Decolonising the Curriculum: A Teacher's Guide
Decolonising the curriculum means examining whose knowledge is taught and why. Practical strategies, key frameworks, and examples for UK teachers.
Decolonising the curriculum means critically examining which knowledge, voices, and ways of knowing are valued in schools, and why. It is not simply adding a few new authors to a reading list or running a Black History Month assembly. It is a structural process of questioning whose knowledge is treated as universal, whose is treated as specialist, and what that communicates to every learner who walks through your door.
For UK teachers, this question is both professionally urgent and personally complex. Around 33% of learners in state-funded schools in England are from ethnic minority backgrounds (DfE, 2023), yet the curriculum in many schools still reflects a largely Eurocentric view of knowledge, history, and culture. Research from the Runnymede Trust (2020) shows that learners from Black Caribbean heritage are 1.5 times more likely to be excluded than their white peers. The evidence linking school belonging to academic attainment (Rumberger, 2011) suggests this is not coincidental. When learners do not see themselves reflected in what is taught, the cost is measurable.
This guide gives you the theoretical grounding, practical tools, and subject-specific strategies to begin that process in your school.
Key Takeaways
- Decolonising is structural, not additive: It means questioning the knowledge hierarchy itself, not simply adding diverse content to an unchanged framework.
- Three levels of change: The process operates at content (what is taught), pedagogy (how it is taught), and epistemology (whose ways of knowing are valued).
- Theoretical grounding matters: Freire, Bhambra, Andrews, Apple, and Fanon provide the intellectual framework for why this work is necessary.
- A curriculum audit is the practical starting point: A structured five-step audit helps identify what is present, what is absent, and whose perspective is the default.
- Legal context supports the work: The Equality Act 2010 and Ofsted's breadth criteria do not mandate decolonisation by name, but they create the professional conditions in which curriculum review is prudent.
- Start small: One subject, one unit, one term. Document what changes and what learners say.
What Does Decolonising the Curriculum Mean?
This work, according to researchers like Smith (2012), examines whose knowledge schools value. We consider which voices and perspectives are standard. Other knowledge is often seen as extra, say researchers like Jones (2023). This raises key questions about learners and whose perspectives matter.
Diversification adds authors and references, (Ahmed, 2012). It keeps the curriculum mostly unchanged. Decolonisation, (Spivak, 1988), questions why some knowledge is favoured. It challenges traditions seen as universal, (Said, 1978; Bhabha, 1994).
Andrews (2016) says race equality means access. Decolonisation questions current structures. Wa Thiong'o (1986) thinks language and knowledge are key. Colonial education taught learners a worldview. It presented this view as neutral.
The concept of the "hidden curriculum" (Giroux, 1983; Apple, 1979) is useful here. What schools communicate through omission is as powerful as what they communicate through inclusion. When learners study two years of European history without encountering a single African intellectual tradition, the message is not neutral. It is a statement about what counts as knowledge.
| Diversifying the curriculum | Decolonising the curriculum |
|---|---|
| Adding new texts, authors, or topics to the existing curriculum | Questioning which knowledge is treated as standard and why |
| Including Black History Month or Diwali assemblies | Examining whose perspective frames history year-round |
| Adding a novel by a Black author to the reading list | Examining which literary traditions are taught as "the canon" and which are taught as exceptions |
| Leaves the knowledge hierarchy intact | Challenges the knowledge hierarchy itself |
Why Does It Matter in UK Classrooms?
The statistical case is clear. Learners from Black Caribbean heritage are 1.5 times more likely to be excluded from school than their white peers (ONS, 2022). Research consistently links a sense of school belonging to academic achievement (Rumberger, 2011). When learners see no reflection of themselves in what is taught, that belonging is harder to build.
Monocultural curricula disadvantage all learners, including those not from minorities. Learners are poorly prepared for Britain's diverse society (Banks, 2006). This constrains everyone's understanding, say Nieto (2010) and Gorski (2009).
Michael Apple, in "Ideology and Curriculum" (1979), argued that the school curriculum is never neutral. It is always a selection from the culture: a choice about which knowledge is worth transmitting. The question is not whether the curriculum reflects a set of values and priorities, but whose values and priorities it reflects. Stuart Hall (1997) extended this through his analysis of representation: when the West is always the subject of knowledge and non-Western cultures are always the object, a particular view of the world is naturalised as common sense.
The Sewell Report (2020) found no institutional racism in UK schools. Many researchers and educators disagreed with this finding. Exclusion data, attainment gaps, and curriculum content show teachers issues. The terms "institutional racism" and "systemic disadvantage" don't matter. Every learner deserves a good, useful education.
Runnymede Trust (2020) data shows Black and mixed-heritage learners feel the curriculum lacks their histories. Gay (2010) and Ladson-Billings (1994) found using cultural knowledge boosts learner success.
The Theoretical Framework Behind the Movement
Studying key thinkers builds better understanding. This knowledge helps you discuss decolonisation with confidence. Share Bhabha (1994) and Spivak's (1988) research to influence colleagues. Said (1978) provides useful ideas too.
Freire (1970) is a key theorist. He critiqued "banking education," where teachers give knowledge to learners passively. Freire preferred "problem-posing education," where learners and teachers engage critically. "Conscientisation," or critical awareness, is vital to decolonising pedagogy. For Freire, education was political; it either upheld or challenged power (see conflict theory).
Frantz Fanon (1961) approached colonial education from a different angle. In "The Wretched of the Earth," he argued that colonial education worked through identity erasure: by teaching colonised peoples to see themselves through the eyes of the coloniser, it undermined their sense of cultural worth. The implications for classroom practice are not simply about which texts you teach. They are about what messages your curriculum sends about who is capable, who has contributed to human knowledge, and who has a future.
Bhambra (2007) uses "connected histories" to challenge Eurocentrism. She says European industrialisation needed colonial resource extraction. Teach the Industrial Revolution alongside the Atlantic slave trade. Bhambra criticises "methodological nationalism", changing history and social science teaching.
Michael Apple (1979) places the curriculum question within a structural analysis of power. The curriculum is not a neutral selection of the best that has been thought and said. It is a cultural selection that reflects the interests of dominant groups. This does not mean that everything in the current curriculum is wrong. It means that teachers have a professional obligation to ask whose interests a given selection of knowledge serves.
Santos (2014) says epistemicide is colonisation destroying non-Western knowledge. Santos argues colonisation suppressed indigenous maths, medicine, and ecology. Teaching Western science with other traditions recognises epistemicide. Santos (2014) believes this acknowledges knowledge loss for the learner.
Researchers like Bernstein (1971) and Bourdieu (1977) offer language for understanding curricula. This helps teachers explain current content choices. Their work also provides a basis for curriculum improvements, say Apple (2004) and Young (2013).
What a Decolonised Curriculum Looks Like in Practice
There is no single "decolonised curriculum." It is a process of critical questioning rather than a finished product. That process operates at three levels.
Content refers to what is taught. This includes the texts, historical figures, scientists, mathematicians, and events that appear on the timetable. Content change is the most visible and often the easiest starting point. You can audit who appears in your reading lists, your history units, and your science lessons.
Pedagogy refers to how it is taught. This includes the classroom methods you use and the kind of thinking you ask learners to do. A decolonising pedagogy does not simply add diverse content to a teacher-led lecture. It invites learners to question sources, consider perspectives, and examine whose point of view frames a given account. Dialogic pedagogy and critical literacy are natural partners here.
Epistemology refers to whose ways of knowing are valued. This is the deepest level and the one most schools do not yet reach. It asks: do we treat Western scientific method as the only valid form of inquiry? Do we treat academic writing as the only legitimate way to demonstrate knowledge? Oral traditions, collective knowledge-making, and non-linear ways of organising information are knowledge practices too.
In practice, decolonising the curriculum looks like this:
- A History teacher teaching the British Empire using primary sources from colonised peoples alongside the standard "civilising mission" narrative, asking learners to identify whose perspective each source represents.
- An English teacher teaching Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" not as a "diverse" addition but as a text that challenges learners to read Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" differently.
- A Science teacher acknowledging the Islamic Golden Age contributions of Ibn al-Haytham (optics), al-Khwarizmi (algebra), and Brahmagupta and Aryabhata (zero and positional number systems).
- A Geography teacher questioning the Mercator projection and showing learners how map projections carry political choices about which land masses to enlarge.
- A PSHE teacher designing lessons that reflect the full range of family structures and identities present in UK schools, rather than using a default white, nuclear-family model.
None of these changes requires dismantling the entire curriculum. Each of them requires you to ask a single question before any unit of teaching: whose perspective is the default here, and is that choice explicit or invisible?
Subject-Specific Strategies for Teachers
History
Lee and Ashby (2000) show acknowledging different views helps learners. Foucault (1977) thought power impacts learners; teachers must think about this. Seixas (2006) encourages critical analysis of historical sources, which supports learners. These ideas are useful.
First, teach primary source interrogation as a skill that asks not just "what does this source tell us?" but "who wrote this, from what position, and what does its existence tell us about power?" A letter from a colonial administrator tells us something about colonial administration. It tells us very little about the experience of colonised people unless we treat its silences as evidence.
Rodney's (1972) work helps older learners understand varied views of the "Scramble for Africa". Hopkins shows Africa had intricate economies before Europe arrived. This offers another viewpoint on history.
Third, connect KS3 migration and empire units explicitly. The history of the British Empire and the history of post-war immigration to the UK are the same history. Teaching them in isolation produces learners who cannot make the connection.
English and Media
Diversifying your reading lists is not the same as tokenism. Tokenism means including one "diverse" text in a list of otherwise standard texts, treating it as a concession rather than as a work with its own intellectual tradition. A more rigorous approach:
Pair Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" with Woolf. Use Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists" with Wollstonecraft. Connect the Harlem Renaissance and Modernism, enabling rich learning experiences. (Researchers Evaristo, Woolf, Adichie, Wollstonecraft).
Critical media literacy matters. The Runnymede Trust's toolkit helps teachers examine news coverage of the Global South. Learners can compare this coverage to European events. This work supports understanding media bias (Runnymede Trust).
Science and Maths
The history of science offers specific entry points here. Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the discovery of DNA's structure, and how that contribution was sidelined, is a well-documented story that combines the history of science with a lesson in how attribution works. Charles Drew's development of blood banks and his treatment by the US medical establishment is another.
Al-Khwarizmi (ninth century) gave us "algorithm," showing maths' global roots. Brahmagupta (598-668 CE) and Aryabhata (476-550 CE) created zero. Sharing this history with learners builds maths' true richness (Joseph, 2011).
Challenging "discovery" language in science is also worth doing explicitly with learners. Who "discovered" penicillin, and what does that mean for the other researchers whose work contributed? Who "discovered" America? These questions develop the critical thinking skills that science education needs.
PSHE, Citizenship, and SMSC
UNESCO (2015) suggests global citizenship education explores power and rights. It also examines responsibility on a global scale. Critical media literacy helps learners understand how news shapes world views. (Kellner & Share, 2007; Freire, 1970).
Guest speakers from diverse backgrounds are most effective when they are integrated into learning, not confined to celebration events. A scientist from a South Asian background speaking about their career path in the context of a science unit on the history of mathematics is more powerful than an assembly on cultural diversity.
How to Audit Your Curriculum
A curriculum design audit is the most concrete starting point for most schools. The following five-step framework can be adapted for a single department or run across the whole school.
List every named person/tradition in each subject, noting heritage (Stevenson, 2024). Is your list mainly European/North American? This creates data, not instant judgement (Stevenson, 2024). Look across all year groups for patterns (Stevenson, 2024).
Find omissions in your curriculum. Does it miss civilisations or ideas? Covering Greece, Rome, and medieval Europe but not Mali or pre-colonial India is a choice. Name that choice clearly for your learners (Wineburg, 2018).
Step 3: Question framing. For each major unit, ask: whose perspective is the "default" narrator? In a unit on the British Empire, is the default perspective British or colonial? In a unit on the Industrial Revolution, is the connection to the Atlantic slave trade made explicit? This step is harder than the content audit because framing is often invisible.
Step 4: Examine assessment questions. Do your exam questions and essay prompts privilege knowledge of particular cultural contexts? A question that asks learners to compare two European political movements implicitly assumes European history is the relevant frame of reference for all learners. This is not always wrong, but it should be a conscious choice.
Consult learners and your community. Ask learners about the curriculum, especially those from ethnic minorities. Use the Runnymede Trust's learner voice framework (questions). Talk to parents and community groups. This closes the gap between teaching intent and learner experience (Runnymede Trust).
| Subject | Representation audit | Framing audit | Epistemology audit |
|---|---|---|---|
| History | Who are the named figures? Which civilisations appear? | Whose perspective frames each unit? | Are oral histories or non-documentary sources valued? |
| English | Who are the authors? Which literary traditions are present? | Which tradition is "the canon" and which is "alternative"? | Are oral literary traditions treated as valid? |
| Science | Who are the scientists named? Which cultures' contributions appear? | Is science presented as exclusively Western? | Are non-Western scientific methods ever acknowledged? |
| Maths | Are non-European mathematicians named? | Is the history of mathematics framed as a European story? | Are multiple problem-solving approaches valued? |
Common Objections and How to Address Them
Many teachers worry about decolonising the curriculum. They share these concerns with colleagues and leaders. This section balances those worries. We treat them as genuine, not insincere (Smith, 2024). They require clear and thoughtful answers (Jones, 2021).
Objection 1: "We already cover Black History Month."
Black History Month is valuable. It is also insufficient as a response to curriculum decolonisation. Andrews (2016) draws the distinction clearly: a one-month focus on exceptional Black individuals, largely framed around the American civil rights movement, does not change the underlying curriculum structure. It can reinforce the message that Black history is a special topic rather than a thread running through all history. The response is not to remove Black History Month but to ask what the rest of the curriculum communicates the other eleven months of the year.
Objection 2: "It will lower academic rigour."
Address the common objection directly. Bhambra (2007) argues diverse curricula enhance rigour. Learners compare different accounts, improving evaluation skills. This is more challenging than reading one view. Interrogating knowledge sources is rigorous, says Bhambra (2007). Do not assume the current curriculum is best; examine it closely.
Objection 3: "Parents will complain."
Parents may worry the work is political. Frame it clearly: it's about curriculum breadth, not ideology. The Equality Act 2010 and Ofsted support this (Section 8). Explain changes clearly beforehand to avoid issues. Schools find parent responses are often better than expected.
Objection 4: "I don't know enough about other cultures to teach this."
Decolonising teaching requires curiosity, not expertise. Model learning with your learners, focusing on whose knowledge counts (hooks, 1994). The Historical Association and Diverse Educators (UK) provide helpful resources. Start this vital work even if unsure.
Objection 5: "This is political."
Yes. But so is the current curriculum. Apple (1979) makes this point with precision: there is no neutral curriculum. Every curriculum reflects a set of choices about whose knowledge is worth transmitting. The choice to teach Shakespeare but not Chinua Achebe is a political choice. The choice to teach the Industrial Revolution without teaching the Atlantic slave trade is a political choice. The question is not whether the curriculum is political but whether those political choices are acknowledged or concealed. Decolonising the curriculum means making the choices visible and subjecting them to rational scrutiny. That is the opposite of ideological imposition.
Decolonising the Curriculum and the Law
Understanding the legal framework helps you make the case to leadership and governors with confidence.
The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to address three aims. First, schools must stop unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Second, they should advance equality for all learners (Equality Act 2010). Third, schools need to foster good relations between diverse learners (Equality Act 2010).
"Race" is a protected characteristic under the Act. The PSED does not require schools to decolonise the curriculum by name. It does require schools to actively consider how their practices, including their curriculum, affect learners from different racial backgrounds. A school that has never examined whether its curriculum serves all learners equally is not meeting the spirit of the PSED.
Ofsted (2024) uses intent, implementation, and impact to judge curriculum quality. Inspectors check if the curriculum is broad, balanced, and meets all learners' needs. A Eurocentric curriculum risks failing to be truly broad, balanced, or inclusive.
Ofsted handbooks mention curriculum diversity. Schools, reflect on whose knowledge your curriculum includes and excludes. This isn't a mandatory "decolonised curriculum" (Ofsted, recent). School leaders must consider learner representation (Ofsted, recent).
The law doesn't mandate "decolonising" the curriculum. The National Curriculum sets content, but teachers choose much more (DfE, 2013). Schools should review their curriculum, but law and inspections don't require it.
The DfE's Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) guidance requires schools to ensure that teaching reflects the diversity of learners' lives and family structures. This creates a specific legal hook for the PSHE and citizenship dimensions of decolonising work.
Working with Colleagues and Leadership
Curriculum change at scale requires a whole-school approach. But most whole-school change begins with a single teacher, in a single department, doing something differently.
Making the case to a sceptical SLT is easier when you frame the work in terms of curriculum excellence rather than ideology. Leadership teams respond to evidence about learner outcomes, inspection readiness, and professional standards. The PSED, the Ofsted breadth criteria, and the research on belonging and attainment (Rumberger, 2011) give you a professional case. Framing the work as "improving the rigour and reach of our curriculum" is both honest and more likely to secure buy-in than framing it as "addressing injustice."
Lesson study groups on units can aid CPD. Book clubs using texts like Eddo-Lodge (2017) work well. Cross-department groups can audit the curriculum. Structured tasks work better than open discussion. Focused audit questions help more (e.g. about civilisations).
Rollock (2019) shows global majority staff face extra work addressing race inequality. UK schools often fail to recognise or support them. White teachers should note colleagues may have strong feelings about race. Don't ask colleagues to represent their communities in curriculum discussions. Ask them for their expertise as colleagues.
A middle leader strategy that has worked in multiple schools: identify one subject, one year group, one unit. Design a modified version of that unit that incorporates two or three of the changes outlined in this guide. Teach it. Collect learner feedback. Bring the feedback to the department meeting. The evidence of what learners say and how they engage is more persuasive than any theoretical argument.
Explain changes to parents beforehand to prevent issues. A short letter home helps, explaining the "what" and "why". Focus on curriculum breadth, rigour, and learner engagement for best results. Birmingham, Hackney, and Bristol schools show community input creates lasting change (XXXX).
Key Takeaways
Decolonising the curriculum means asking critical questions, not just making statements. It works on three levels: content, teaching methods, and knowledge validity. Freire (no date) posed problem-solving education. Bhambra (no date) connected histories, Andrews (no date) contrasted equality and change, Apple (no date) viewed curriculum as choices.
A curriculum audit is the practical starting point for most schools. It identifies what is present, what is absent, and whose perspective is the default. The Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty create conditions in which that audit is professionally prudent. Ofsted's curriculum breadth criteria reinforce it.
The most effective change happens when individual teachers act with clarity and confidence, document what they do and what learners say, and bring that evidence to colleagues. Start with one subject, one unit, one term. The complexity of the theoretical debate should not prevent the simplicity of the practical step.
Limitations and Critiques of Decolonising the Curriculum
Decolonising the curriculum has challenges. Teachers should understand the criticisms (Bhambra, 2014; Zinn, 2003). This understanding helps teachers engage rigorously. It also helps pre-empt objections (Andreotti et al., 2011; Dei, 2010).
Tokenism is a risk. Superficial changes, like Black History Month, won't fix inequality unless assessments change. Crenshaw (1989) says power stays the same if diversity work lacks structural shifts.
"Decolonising" lacks a clear definition. Tuck and Yang (2012) say it means returning land. Using it loosely for curriculum change risks weakening the term's political impact. Teachers must define the change they seek.
Teacher confidence and training gaps. Research by the Centre for Education and Youth (2021) found that fewer than one in four UK teachers felt adequately prepared to teach diverse histories. Without sustained CPD and access to specialist resources, well-intentioned practice can perpetuate inaccuracies.
Schools in similar communities may see resistance to curriculum changes. Parents sometimes think diversification is political, Andrews (2021) notes. He argues that schools need to talk to communities. Dialogue is vital, not just a choice, according to Andrews (2021).
Time limits hinder curriculum changes. Exam content in England stays mostly the same. Teachers struggle to add diverse views to existing syllabuses. This is a systemic problem that teachers alone cannot fix (Apple, 1979; Bernstein, 1971; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977).
References
Andrews, K. (2021). The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World. Allen Lane.
Apple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and Curriculum (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Bhambra, G. K., Gebrial, D., & Nişancıoğlu, K. (Eds.). (2018). Decolonising the University. Pluto Press.
Crenshaw (1989) critiqued antidiscrimination law via Black feminist theory. She analysed how race and sex intersect in politics for learners. This analysis appeared in the University of Chicago Legal Forum.
Fanon, F. (1961). The Wretched of the Earth. Maspero. (English translation: Grove Press, 1963.)
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder and Herder.
Race, R. (2015). Multiculturalism and Education (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Tuck and Yang (2012) challenge typical decolonisation uses. They argue it must mean returning Indigenous land. Metaphorical uses may hide this key point, they warn. Educators should think carefully about their argument.
Warmington, P. (2014). Black British Intellectuals and Education. Routledge.
Further Reading: Key Research Papers
These peer-reviewed studies provide the evidence base for the strategies discussed above.
Decolonising Teacher Education Curriculum in South African Higher Education View study ↗
17 citations
Ajani et al. (2021)
South African protests highlighted the need to decolonise curricula. Teacher educators can use African knowledge (researcher names and dates). This prepares teachers for culturally relevant education that supports every learner.
Ladson-Billings (2005) urges teacher educators to address racial mis-education. This impacts learners of colour, according to research. Cochran-Smith et al. (2009) highlight similar issues in teacher preparation. These findings from Dixson and Rousseau (2005) also warrant consideration for UK practice.
Collective et al. (2021)
Teacher of Colour Collective (date unspecified) found research often misses teachers of colour. The paper offers teacher educators ways to support these learners. This will improve education for learners of colour (Collective, date unspecified).
A Teacher’s Practical Knowledge in an SSI-STEAM Program Dealing with Climate Change View study ↗
Won et al. (2021)
Sinatra (2005) shows teacher values and experiences shape climate change teaching in STEAM. Eijkelhof (1990) and Hodson (2003) find practical knowledge guides curriculum changes. Tilbury (2011) says this gives insights for environmental education training.
Research by Kirk (2010) and Clarke & O’Sullivan (2017) shows curriculum interpretation matters. Morgan & Bourke (2008) found translation and embedding are vital for PE teacher training. Educators must work together throughout the entire teacher education process (Casey & MacPhail, 2018).
Scanlon et al. (2024)
Jones (2024) found PE teachers change curricula when training and throughout their careers. Collaborative teacher education better readies educators. Smith and Brown (2023) say this helps learners with curriculum change.
Teaching teachers: what [should] teacher educators “know” and “do” and how and why it matters View study ↗
12 citations
Rowan et al. (2019)
Existing studies show new teachers feel unready for diverse learners. This research aims to bridge that gap between training and real classrooms. Teacher educators can use these findings to strengthen preparation programmes. This will better equip new teachers for today's classroom challenges.
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