Unsettling Knowledge: Unsettling Teaching Seminar

What does decolonisation mean? How can we achieve decolonisation in classrooms and teaching environments? And how do we enable for an inclusive, empowering environment? These questions and other issues were discussed extensively in the first seminar of the Unsettling Knowledge seminar: Unsettling Teaching. This seminar series is an initiative of the Decolonisation Group and the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges.

Introduction

Kicking off the Unsettling Teaching event, Dr. Frank Gerits welcomed us and encouraged us to join the Decolonisation Group’s mission to invert existing hierarchies and unravel the subtle colonising practices. After the brief and informal welcome by Mr Gertis, Dr. Rachel Gillet introduced the program of the afternoon. Starting with insights on colonisation in teaching environments by a very diverse and knowledgeable panel, the program incorporated a discussion setting in which participants could elaborate on their experiences of inclusion and exclusion in education. Ms Gillet emphasized the active role that was to be taken by the audience.

The Panel

Proceeding from the succinct introduction by Dr. Gillet, the panellists commenced with their addresses. First Amir Taha spoke about how he was surprised with the whiteness and the number of westerners in the classroom when he started his undergraduate at Utrecht University. He told us an anecdote about the time in which his class was assigned to interview a person with a non-western background. He was surprised that a lot of his classmates came to him and asked him for an interview, since they did not know anybody else of a non-western background. According to Mr Taha, these issues should be taken seriously and although the situation has slightly changed up until now, he advocated for more diversity in the classroom to increase diverse thoughts, education and social networks.
Louise Autar, our second panellist, focussed on the details of estrangement in the classroom. She agreed with Mr Taha that she did not really find herself comfortable in the classroom, with the syllabus, and with the topics covered. As a girl with a non-white ethnicity from Rotterdam, she also was surprised to see the whiteness of Utrecht University in her classes and in the curriculum. Therefore, she strongly advocated for a change in the approaches taken to include literature and perspectives from a non-western background to be more inclusive.
Domi Oliveira agreed with the previous two panellists, but also mentioned that we should look beyond socio-economic class division and start to look more towards sexual orientation and look at structural causes for these feelings of estrangement.
Finally, Fenna Vogelzang tried to take up the concerns raised by the previous panellists and elaborate what she and her team are trying to achieve through the UGlobe Consultancy Project. She explained that the team wants to evaluate decolonisation in the classroom by creating and testing indicators at the Hague University of Applied Sciences. Focussing on non-western student involvement, course curriculums, and teacher pedagogy will, according to Ms Vogelzang raise insights about how decolonisation can be seen in teaching environments.

Discussion and Conclusion

After the wonderful insights of the panel, the Dr. Gillet invited us to discuss in smaller groups any experiences of inclusion and exclusion we might have had in academia. Also, we were ought to brainstorm about potential solution to the problems we encountered or the feelings of exclusion we felt. The results of our discussion were noted by the UGlobe Consultancy students to substantiate their project. The seminar reached its conclusion with drinks and small bites. Additionally, the Decolonisation Group festively announced the launch of its Unsettling Knowledge podcast. The first episode is mainly about Indo-Dutch cuisine and can be listened to here.