Anti-Racist Education Update: Curriculum Reviews

The Why

The National Curriculum is framed in an Anglo centric perspective, where victors and ‘pioneers’ have written the history and defined the narrative in all subjects. Consequently, this has resulted in the ‘racial erasure’, such as the whitewashing of atrocity and the elimination of non-white contributors within the curriculum. It is essential for schools to modernise the curriculum to reflect the global population of the school, this will eventually develop an inclusive ethos of learners understanding a range of different cultures in preparation of becoming Global Citizens.

Anti-Racist Curriculum Audit – History

We aim to implement an anti-racist and anti-oppressive approach by reviewing and implementing changes in our curriculum, through the lens of our Black and Global Majority student population. We were inspired by the NEU anti-racist framework https://neu.org.uk/media/11236/view which was used to ensure that the curriculum has broad and balanced representation.

For example, this Scheme of Learning developed by the History curriculum leader @msmarshhistory1 to ensure that there is;

• Increasing representation of events and individuals who are the ‘Global Majority

• Move away from solely focusing on the history of white, Western Europeans with political power

• Representation is not merely one of ‘historical oppression’ but diverse in its specific historic enquiry, highlighting role models

• The work of social historians is at the forefront of more historical inquiries

• The intersection between different characteristics e.g. class is recognised whilst acknowledging there is no hierarchy of oppression

• Recognition that changing the content of the curriculum is not enough, staff must be racially literate in order to effectively deliver this curriculum in an anti-racist way.

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