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Postcolonial Approach to Curriculum Design

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Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Higher Education

Abstract

Higher education continuously perpetuates systems of domination through the (re)production of Western knowledge systems that inherently marginalize and “other” Indigenous people and knowledges. Through a postcolonial approach to competency-based curriculum (re)design, we propose a framework that centers the knowledges and voices of marginalized people as a way to dismantle oppressive systems in higher education. In this chapter, we define colonialism; discuss higher education’s role in perpetuating colonialism; define and discuss competency-based curriculum design; define and discuss higher education’s role in postcolonialism and curriculum design; and discuss our framework for competency-based curriculum (re)design. Stage One is characterized by “denaturalization” which is guided by a “thick inclusion” of traditionally marginalized knowledges (Stein in Comparative Education Review 61:S25–S50, 2017). Stage Two creates spaces of (un)learning and (un)knowing and is contextually based on traditionally marginalized knowledges. Through this framework, we seek to decolonize higher education and support traditionally marginalized individuals.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some historians suggest that the term terra nullius, a concept in international law, was used to justify British colonization of Australia and New Zealand. Terra nullius is a Latin term that means “empty land” or “nobody’s land,” and it refers to land that was unaffected by man and therefore treated as uninhabited and subject to occupation (Painter & Jeffrey, 2009). Others historians question if British colonization was rationalized through terra nullius and deem British colonization as invasion and occupation (Painter & Jeffrey, 2009). Regardless of the justifications used to exploit lands already occupied by Indigenous people, terra nullius represents the colonizer’s view of the colonized land as “empty” and the people occupying them as “nobody.”

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  1. North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

    Laura Parson & Jessica Weise

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  1. Laura Parson
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Correspondence to Laura Parson .

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  1. North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

    Laura Parson

  2. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

    C. Casey Ozaki

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Parson, L., Weise, J. (2020). Postcolonial Approach to Curriculum Design. In: Parson, L., Ozaki, C. (eds) Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44939-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44939-1_6

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