Decolonising politics curricula: Exploring the experiences and views of racially minoritised students
| Published date | 01 February 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241276065 |
| Author | Siobhan O’Neill |
| Date | 01 February 2025 |
| Subject Matter | Learning and Teaching in Politics and International Studies |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957241276065
Politics
2025, Vol. 45(1) 141 –159
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02633957241276065
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Decolonising politics
curricula: Exploring the
experiences and views of
racially minoritised students
Siobhan O’Neill
University of Kent, UK
Abstract
Through an exploration of the experiences and narratives of racially minoritised students,
in this article, I argue that Politics curricula in the United Kingdom can largely be defined as
epistemologically ignorant as a result of whiteness and Western-centrism. While there is a growing
body of scholarship that has drawn attention to the whiteness and coloniality of Politics curricula,
little, if any, has considered this from the perspective of racially minoritised students of Politics.
This article addresses this gap in the literature and serves to prompt the Politics disciplines to look
inwards and interrogate how whiteness and colonial logics continue to shape the study of Politics
while also offering recommendations for curricula change based on students’ lived experiences.
After briefly defining ‘the curriculum’, I outline the ways in which racially minoritised students
defined Politics curricula as white and/or Western-centric and epistemologically ignorant. I
then consider the role of teaching staff in curricula design and delivery and the potential for
teaching practices to challenge curricula. Finally, before concluding, I explore what decolonising or
‘widening’ Politics curricula entails from the perspective of students.
Keywords
curriculum, decolonising, pedagogy, racism in higher education, whiteness
Received: 14th February 2024; Revised version received: 11th June 2024; Accepted: 21st June 2024
Introduction
Universities in the United Kingdom have histories connected with colonialism, slavery,
and white supremacy. They are sites where colonial logics were justified; Indigenous,
non-white and non-Western knowledges were suppressed; and racist thought was pro-
duced (Choat, 2021; Pimblott, 2020). Given this history, and its lasting legacies, it is vital
that we interrogate, and transform, the coloniality and whiteness of UK Higher Education
(HE). This article, by focussing on the Politics disciplines in particular, is a necessary
contribution to this wider project.
Corresponding author:
Siobhan O’Neill, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury
CT2 7NZ, UK.
Email: s.o’neill-466@kent.ac.uk
1276065POL0010.1177/02633957241276065PoliticsO’Neill
research-article2024
Learning and Teaching in Politics
and International Studies
142 Politics 45(1)
While there is a growing body of scholarship that has drawn attention to the whiteness
and coloniality of Politics curricula in HE (see Begum and Saini, 2019; Choat, 2021;
Choat et al., 2023; Emejulu, 2019; Saini and Begum, 2020; Shilliam, 2010, 2021), little,
if any, has done so from the perspective of racially minoritised students. By drawing from
research that centred the experiences of racially minoritised students, this article addresses
this gap. Centring racially minoritised students’ perspectives is valuable because seeing
the knowledge of those who have been minoritised as ‘legitimate, appropriate, and criti-
cal’ is decolonial in itself (Yosso, 2005: 74). Moreover, to see racially minoritised stu-
dents as ‘co-creators of critical knowledge’ (Saini and Begum, 2020: 219), ‘challenges
traditional research paradigms, texts and theories’ that have excluded minoritised and
student perspectives (Solórzano and Yosso, 2002: 26).
The central argument is that the racially minoritised students who participated in this
study largely understood Politics curricula to be epistemologically ignorant as a result of
its whiteness and Western-centrism. I draw here on Charles Mills’ (1997: 18–19) defini-
tion of epistemological ignorance as the ‘structured blindness and opacities’ that function
to maintain white supremacy. I understand Euro-/Western-centrism and whiteness to be
interconnected but distinct. Euro-/Western-centrism refers to the belief, implicit or other-
wise, that European and Western ways of knowing and being are superior, the standard by
which the ‘rest’ of the world can be understood and measured (Bhambra, 2007; Capan,
2017; Joseph et al., 1990). Whiteness, though entangled with Euro-/Western-centrism, is
about racialised power. It is a socially constructed power structure that defines those
racialised as white – and their interests and knowledges – as the norm, while rendering
‘Others’ different, deviant, abnormal or marginal (Ahmed, 2007; Gillborn, 2008; Seshadri-
Crooks, 2000; Sian, 2017).
The aim of this article is to prompt Politics disciplines – and those teaching and pro-
ducing knowledge here – to look inwards and interrogate how whiteness and colonial
logics continue to shape the field and make changes based on students’ experiences.
The contributions of this article are particularly important in a context where ‘post-
racial’ narratives are commonplace. Rather than reproducing the post-racial idea of the
university as a meritocratic, ‘tolerant and cosmopolitan’ space, and the people within it as
‘arbiters of tolerant anti-racism’ (Tate, 2016: 71–72), this article challenges post-racial
claims of neutrality and colour-blindness, and instead recognises that post-racialism
serves to maintain the status quo and serve the interests of white supremacy (Gillborn,
2008: 28–29).
After exploring what the curriculum is and what ‘decolonising’ it means, I outline my
methodology, methods, and data – interviews, diaries, and follow-up interviews with 30
racially minoritised students at 13 different institutions across England, Wales, and
Scotland. I then move to the findings and discussion, where I explore: (1) the ways
racially minoritised students defined Politics curricula as epistemologically ignorant; (2)
the role of teaching staff in curricula design and delivery and the potential and constraints
related to the practice of teaching; and (3) what decolonising or ‘widening’ Politics cur-
ricula entails from the perspective of students.
Literature review: What is ‘The Curriculum’ and what does
it mean to ‘decolonise’ it?
When we refer to ‘the curriculum’, we are generally talking about a selection of ideas,
texts, and knowledge that structure what can be known within a particular field. It is a
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