Student experiences of decolonised psychology curricula

Abstract

It has been long argued that academic programmes represent a distorted, Euro-American-centric view of the world, commonly presented as objective. Leading academic institutions have started attempts to redress this. Decolonising education in practice; however, has been difficult to do; educators are unsure about how to actively facilitate this or are concerned about making mistakes. The present study uses the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at University of Glasgow as a case study. The School has been actively engaging with the decolonising curriculum process, using a variety of methods since 2021. However, the impact these efforts have had are unknown. The present qualitative study asked students from the global majority their views on their teaching content. Nine students were recruited in two focus groups to uncover how the psychology curriculum at UofG is experienced. Reflexive Thematic Analysis resulted in two core themes: students’ awareness of systemic issues that have historically prevented change and lowered expectations for meaningful change, and second, students’ acknowledgement of staff efforts (positive or otherwise) to decolonise. We discuss the results in the context of teaching and learning strategies in relation to psychology and wider teaching practice, with guidance for next steps.