Members of Liverpool John Moores University’s team of learning developers have developed a range of asynchronous resources for decolonised academic skills curricula. This includes teaching resources that explicitly deal with structural racism and the inequalities of class, gender, and sexuality and, where relevant, their intersectionality with race. This encourages students to bring their own lived experiences into the classroom to foster a sense of belonging and validation, whilst simultaneously challenging assumptions and preconceptions amongst other students. This can involve, for example, evaluating articles on the removal of slave owner statues in critical writing classes, or using material on the effects of racism on a community’s access to biodiverse environments when teaching note-making.

Resources required:

  • Two interns recruited to capture the student voice.

Available evidence of impact:

  • The team has undoubtedly benefited from being free from the confines of subject content and disciplinary canons as we can introduce students to concepts and voices that they may otherwise not encounter.
  • Evaluation results from students were overwhelming positive, with students stating that they welcomed the opportunity to talk about their own experiences and to be introduced to issues related to race they may not otherwise have considered.

Links to available resources:

Implementation and potential challenges:

  • Consider lesson plans/scaffolding approach to embed academic skills at all levels through EDI lens.

How to Use:

  • Refer to LJMU repository.
  • Run your own curriculum enhancement project, through hiring student interns to evaluate practice.
  • Work on co-creation of curricula alongside students.
  • Use lesson plans to scaffold academic skills through EDI lens.