Connected curricula: 'decolonising', de-centring and diversifying historical education in the UK

皇家历史学会关于英国历史上的种族、民族和平等的报告（2018）挑战了机构不愿面对种族和民族不公正的遗产，以及历史学科内缺乏多样性。新的研究方向还没有渗透到许多学校和大学的历史课程中。伦尼米德信托基金会（Runnymede Trust） 2018年对教师进行的一项调查发现，超过70%的受访者希望进一步接受移民史和帝国史方面的培训。不同历史和BME学者在历史上的代表性不足，说明了我们教育过程和制度结构中的一个更深层次的问题。几十年来，历史学家、教师、BME遗产团体和学生的倡导，迫使英国各地的大学历史学家考虑“非殖民化”的教学课程和研究实践意味着什么，并挑战高等教育中根深蒂固的种族歧视和排斥模式。“课程去殖民化”这个词已经成为一个总称，用来描述一系列致力于促进历史课程中更多地代表不同故事和经历的活动。它最近被用来指一系列具有改革思想的反种族主义活动，目的是揭露殖民主义的历史遗产及其在学校和大学的建筑环境和教学方案中的当今影响。该网络将研究英国大学历史系在“去殖民化”或去中心化教学课程和研究议程方面所采取的方向，重点关注支撑这些努力的理论和方法，它们所产生的实际影响，以及这些过程提出的关于重新构建历史研究和探究重点的更大问题的方式。该网络还将考虑使历史研究、写作和教学人员多样化的举措是如何取得成功的，以及在学院以外的地方可以学到什么经验教训。因此，我们将利用学校、文物组织、档案馆、图书馆和博物馆的专业知识。响应性不仅需要思考研究如何进入课堂，还需要对学术历史学家如何进行研究持开放态度。我们将与Runnymede Trust密切合作，其获奖的“我们的移民故事”项目强调了移民历史对英国历史研究的重要性，并为学者与学校和社区合作提供了一个模板。我们将建立一个较小的、现有的、与Runnymede Trust有联系的团体网络，这些团体致力于解决与“非殖民化”课程相关的问题，并在这方面有良好的记录，倡导改革导致歧视和排斥的制度实践。通过跨部门、跨地区和跨四个国家扩展这个网络，我们将为非伦敦的学者和项目创造联系和参与途径，从而最大限度地发挥影响。IHR、HA和RHS作为召集、支持和培训英国历史学家和历史教师的专业机构，在支持这项工作方面处于特别有利的地位。我们的会议将通过播客、博客、网站、出版物、在伦敦《国际卫生条例》主办的公开会议以及在“历史研讨会在线”上发表的一系列文章，产生网络直接参与者之外的对话和资源。我们将鼓励、促进和支持新闻和媒体的参与，这种参与已经开始在国家杂志、报纸、电视和广播节目中开展。该网络还将创建一份关于研究目标和建议的战略报告，这将促使政策制定者和教育工作者考虑改革历史课程的途径，以及可以采取的行动，使我们的历史教学、研究和写作人员多样化。

The Royal Historical Society's Report on Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History (2018) challenges institutional reluctance to face legacies of racial and ethnic injustice, and the lack of diversity within the historical discipline. New directions in research have not penetrated the history curriculum in many schools and universities. A 2018 survey of teachers by the Runnymede Trust found that over 70% of respondents wanted further training in both the history of migration and empire. The under-representation of diverse histories and BME scholars in history speaks to a deeper problem in the structures of our educational processes and institutions. Decades of advocacy by historians, teachers, BME heritage groups, and students have pressed university-based historians across the UK to consider what it means to 'decolonise' teaching curricula and research practices, and to challenge ingrained patterns of racial discrimination and exclusion in Higher Education. The phrase 'decolonise the curriculum' has become an umbrella term to describe a range of activities committed to promoting greater representation of diverse stories and experiences in history curricula. It has recently been used to refer to a set of reform-minded, anti-racist activities aimed at exposing historic legacies of colonialism and their present-day effects in the built environments and taught programmes of schools and universities. This network will research directions that history departments in UK universities have taken to 'decolonise' or de-centre their teaching curricula and research agendas, focusing on the theories and methodologies that underpin these efforts, the practical impacts that they have had, and the ways that these processes raise larger questions about reframing the focus of historical research and inquiry. The network will also consider how initiatives to diversify who studies, writes and teaches history have been successful, and where lessons can be learned beyond the academy. We will therefore draw on expertise from schools, heritage organisations, archives, libraries and museums. Responsiveness requires not just thinking about how research enters the classroom, but openness about how academic historians undertake research.We will work closely with the Runnymede Trust, whose award-winning Our Migration Story project has foregrounded the importance of migration history to the study of British history, and offers a template for academics to work with schools and communities. We will build on a smaller, existing network of groups connected to the Runnymede Trust that are committed to, and have a track record in, tackling issues related to 'decolonising' the curriculum and advocating reform of institutional practices that contribute to discrimination and exclusion. By extending this network across sectors, regions, and the four nations, we will maximise impact by creating connections and pathways for participation from non-London based academics and projects. The IHR, HA and RHS, as professional bodies that convene, support and train historians and history teachers across the UK, are particularly well placed to support this work.Our meetings will generate conversations and resources beyond the network's immediate participants, through podcasts, blogs, a website, publications, a public meeting hosted at the IHR in London, and a series of articles published on History Workshop Online. We will encourage, facilitate and support press and media engagement, which has already begun to take place in national magazines, newspapers, television and radio programmes. The network will also create a strategy report of research aims and recommendation that will challenge policy-makers and educators to consider pathways to reform history curricula and actions that can be taken to diversify those who teach, study and write our histories.