Decolonising pedagogies in undergraduate geography: student perspectives on a Decolonial Movements module

Student-led movements have called for the decolonization of the Higher Education (HE) system in the UK, as well as elsewhere. Much of the onus within British geography has been on decolonizing geographical knowledges, recognizing the role of the discipline in the colonial project. This paper expands on these literatures by examining how work on critical pedagogies can deepen the decolonizing agenda within geography. In other words, it is not only what we teach that matters, but how. Using the perspectives of undergraduate geography and international development students at the University of Sussex taking a module entitled “Decolonial Movements”, I reflect on how to decolonize the way the subject is taught within the classroom. I make six tentative suggestions: ensuring a diversity of teaching staff, not just reading lists; enabling decolonial pedagogies; encouraging social justice, liberation and decolonization; using creative and innovative teaching tools; decolonizing assessment criteria; and embedding decolonization across the curriculum. To be clear, the aim is not to produce any kind of standardized curriculum but to spark debate over meaningful forms of decolonizing pedagogies in undergraduate geography, as well as to reflect on some of the challenges of implementing a decolonizing praxis within UK universities.