Tobey Ahamed-Barke is a student on the Contemporary History MA course. He is entering his second year as a Race Equity Advocate for Media, Arts and Humanities, a role which involves advocating for students of colour at Sussex and working with staff and students to reduce the awarding gap and improve the experience of students of colour. 

The Race Equity Advocate (REA) project began in 2020 to help close the significant awarding gap between students of colour and white students at Sussex. As of 2022-23, the awarding gap between black home students and white home students at Sussex is 25.8%, meaning that black home students are 25.8% less likely to receive a good degree (First or 2:1) than their white home student peers, even when entry levels are considered. This gap is higher than the sector, which sits at 22.4% (2022/23). 

Students who work as REAs develop projects with the Students’ Union and staff at the University to help improve the experience of students of colour. As an REA for Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH), I have spent the past year working with fellow REA Abby Keyla and SU Equity and Inclusion Coordinator Arham Farid on a range of projects towards this goal. This has included representation and advocacy roles, such as involvement in the MAH Student Forum and meetings with senior leadership. We also focused on improving the understanding of race equity and the awarding gap at Sussex by recording a podcast about liberation with students and SU staff (soon to be published). However, the issues that students of colour face are structural and embedded within University pedagogy, and we believe that non-inclusive teaching practices adversely impact the experience and success of students of colour, so one of our central projects focused on curriculum redesign and ‘decolonising the curriculum’. 

We spent the Spring semester running a ‘decolonise the curriculum’ pilot study with the History department. This focused on the first-year History BA Making of the Modern World module, with great help from then-module convenor Professor Jim Endersby. Four students of colour who had completed the module were recruited for five hours of paid work, in which they reflected on the module and provided feedback in two meetings. The participants discussed what decolonisation meant to them, how the module could be decolonised, and how the History course could be decolonised more broadly too. Abby and I wrote these findings up into a report, linked below, which outlines the key findings of the pilot study and their implications for decolonising the curriculum. These findings show best practice that tutors can take up to facilitate inclusive, decolonised teaching. 

Recommendations from the Decolonise the Curriculum Study  

Content Warnings and Distressing Content 

Participants appreciated when tutors used content warnings at the start of lectures and seminars for ‘difficult’ and offensive language, like outdated and derogatory terminology, as well as for distressing imagery, such as photographs of violence. They concurred with their tutors’ decisions not to vocalise offensive language and felt that distressing imagery is better suited to seminars, where it can be discussed and unpacked collectively, rather than being displayed in lectures. 

For further guidance, please see the University’s guidance on teaching sensitive subjects.

Inclusive Module Content and Structure 

To avoid Eurocentrism and the othering of Global South topics and people of colour, the participants felt that there should be more regionally and culturally diverse content throughout modules, rather than Global South topics being ‘tacked on’ at the end of lectures or in the final weeks of modules. These topics must be examined with equal analytical rigour as white, Western topics and must be approached as self-sufficient, not always discussed in reference to the West. They should also not just focus on Global South elites and elite culture, but more grassroots approaches where possible. 

Readings 

The participants felt that essential readings are still dominated by white, male authors. Essential readings should have more diverse authorships, not only from academics of colour/from the Global South, but also non-academics with lived experiences of the topics. Participants appreciated when other forms of media were used as ‘essential readings’, such as videos, photos, and blogs, as this can de-privilege elite forms within modules and improve the diversity of cultures and topics being represented. 

Staff diversity 

There needs to be more efforts to increase the racial diversity of staff in the History department and at Sussex. The participants explained that the lived experiences of tutors of colour facilitate the introduction of decolonial perspectives into the curriculum and affects the diversity of topics taught during the degree, as well as providing representation and avenues of aspiration for students of colour, so improved diversity needs to be prioritised at Sussex. 

Next Steps 

The REAs highly recommend that tutors integrate these findings into their modules wherever possible. Improving the diversity of module content can improve the inclusivity of modules, while handling distressing content sensitively can avoid the alienation of students of colour. While staff diversity is not an issue tutors can as readily address themselves, it is important that departments, faculty, and the senior management of the University prioritise hiring staff of colour and break down the barriers that prevent students of colour from continuing to further study and careers in academia. 

There still needs to be more work done on how specific courses and modules can be decolonised. Different courses have different needs, and some of our findings are far from unanimous – for instance, there are differing opinions on the benefits of content warnings. For this reason, the REAs have proposed a Connector Project that would look at modules across MAH undergraduate courses. Like the pilot study, this would enable students of colour to give feedback on how the curriculum should be decolonised. Any work on decolonising the curriculum should also feed into guidelines on module design and approval, while tutors’ efforts to decolonise their own modules should be built into their Planning of Annual Workload (PAW) hours. 

It is the responsibility of all staff to decolonise their teaching and help address the awarding gap. Many staff are already doing their bit to decolonise the curriculum and make Sussex a more inclusive space, but progress is slow and the awarding gap is persistent. Decolonisation therefore needs to be made a crucial part of Sussex’s central strategy through active implementation of decolonial pedagogy and inclusive teaching practices, to address the structural barriers that work against students of colour. 

Get in Touch 

I will be continuing as an REA for this coming academic year. If you have any questions or would like to contribute to work around decolonising the curriculum, please get in touch at tobey.a@sussexstudent.com. 

Resources

Read the Media, Arts and Humanities Race Equity Advocate End of Term Report.