Abstract:

In 2017-18 two university teams – the learning & teaching unit and the diversity and cultural change team – joined forces to interrogate troubling data which suggested disparate learning experiences and outcomes for some students. As co-leads, we quickly engaged students in advocacy roles to advise us. This collaborative work grew and developed, supporting and inspiring the design of our Race Equality Strategy seeking to achieve Race Equality through cultural change, launched in 2021, and winning of our Race Equality Charter Bronze Award in 2023 granted by AdvanceHE. Enunciated within the Strategy was ambitious work related to curriculum design and professional development through Unlearning. Subsequently we designed an entire range of sessions to achieve these aims. Alongside sessions dedicated to Diversification through curriculum enhancement, the programme included a Contextualise session to explore structural racism within our local context, student Advocate-led Educate sessions on racial literacy; and the hugely popular Lightbulb sessions which brought in external speakers to shine a light on everyday racism and what we can all do to effect positive change.

Curriculum discussions later required a more targeted approach. Thus beginning in March 2024, we began taking Unlearning directly into our fourteen university Schools, across four faculties and three separate campuses. Representing a cross-institutional tour de force, we came from all corners of the university, including our Student Race Equality Advocates, Faculty Race Equality Leads, School leaders, and our own teams to lead the Unlearning Away Days. School leaders consulted with us on relevant data. They opened the day by encouraging their academic and professional services colleagues to participate positively with the aims, messages and future curriculum design work.

To ensure the impact and sustainability of this unique programme of work, the final part of our Unlearning Away Days introduced an innovative Roadmap to which all members of all 14 Schools shared contributions to good practice, short-term plans and ambitious curriculum aspirations. These roadmaps enable a joined-up approach connecting their plans and achievements to ongoing annual review processes, validation and revalidation and data monitoring. While our own plans include supporting the Schools to progress their work, we also have an ambitious research and development project to design and launch a comprehensive student survey. This ‘feedback loop’ will then feed into the Roadmap, institutional planning and curriculum innovations.

Our future looks bright and engaged. As our university further refines its ambitious Integrated Curriculum Approach, our work sits firmly at its heart, having demonstrated the power of collaborative leadership and the design of a sustainable model for achieving transformative institutional change. We continue to support our Faculties & Schools as they forge their paths towards a diversified and decolonised curriculum.

As we reflect on our collaborative process, we are humbled by the trust our institution, colleagues and students have put in us to lead life-changing initiatives, and we remain committed and determined to achieve race equality through cultural change at ARU.

Keywords:

Curriculum design, Diversification, Decolonisation, Collaborative Leadership.