Disabling patterns of injustice in and through learning

Dr Sarah Amsler, Associate Professor, School of Education

Dr Amsler focuses her research on this principle question “what kind of learning can help us to overcome the existing limits of modern/colonial ways of being, knowing, imagining, and relating to ourselves and other beings in order to generate new possibilities for deep social transformation?” She draws the conclusion that progress on the post-imperial context in the UK has been slow and unsurprisingly so, as oppression remains often invisible and unspeakable. The result is that most of her students do not know what colonialism is. Dr Amsler’s work reverberates with the findings of the Decolonisation of the curriculum project, helping to explain how colonial and other injustices lie in systemic patterns which shape education. The Decolonisation of the Curriculum project is attempting to do just that, it is trying to get UoN to collectively recognise what kinds of learning allow us to disable patterns of injustice and inequality. In fact, the hurdles encountered by the Decolonisation of the Curriculum project reveal how our frames of seeing prevent us from seeing what is right in front of us.

Given the relevance of the Decolonisation of the Curriculum to a core EDI area, there is growing support from other Faculties and the BAME staff network for the project. Dr Amsler highlights the need for a space for conversation to examine EDI through different ways of knowing histories, and to bring together people who would otherwise work on their own in their own faculties. The D&IRH could play a centralising role which would enable the consolidation of pivotal EDI projects through research acolytes.