The words ‘’Decolonising the Curriculum’’ are used a lot in contemporary society. Despite these words being thrown around a lot, what does ‘’decolonise’’ actually mean? We are socialised from a young age to accept what we are taught in school, instead of questioning the content that we learn. The history of underrepresented, diverse communities continues to be overlooked in the current curriculum. Many people are currently fighting for the curriculum to change, as it does not accurately depict historical events that took place.

This event aims to spark conversation on the flaws in the current curriculum, whilst educating people on how things need to change. We will be joined by educators who will share their own perspectives and work they are currently doing to contribute to social change in the education system.

Please join us in this interactive discussion and share your own views. You can also ask any questions to our panelists near the end of the discussion. We look forward to seeing you at this event and hearing your perspectives! This is an exclusive event you cannot miss out on.

This event will be recorded for personal and public use.

#YELC #communityconversations #decolonisingthecurriculum #socialchange #educationisimportant

Host/Facilitator: Katie Bedrossian

Katie Bedrossian is a recent Sociology graduate who is an advocate for social change and human rights. She comes from a family of refugees and is eager to educate people on the history of diverse communities. Katie is passionate about her Armenian heritage and culture, which motivates her to act as a voice for underrepresented communities. Her interest in decolonising the curriculum has been sparked from her desire to educate people on important historical events that are often overlooked in our current curriculum.

Panellist: Sofia Akel

Sofia Akel is an education activist and researcher, campaigning and leading work to tackle institutional racism in education, including the awarding gap, academic pipeline and decolonising education. Currently, she is leading London Metropolitan University’s race equity work for the Centre of Equity and Inclusion.

Most recently she worked with BAFTA award-winning director Aneil Karia and actor and musician Kano on his short-film/performance ‘Teardrops,’ highlighting the disproportionate deaths of Black people in police custody in the UK. Sofia Akel launched a campaign to tackle barriers to accessing books through the Free Book Campaign. The aim of the campaign is to get books by authors of colour to those who cannot access them due to financial or other systemic barriers to access. Some of her recent appearances and interviews include The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Strategist (New York Magazine), Channel 4 News and BBC Radio London. Sofia established her university’s branch of the 'Why is my Curriculum White' campaign to decolonise higher education, as well as creating a student-led organisation to tackle racial employment discrimination.

Panellist: Marral Shamshiri-Fard

Marral is an Iranian-British historian, teacher, and facilitator in London. She is a PhD candidate at LSE interested in histories of decolonisation, anti-colonialism, and the cold war in the Middle East. She is passionate about education and is involved in anti-oppression initiatives in schools and universities, including collective work on decolonising curricula and institutions, and supporting young people to become change-makers.

Panellist:Joshua Preye Garry

Josh worked on a project with Miranda Kaufmann and Jason Todd in teaching the story of Black Tudors in the classroom, and also carried out collaborative work focused on developing several lessons and presentations at both the Historical Association and Schools History Project annual CPD conferences - the two biggest history teacher-training conferences in the country.

He has also worked with leading teachers in the field such as Martin Spafford, Dan Lyndon, Dr Robin Whitburn and Abdul Mohamud in raising the awareness of the importance of Black History in schools. Josh’s most recent attainment is obtaining a Fellowship from the Historical Association by working with Justice 2 History and Dr Toby Green from King’s College London to complete the Fellowship course on the British Transatlantic Slave Trade. He then created an enquiry that examined the extent to which the Slave Trade underdeveloped Africa. The enquiry was based on Walter Rodney’s book and acted as a resource for future teachers to use when approaching this topic within the classroom.

Panellist: Pran Patel

As a man of colour, Pran ascribes as a member of the ‘Global Majority’. While at university in the year 2000 he started his journey on the anti-racist road. In his inspirational TEDx talk ‘Decolonise the Curriculum’ he describes the moment he realised that the world was tied away from an authentic truth and that started with the school curriculum. In this vein he recently featured in the Sky News Film ‘Slavery in Britain: What don’t we know?’ Alongside Prof Davide Olugosa, Prof Christopher J Brown, Prof Diana Paton and Prof Olivette Otele.

Pran Patel has 17 years of teaching experience working recently as an assistant principal. He has an exciting career in leadership; leading standards; behaviour; data; professional development, and curriculum. He firmly stands as a mental health advocate, he recently featured in the BBC documentary ‘Why teaching is making me ill’ and has spoken openly about the pressure of the education sector.

Panelist: Dr Paul Ian Campbell

Dr Paul Ian Campbell is a lecturer in the Sociology of race and inclusion at the University of Leicester and an award winning academic. His first monograph won the BSA Philip Abrams Prize in 2017 and he has published widely on the areas of race and inclusion in leisure, and in Higher Education. He has also led a number of cross-university projects on addressing racial inequalities in Higher Education curricular and assessment. His current project evaluates Decolonizing the Curriculum Toolkits, in relation to their effectiveness for improving the relatability of courses to the lived experiences of students from minority ethnic backgrounds, improving minority ethnic students’ satisfaction and in addressing the award gap between minority ethnic and white students. It was one of only two projects funded by TASO in 2020.