What we did
Even if awareness and consensus that veterinary curriculums need decolonising has been increasing, lecturers feel lost as to where to start and how to go about it and often ask for “top tips”. But decolonising is a process of reflection; it can be challenging and feel uncomfortable or vulnerable and lecturers complain there seems to be no time to engage with the task. The process needs to be inclusive too and start by listening to students’ views on how coloniality shows up in the classroom. Building on momentum created through a set of training materials and a decolonisation debate in 2023, this project set out to provide students and lecturers with safe and facilitated spaces to make practical progress: one focus group with BVSc students and two workshops with BVS lecturers.
Our approach was inclusive and decolonial in itself: the team represented a diversity of races, genders and abilities and included Jessica Echevarría, a year 3 BVSc student, Francesca Osello, a UoB alumni from the MSc in Global Wildlife Health and Conservation and María Paula Escobar, an immigrant interdisciplinary senior lecturer.
What we learnt
The initial focus group session with BVS undergraduates revealed students’ acute awareness of the issue: who and with which criteria defines our curriculum, they wanted to know. We learnt that coloniality sometimes shows up inadvertently in the classroom when lecturers:
- talk of their experiences of visiting other cultures and reproduce white people’s sense of superiority or when their views don´t seem to consider the complexity that might explain what they witness abroad
- use inappropriate terminology, like when referring to Southwest Asian and North African countries as the Middle East and North Africa. The latter term reproduces a Euro-centric view of the world that denotes power dynamics, whereas the former emphasises geography
- use colloquial expressions unfamiliar for international students
- avoid “getting into the politics” of issues when doing so would provide a valuable opportunity to talk about difference and respect without judgement
- don’t provide examples of how to adjust treatments and procedures to different contexts where the same resources might not be available or of how animals have different diseases or are farmed or looked after in different ways in other countries
- encourage students to look for work opportunities only in Europe, the USA, Australia or New Zealand but never in Global Majority countries -which would need to be presented not with a sense of charity or superiority but in the spirit of collaborations founded on equity and justice
- miss opportunities to bring external speakers of colour or minoritised
- use the argument of tradition “this is how it has always been done” as an explanation instead of encouraging critical thinking
We presented these findings at the first of two workshops for lecturers where we revisited concepts related to decolonisation and provided practical examples of how lectures have been decolonised at BVS and in other schools within the Faculty. We then used the workshop’s discussion to create a tool that stimulates lecturers’ reflections and offers practical steps to decolonise their lectures. In the first workshop we had learnt that working as a group allowed lecturers to ease their discomfort with feelings that decolonisation can stir, including guilt, shame or vulnerability, and gain the confidence and creativity required for individual work. Thus, in the second workshop lecturers started by using the tool to discuss their lectures as a group and moved on to individual work on a specific lecture of their choice.
Our achievements and next steps
Our feedback and evaluation questionnaires showed our training improved knowledge, inspired and motivated participants to work on decolonising their lectures. After the first workshop, all participants felt they had a good understanding of decolonisation and better knowledge of practical steps they could take. By the end of the second workshop, two thirds of them had already started to decolonise their lectures and felt confident and committed to the process. Participants appreciated the toolkit of stimulating questions and found it gave structure to their efforts.
| Indicator | Before the workshop | After the workshop |
| Knowledge of topic | Vague Idea 86% Good understanding 14% | Good understanding 100% |
| Interest and commitment | We need to but not mine 14% I want to but don’t know how 72% Already taken some steps 14% | We need to but not mine 0% I want to but don’t know how 14% Already taken some steps 14% |
| Knowledge of practical options | No idea 29% Vague idea 71% | Vague idea 14% Good understanding 86% |
| Usefulness | Presentations Very useful 100% Discussions Very useful 100% Materials Somewhat useful 14% Very useful 86% |
| Inspiring | Presentations Very inspiring 100% Discussion Somewhat inspiring 17% Very inspiring 83% Materials Very inspiring 100% |
A group of us agreed to form BVS Decolonisation Collective to continue to continue to support each other in our decolonisation efforts, further develop the toolkit and create a portfolio of examples that we can bring to our colleagues and inspire our colleagues. We presented these results at a BVS Assembly and are working on a proposal to the Research Cultures Fund to develop the toolkit into a resource that supports researchers across the University to embed decolonisation into their research projects.
Contact
For more information, please contact María Paula Escobar, senior lecturer at the Vet School. mariapaula.escobar@bristol.ac.uk
Authors:
María Paula Escobar-Tello, Jessica Echevarría and Francesca Osello
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