Decolonising the Curriculum with Wikipedia

At both the University and in Wikimedia UK, decolonisation is taking a central role in making sustainable developments in education. Britain's colonial history has heavily influenced education by impacting research and, therefore, available resources and perspectives. Colonialism has generated an education system that is western-biased, prioritising western beliefs and values. However, through careful consideration, we can take steps to decolonise education and knowledge. 

Decolonisation is not the same as diversification, because diversity can still exist within a western bias. Instead, decolonisation includes the following:

• Critically analysing where our knowledge comes from
• Taking apart and rebuilding historical knowledge
• Valuing non-western scholarship and knowledge
• Supporting repatriation efforts.

Other aspects to decolonisation that can be explored further at: 

Race Equity Tools

Decolonisation at the University

Decolonisation is a relatively new process to the University and will require long-term action plans and goals to work towards. The University focuses on tackling the current institutional pedagogy that is rooted in colonialism. Individual schools are also taking action to decolonise their curriculum, for instance the School of Informatics has held workshops and discussions to start the conversation of decolonisation. Furthermore, BlackED and RaceED have both contributed to decolonisation efforts, producing a list of courses that tackle racial matters and developing a new interdisciplinary course, "Race and Decolonial Studies", that launched in in 2022. 

View the newest Race, Equality and Anti-Racist committee action plan

The work to decolonise the curriculum is not just about reading lists but involves diversifying knowledge production itself. This allows different knowledge, and ways of knowing, to be visible and valued.

Lucy Panesar, Progression and Attainment Project Manager at London College of Communication, and manager of LCC’s Changemakers group

Wikimedia and Decolonisation: The Khalili Collections

Wikimedia is supporting decolonisation in several ways. For example, the Wikimedia Foundation has supported residencies including Martin Poulter's residency at Coventry University. The residency involves uploading the Khalili Collections, a collection of 35,000 items about Islamic art and Japanese culture, to Wikipedia and its sister projects. In doing so, the residency has made these items available to new audiences of over 9 million people every month. 

Wikimedia and Decolonisation: The Decolonising Wikipedia Network 

The London College of Communications launched the Decolonising Wikipedia Network at the end of 2020. The network aims to introduce people to Wikimedia and Wikipedia, helping them to become "knowledge activists". The network holds edit-a-thons to support the creation of new Wikipedia articles. 

The University is in a position where it is able to contribute to wider efforts to decolonise education. For instance, contributing to Wikipedia by adding more diverse references and perspectives, whilst maintaining a neutral point of view, could help to decolonise the knowledge available online. Producing open knowledge resources and making its collections and research openly available can support efforts to decolonise and making knoweldge more accessible to people of all races, cultures and geographical locations. 

Further reading:

Decolonising the curriculum: What it really means

UNESCO Sustainable Goals: decolonising education

What does decolonisation mean for Wikipedia?

The Decolonising Wikipedia Network

Decolonisation is not a Metaphor

© Ewan McAndrew and Clea Strathmann, University of Edinburgh, 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.