Dr Amy Maclatchy, Dr Moonisah Usman and Lara Pownell, University of Westminster ‘The academy is not a paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created’ (hooks, 1994). Universities are sites of struggle and do not always lead to equitable outcomes. National degree awarding gaps highlight the disparities in outcomes of higher education for racially minoritized students. This ongoing issue has been described as a ‘wicked problem’, directly related to structural racism, or policies and practices that continually disadvantage racialised students (Ugiagbe-Green and Ernsting, 2022). Movements to decolonise the curriculum bring hope and the tools to rebuild more socially-just institutions and societies, however, this path is challenging.  It is sometimes questioned whether the field of science, with its guise of objectivity, needs decolonising, or what that process might look like. As decolonising of science gains momentum across the sector, we see it to involve challenging prejudice and bias, shifting from eurocentric epistemology and recentring marginalised voices. Ultimately, shifting our relationship to and practice of science by being actively anti-racist, may help us tackle problems like health inequalities, which affect minoritised groups the most and with which we’ve grappled for too long (Raleigh and Holmes, 2021).    In this collaborative workshop, we will consider how to reimagine higher education, through building student and staff relationships to co-create decolonial learning spaces that allow anti-racist dialogue and practices. We will share lessons from our journey of using co-creation, critical thinking and storytelling to humanise the classroom and tend to issues of race and their intersection with the discipline of life sciences, on the core foundation module ‘Critical Thinking for Academic Professional Development’ in the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation, University of Westminster. This presentation was delivered at Reimagining Higher Education: journeys of decolonising at De Montfort University, Leicester, on Wednesday 8th November 2023.

1. Building education
through and for social
justice: lessons from co-
creating anti-racist
practices in a Life
Sciences curriculum
Dr Moonisah Usman and
Dr Amy MacLatchy
Lara Pownall
m.usman1@westminster.ac.uk
a.maclatchy@westminster.ac.uk
w1838536@my.westminster.ac.uk

2. Welcome
Dr Moonisah Usman
Lecturer in the Centre for
Education and Teaching
Innovation; Module Leader for
Critical Thinking for Academic
and Professional Development
Twitter: @moonisah_wmin
Dr Amy MacLatchy
Lecturer in the Centre for
Education and Teaching
Innovation; Deputy Module
Leader for Introduction to
Academic Practice
Lara Pownall
BSc Biomedical Sciences
Student

3. Social
Justice in
HE
‘social justice is the ghost in the
machine of the educational apparatus.
It is the only part that makes any part
of the field of education matter’ Tuck
and Yang, 2018

4. 3 issues that drive our work
Awarding gaps: widest for Black students at 18.4% (Universities UK
International, 2022).
Systemic racism: “is said to occur when racially unequal opportunities and
outcomes are inbuilt or intrinsic to the operation of a society's structures.
Simply put, systemic racism refers to the processes and outcomes of racial
inequality and inequity in life opportunities and treatment” Banaji et al.,
2021
Health inequalities: Whilst people from racially minoritized groups
constitute 14% of the UK population, they accounted for 34% patients who
were critically ill with COVID-19 (Bailey and West, 2020).

5. Education through social justice
Education for social justice
Awarding gaps Compassionate pedagogy Dismantling deficit narratives
Non-hierarchical pedagogy
Inclusion
Supporting minoritised students
Health inequalities
Anti-racism

6. Why we
chose to
engage with
decoloniality
and what it
means to us
• “[...] decoloniality refers to efforts at rehumanizing the
world, to breaking hierarchies of difference that
dehumanize subjects and communities and that destroy
nature, and to the production of counter-discourses,
counter-knowledges, counter-creative acts, and
counter-practices that seek to dismantle coloniality and
to open up multiple other forms of being in the world.”
Maldonado-Torres, 2016
• Forming democratic and relational student-staff
partnerships allow us to collectively imagine a
decolonising education (Fraser and Usman, 2021)
• Students play an active role in shaping their
experiences, futures and develop critical skills to
explore real-world problems, so they may impact the
future of others

7. Student partnership
is a tool to create
decolonial spaces
and build
relationships.

8. Student Partnership
‘At its roots, partnership is about investing students with the
power to co-create, not just knowledge or learning, but the
higher education institution itself… A corollary of a
partnership approach is the genuine, meaningful dispersal of
power … partnership means shared responsibility – for
identifying the problem or opportunity for improvement, for
devising a solution and – importantly – for co-delivery of that
solution’
National Union of Students. (2015). A manifesto for partnership. National Union of
Students. www.nusconnect.org.uk/resources/a-manifesto-for-partnership-2013

9. Student
Partnership
• The Critical Thinking module was co-
created with students in partnership:
• Curriculum
• Assessments
• Marking rubric
• Topic for critical writing assessment

10. Student Partnership and Decoloniality
• Seminars and student partnerships provide the space and time to explore
stories and experiences.
• Discussion and debate helps us to move away from Eurocentric epistemology.
• Provide students with an authentic, principled space to actively listen and hear
stories, rather than being told what to learn or experience.
• Opportunity for all to question our own beliefs and opinions through critical
thought and explore uncomfortable tensions
• Students are the experts of their own experiences

11. Ice breakers to build
relationship
• Weekly ice-breakers in semester 1 to
get to know each other and build
relationship.
• Continued in semester 2 delving
deeper into individuals’, identities,
experiences and values.
• For example, sharing music, food,
books, hobbies, who or what inspires
us.

12. Activity
You will have one minute either to be a listener or responder to
the question. We will start the timer and tell you when to swap.
1. How has your experience at university critically
challenged your values?
2. How do you imagine a decolonised education looks?

13. The importance of
explicitly teaching
critical thinking skills.

14. Critical thinking skills
• Critical thinking skills are fundamental to our development as
learners.
• ‘Critical thinking is about having the language and frames of
reference to examine one’s life in-depth, as well as the world
around us, so we can ask questions about the things we take for
granted’ (hooks, 2010)
• Critical thinking is a life-long skill that should be taught with
intention, especially in the context of anti-racism and social
justice.
• It is undisputed that students develop critical thinking skills more
effectively when they are taught explicitly.

15. Critical
Thinking
Tool-Kit
Inspired by Stella
Cottrell.
Cottrell, S. (2023)
Critical Thinking
Skills: Effective
Analysis, Argument
and Reflection. 4th
edn. London:
Bloomsbury
Publishing.
1.Asking meaningful questions
2.Analysing arguments for logic and
reasoning
3.Analysing for assumptions, bias and
generalisations
4.Evaluating evidence
5.Considering multiple viewpoints

16. Jamilla’s Case Study
Jamilla was a Black, healthy, 28-year-old who was expecting her first child. But she
wasn’t expecting to go into labor so soon. At 34 weeks pregnant, Jamilla’s water broke,
and she found herself rushing to the hospital with her partner on one of the coldest
nights of winter.
Jamilla was feeling incredibly concerned. Would her baby make it? Would she make it?
She remembered what she read about the ‘racial health gap’ in the Guardian just a few
days ago, ‘Black women in the UK are four times more likely to die during childbirth’. Her
mind was racing with thoughts and her anxiety taking over again. She was worried
about being treated differently due to her skin colour. How would she protect her
daughter from the racism and microaggressions that she had experienced almost every
day in her life? It was only earlier in the day when a stranger had walked up to her and
touched her hair without even bothering to ask.
As Jamilla headed into the hospital, she wrapped her arms around her bump and took a
deep breath.

17. We need to teach
science students
about race biology.

18. How much of our DNA constitutes our visible physical
characteristics (nose, hair colour, skin colour)?
A. 0.1%?
B. 0.05?
C. 0.02%?

19. How much of our DNA constitutes our visible physical
characteristics (nose, hair colour, skin colour)?
A. 0.1%?
B. 0.05?
C. 0.02%?

20. http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/
Seong-Jin Kim (Korean)
3 scientists - Who do you think will be genetically similar?
James Watson (American)
Craig Venter (American)
Craig Venter (American)
Seong-Jin Kim (Korean)
James Watson (American)
A
B
C

21. http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/
More similarity between Kim & Watson,
and
Kim & Venter than Venter & Watson.
Genetic variation between 3 scientists:
2 Americans with European ancestry and 1 Korean

22. Next Steps
• Our work to decolonise our approach is ongoing.
• Decolonisation needs to go beyond the classroom and
extend to the discipline itself.
• How do we humanise science?

23. References
• Bailey, S., and West, M. (2020). Ethnic minority deaths and Covid-19: what are we to do? The Kings Fund. Available at:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2020/04/ethnic-minority-deaths-covid-19
• Banaji, M.R., Fiske, S.T. and Massey, D.S. (2021). Systemic racism: individuals and interactions, institutions and
society. Cognitive research: principles and implications, 6, pp.1-21.
• Fraser, J., & Usman, M. (2021). Dreaming to learn together: Lessons in decolonial and anti-racist partnership practices.
The Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 7(1).
• Hooks, B. (2010) Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. London: Routledge.
• Maldonado-Torres, N. (2016). Outline of ten theses on coloniality and decoloniality. Available at:
http://caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/docs/Maldonado-Torres_Outline_Ten_Theses-10.23.16.pdf
• Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (Eds.). (2018). Toward what justice?: Describing diverse dreams of justice in education. Routledge.
• Universities UK International. (2022). Annual report 2020/21. UUKI Publications. Available at:
https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/universities-uk-international/insights-and-publications/uuki-publications/annual-
report-202021