In summer 2023, Leeds Beckett University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion money, kindly funded Pearl Tshimbalanga, a former undergraduate psychology student with interests in decolonizing psychology, to work as a research assistant producing practical psychology teaching materials. Alongside Glen Jankowski, Pearl highlighted work that applied Global Southern insights to popular subtopics taught in psychological curricula. This work exists – but is often neglected in the psychology taught in the UK and the Global North. Examples included the application of the pan-African concept of Ubuntu to wellbeing and the self; see Nyengele,… Read more Practical decolonial psychology teaching examples →
Our group has published some work on British students perceptions of curriculum decolonisation. The research shows there is broad support for this – which makes sense. Students rarely sign up… Read more Students’ support for curriculum diversification →
The below video is a brief and (hopefully) accessible introduction to the ways in which racism overlaps with class. The material underpinnings of racism are often ignored, and class can sometimes be co-opted as something that only disadvantages white people. The video draw on UK and US evidence of property and wealth inequalities. Full sources are below. ~Glen Jankowski Adesina, Z., & Marocico, O. (2017, February 6). Adam or Mohamed – who gets the job? BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-38751307 Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg More Employable… Read more Racism & Class →
Aim: To quantitatively assess White, Globally Northern, androcentrism across the leadership of the British Psychology Society, with a focus on its former presidents. Method: The British Psychological Society (BPS) lists their current and former presidents’ names, years of offices and sometimes URL links to obituaries or work on their website (The British Psychological Society n.d.). The likely, identifiable, ethnicity, gender and nationality of these presidents was coded. Results: At the time of the write up (2020), there had been 85 current or former presidents of BPS society. Most of the… Read more BPS Presidents →
Of the successes of Decolonial Higher Education efforts, much is owed to BAME student activists. The #WhyIsMyCurriculumWhite, #RhodesMustFall and #WhyIsntMyProfessorBlack movements were initiated by students (and our project here was directly inspired by former Leeds University Union Education officer (2015 – 2017) Melz Owusu). In addition, as the recipients of higher education, and as those with lived experience of racism, BAME students are uniquely placed to input into these efforts. As Michelle Fine (2014) notes: “the people who have experienced injustice have brilliant insight into injustices, the nature of injustices,… Read more Student anti-racism: A case study →
The Gap The ‘Race’ Attainment Gap refers to the higher chance White students in Higher Education have of getting a 1st or 2:1 degree compared to their Black, Asian, Minoritized Ethnic (BAME) counterparts. Nationally, the latest data shows White students are 13% more likely to be awarded these grades compared to BAME students, although this increases to 23% when looking at Black students specifically. Here at Leeds Beckett University, at our school of social sciences, data shows that there is a 23% attainment gap between White and BAME students (Craig,… Read more The ‘Race’ Attainment Gap →
BME Psychology 