From Diversity to Decolonization - Multicultural Education in the Neoliberal University

关于欧洲中心主义在社会科学中盛行的说法在公共领域得到了越来越多的讨论。那些参与诸如最近的“罗德岛必须垮台”运动的人认为，大学课程不合理地为“西方”产生的知识提供了特权，大学教授的内容有助于再现性别和种族化的社会等级制度。因此，他们声称高等教育需要非殖民化。有些矛盾的是，在高等教育去殖民化的同时，英国大学也在努力保证学生和教职员工的机会平等，并鼓励教师、学生群体和课程的多样性。然而，这种增加多样性的体制举措是在高等教育进行更大规模改革的背景下进行的；批判性教育学者认为，新自由主义的大学治理伴随着人文和社会科学学科的贬值，以及不容易与市场目标保持一致的批判性知识的贬值。

Claims about the prevalence of eurocentrism in the social sciences are increasingly discussed in the public realm. Those involved in campaigns such as the recent 'Rhodes Must Fall' movement argue that university curricula unjustifiably privilege knowledge produced in the 'West', and that what is taught at universities serves to reproduce gendered and racialized social hierarchies. Higher Education, they claim, is therefore in need of decolonization.Somewhat paradoxically, these efforts to decolonize HE are parallelled by UK universities' widespread attempts to guarantee equality of opportunity for students and staff, and to encourage diversity in teaching faculty, student body and curriculum. Such institutional moves towards increasing diversity are, however, taking place in a context of larger restructurings of HE; critical educational scholars argue that neoliberal university governance is accompanied by a devaluation of humanities and social science subjects, and of critical knowledge which cannot easily be aligned with market goals.