HE (2022).

Susan Davis is Reader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is also the Professional Doctorate/EdD Pathway Leader. On the Welsh Government DARPL programme (Darpl.org), she is Research Lead. Her research interests are around quiet, shy, and anxious learners and DEI.

Chandrika Devarakonda is an Associate Professor at the University of Chester. Her teaching, research, and publications focus on inclusion and diversity in early childhood. She is the Chair for social justice, equity, and diversity for the Research Development Communities in the Association for Teacher Education in Europe.

Mel M. Engman is a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, where she teaches on a wide range of topics related to language, education, and power. Her research advocates for the maintenance and reclamation of indigenous languages, and it examines human-land relations, bilingual family learning, and anticolonial approaches to language education.

Omolabake Fakunle is Chancellor’s Fellow, Director of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, and Decolonisation Lead, Curriculum Transformation Project at the University of Edinburgh. Her award-winning research, teaching, and consultancy focus on inclusivity in internationalisation, employability, and decoloniality. She is keenly interested in the intersection of research, educational policy, and practice.

Richard Harris is a Professor of Education at the University of Reading. They taught history in schools for 16 years and have been training history teachers for over 20 years. Their research covers different aspects of history education, including young people’s engagement with the curriculum, and history teachers’ decision-making.

Neil Hart is a Teacher of Biology and Environmental Science A levels at City and Islington College, London. He has an MA in Education Policy and Practice from the UCL IOE and has published on critical race theory and Prevent Duty. He has research interests in social and environmental justice in schools.

Joanne Hughes is Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Shared Education at Queen’s University Belfast, where she holds a UNESCO Chair in Shared Education for Peacebuilding and Social Justice. Her research addresses the role of education in divided societies, intergroup relations, and equality in education.

Samantha Hughes is the Subject Lead for Biology at City and Islington College, London. She is part of the teaching and learning network, with a focus on writing to learn. She also works consulting in developing specifications in Biology-related subjects.

Erika Jiménez is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, where her work explores how Golani youth deploy human rights in their struggle against the forgotten occupation. She is interested in decolonial approaches to human rights, human rights education, and childhood research.

Jane Jones was for many years Head of MFL Education. She has published widely on all aspects of language teaching, learning, and assessment. Her research interests include formative assessment practices, relationships and health education, teacher and pupil wellbeing, and the promotion of students as researchers and agents of change.

Naomi King is a Researcher in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, UK, specialising in Applied Social Psychology. Her work investigates contemporary topics with real-world implications for social change.

Marlies Kustatscher is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is a Co-convenor of the Race and Inclusivity in Global Education Network and a Member of the Childhood and Youth Studies Research Group. Her research interests include childhood and intersectionality and participatory arts-based methodologies.

Vini Lander is Professor of Race and Education and Director of the Centre for Race, Education, and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her research deploys critical race theory to examine race inequalities in teacher education examining teachers’ attitudes to race and the lived experiences of teacher educators of colour.

Tanya Linaker has been the Team Leader for Slavonic and Middle Eastern Languages at King’s Language Centre since 2016. She has also led the Centre in all Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion matters, including curriculum decolonising. Her research interests include educational leadership and language teacher identity construction.

Rebecca Loader is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences, Education, and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. Her interests are in education and peacebuilding, migration, and social justice. During 2021–2023, she was the Lead Investigator of a study examining education among minority ethnic and migrant groups in Northern Ireland.

Dan Lyndon-Cohen is the Director of the Schools History Project and Lead Practitioner for Humanities at Park View School, Tottenham. He is the author of many publications for schools, on multicultural and migration histories. He has also worked as a Consultant for the Imperial War Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and BBC Bitesize.

Balqis Mohammed is a PhD Student at Manchester Metropolitan University, and her research interests lie in the fields of decolonial studies, Black studies, and social justice in education.

Marlon Lee Moncrieffe is President of the British Educational Research Association. He teaches in primary school education and higher education. His international award-winning interdisciplinary action research and his academic and non-academic publications are framed by decolonial theories for critical thinking on educational policy, pedagogy, curriculum and culture, history, and sport.

Susan Muchiri is the Head of Department of Social Work and Community Development at Hope Africa university. Her contribution on decolonisation has been recognised by the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence by Advance HE (2022).

Lisa-Maria Muller is Head of Research at the Chartered College of Teaching, where she works on improving the links between research, policy, and practice. A Former MFL Teacher with experience in Austria and England and Post-doctoral Researcher at the Universities of Cambridge and York, she is passionate about systematically capturing and sharing teacher expertise.

Aisling O’Boyle is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Queen’s University Belfast, where she directs the Centre for Language Education Research. Her research interests are in the fields of English Language learning and teaching, including school- and community-based approaches to English Language learning for migrant children and families.

Jeremiah Adebolajo Olusola is DARPL’s Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Alongside this Welsh Government funded Fellowship, he is undertaking a research project with the British Library’s Research and Development Team, aimed at improving EDI in postgraduate development. His research interests surround British multiculturalism, race, Islamic epistemology, and religious conversion.

Omena Osivwemu is a Primary School Educator, School Governor, Sociologist, Humanities Leader, Mentor to Black Early Career Teachers, and a Black History Consultant. She creates EdTech resources, writes blog articles on diverse curricula, and provides consultancy to educational publishers. Passionate about social justice, she frequently speaks on diversity and decoloniality in education.

Karen Pashby teaches undergraduates and postgraduates in the School of Childhood, Youth, and Education Studies. A Former Secondary School Educator (in Canada and Brazil) and experienced Teacher Educator, her research draws on postcolonial and decolonial theoretical resources to identify productive pedagogical tensions in education for global citizenship in ‘multicultural contexts’.

Christina Richardson has worked as a Teacher Educator for modern languages for over two decades. Her research interests are inclusive education, more specifically supporting ethnolinguistically minoritised pupils, and those with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream education and decolonising the curriculum. She is Editor-in-Chief of NALDIC’s EAL Journal.

Anna Olsson Rost is a Senior Lecturer on the PGCE Secondary (history) programme at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her main research field is the history of education, but her research interests also include ‘hidden histories’ and teacher education and leaning – with a particular focus on decolonial and anti-racist pedagogies and curricula.

Sahar D. Sattarzadeh is a daughter of Azeri, Iranian, Kurdish, and Persian refugee settlers. She writes, researches, and teaches about critical comparative global ethnic, racial, and Indigenous communities and the (in)justices and (in)equities they transform and reimagine within the context of higher education, knowledge systems, activism, and human rights.

Heather Jane Smith is Professor of Race and Language Equality in Education at Newcastle University. She is a Critical Race Theory Scholar. Her research includes critical analyses of education policy, racism in ITE, and translanguaging as an emancipatory pedagogy for multilingual pupils. She is Co-author of the anti-racism framework for ITE/T.

Joseph Smith is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Stirling. His research concerns the framing of history curricula, the identity of history teachers, and the ways in which the two intersect. He taught history in schools for nine years and has published on both history and education for general and academic audiences.

Louise Taylor, PhD, is a Professor of Education and Student Experience at Oxford Brookes University. Her pedagogic innovation and leadership applies psychological theory to contemporary issues in higher education, including decolonisation. She is a National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow of Advance HE.

Jason Todd is a Departmental Lecturer in Education at the University of Oxford, where he also currently leads on the PGCE history programme. He is the Principal Investigator on a joint Oxford-UCL three-year research project, ‘A portrait of the teaching of Empire, Migration and Belonging in English Secondary Schools’, investigating both students’ and teachers’ learning.

Hannah Tyreman is a Curriculum Designer, Writer, Walker, Reader, and Wonderer. Previously an English Teacher and Manager in FE colleges, she now designs professional development for teachers. She is an advisory board member for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Teacher Development Fund, and she also maintains the BAMEed Network’s website.

Diana Wanjagi is an Associate Lecturer and Former Social Work Student at Oxford Brookes University, UK, where she co-led a student discussion and advisory group for students from the Global Ethnic Majority to reform curricula.

Lesleann Whiteman is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood at the School of Education, University of Brighton, UK. Her research examines how the content of early childhood degree courses prepares students to identify gaps in their knowledge on anti-discriminatory practices with diverse families in advancing parent–practitioner relationships.