This event is part of the School of Education's Bristol Conversations in Education research seminar series. These seminars are free and open to the public.

Co-hosted by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Curriculum (TLC) and the Centre for Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE)

Speakers:

• Tianqi Lu (Department of Education, University of Bath)
• Lydia Miles (School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol)
• Alice Robson (School of Biochemistry, University of Bristol)
• Zafar Bashir (School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol)
• Amy Mosley (School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol)
• Caroline M. McKinnon (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Team, University of Bristol)
• Bronwen R. Burton (School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol)

In the biomedical sciences, it is critical that students consider the wider context in which knowledge has been built, to support them to identify and address long-held biases in biomedical research and healthcare. Over the last two years, we have been employing undergraduate students to identify opportunities to decolonise and diversify teaching material. The findings have been captured in an “Emerging Themes” document, which has helped to create a dialogue with staff and shape changes within teaching content of the units analysed.

To complement this work, we seek to understand attitudes towards decolonisation and diversification in the wider student and staff population, enabling us to measure impact and deliver change. Staff and students across the Biomedical Sciences Schools at the University were surveyed for their understanding of, and attitude towards, decolonising the curriculum. Results revealed that both staff (n=71) and students (n=121) felt decolonising the curriculum was important, but this was more important to female respondents (p<0.001). The survey also highlighted that members of certain minoritised groups did not feel represented by the curriculum, highlighting the need to develop a curriculum that is inclusive and representative for all students.

Focus groups were undertaken to gain a deeper understanding of attitudes towards colonial influences in our curricula. Thematic analysis revealed three important themes which students consider essential for a decolonised curriculum. We propose that these themes could form a useful framework to guide future work to decolonise and diversify the curriculum, in the biomedical sciences and beyond. Going forward, we will repeat both the surveys and focus groups after an interval of one year to monitor changes in attitudes as we refine our curricula.

Speakers

Tianqi Lu is a PhD student in Education from the University of Bath, where she is a member of the University Race Equality Taskforce committee and the Departmental Decolonise Education Collective.

Lydia Miles is a third year undergraduate student in Biochemistry and is working on decolonising and diversifying the curriculum for her final year research project.

Alice Robson is a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and is the decolonising and diversifying the curriculum lead for Biochemistry.

Caroline McKinnon is the former EDI Lead for the School of Biochemistry and Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) and set up the FLS Decolonising and Diversifying our curriculum Working group.

Bronwen Burton is a Senior Lecturer in Immunology and Co-Chair of the Cellular and Molecular Medicine (CMM) EDI Committee. She is decolonising and diversifying the curriculum lead for CMM.