Today I spoke at Keele University for the Design and Development Mini-Conference. The homework question for the talk was What does an inclusive curriculum look like in the 21th Century? We took a tour around the concepts of curriculum, inclusion and future planning; we asked how can we create diverse teams to underpin our planning; we stepped back to critique technocratic and global north takes on inclusion; we considered teaching content and methods; we considered workload pressures and the idea that curriculum is a finite resource; and we considered the idea that curriculum is the product of negotiated compromises. That’s a lot of ground in 45 minutes! The talk did finally answer the question with a vision for future curriculum.

It’s always a warm welcome at Keele, so I am grateful for the invite.

I mentioned a few resources outside of the slides – here they are in case colleagues wish to follow up:

  • Mathew Syed – Rebel Ideas (mentioned as an interesting take on diverse team creation)
  • The Slow Professor by Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber (mentioned in the context of gathering space to reflect and think)
  • And a full paper reference for the paper I mentioned in relation to the concept of decolonising the mind: Hlatshwayo, & Alexander, I. (2021). “We’ve been taught to understand that we don’t have anything to contribute towards knowledge”: Exploring academics’ understanding of decolonising curricula in higher education. Journal of Education (Durban), 82, 44–59.
  • And finally – here is the link for the very brief (now dated but still good) Glynis Cousin paper which succinctly pushes back on a ‘stuffed curriculum’.

Keele Inclusive-Future Curriculum Presentation SlidedeckDownload