UK’s first decolonising philosophy toolkit for secondary schools and universities launched
Students and staff at SOAS University of London have co-created the UK’s first Decolonising Philosophy Toolkit for secondary schools, sixth forms, and universities.
The Decolonising toolkit aims to diversify philosophy teaching by incorporating philosophical perspectives from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. It is designed to help empower students to think of themselves as active participants in curriculum and assessment design and contributors to knowledge in the discipline of philosophy.
Dr Paul Giladi, one of the co-creators of the toolkit, said: “Thinking back to my own years at university, I saw that my philosophical training had been blind to, even uninterested in, the wealth of wisdom from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Indigenous communities.
“Why it was blind was something I couldn’t fully explain as an undergraduate. Only later in my academic career was I able to recognise that the learning environment shaping my training was not designed to promote critical thinking. Learning was orientated towards obeying and reproducing an already agreed philosophical tradition that we are not meant to challenge.”
The new teaching materials complement western philosophy with voices from around the globe, such as Nishida Kitaro, a Japanese philosopher whose multicultural school of thought challenges eurocentrism; Uma Narayan, an Indian scholar of philosophy who criticises culture-reductionist forms of postcolonial feminism; and African philosophers Kwasi Wiredu - developer of ‘conceptual decolonisation’ - and Nkiru Nzegwu, a leading African theorist of gender.
The toolkit is available as an online platform enabling education providers to collaborate with each other and, crucially, to benefit from student input too. It was created as part of a student internship programme at SOAS. These programmes provide SOAS students with an opportunity to gain professional experience within the institution.
Decolonising SOAS
SOAS University of London has been committed to decolonising its own courses and modules since 2017. In 2018, the university published a policy document for its module and programme convenors that acts as a briefing on what ‘decolonising’ learning and teaching might entail. The policy outlines a set of suggestions and ideas for colleagues and students to think through, individually and collectively.
SOAS’s BA World Philosophies programme is an ode to the toolkit’s strength, examining themes and topics from a global, cross-cultural, and decolonial perspective. The course scored highly in teaching quality, learning opportunities, academic support, and student voice in the 2023 National Student Survey.
