Emma Kennedy

The entwined topics of decolonisation of the curriculum, antiracist pedagogies, and the ethnicity awarding gap in HE, have become increasingly popular in HE policy, with closing the awarding gap a KPI for many universities such as Greenwich and UEL. However, ambition is not the same as achievement: students on the ground still experience racism and microaggressions, and as Wong et al (2020) note, ‘race is still relevant’. Staff training and CPD is a key tool for us to meet this challenge.

 

Wong et al recommend compulsory training on race, and Arday et al (2021) note that ‘the involvement of white allies in the decolonisation project is essential’ but Doharty et al (2020) rightly caution against tokenistic initiatives. This lightning talk will introduce a resource I produced for staff at the University of Greenwich that attempted to balance these two imperatives, providing a self-access professional development resource on decolonisation that was accessible to everyone, but which also allowed them to pursue what was most relevant to their area. I will share impact and results of the resource, but also the challenges of maintaining CPD in an area so central to changing policy.