Making it inclusive: Reflections on designing a training session for 'decolonising' the curriculum

Abstract

Within English Language Teaching (ELT) researchers have discussed ‘decolonising’ in different contexts
and perspectives: from an identity and language ownership perspective (see Norton, 1997), with reference
to experiences in post-colonial countries (see Mishra & Bardhan, 2010; Molina, 2021; Motha, 2006;
Pennycook, 2020), and de-centring whiteness in ELT (see Gerald, 2020). However, the term ‘decolonising’ had not been discussed much in my sector in the UK, which is the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) sector. Designing the training session provided an opportunity for me to research the different definitions and perspectives of ‘decolonising’ the curriculum.
In this account, I share my interpretation of the use of this term, within the United Kingdom (UK) ESOL context. I describe what I considered when planning the training, reflecting that designing inclusive materials requires an intersectional view of exclusion. I include as Appendix A a framework adapted from Bollas (2020) that could be used by ESOL teachers to develop inclusive materials.