Challenging the lack of BAME Authors in a Psychology Curriculum

Abstract

Decolonising psychology curricula faces substantial anti-racist inertia and a history of ‘using data limitations as an excuse not to push ahead’ (NUS & Universities UK, 2019; p.35). We report on a targeted curriculum decolonisation project at a British university. We quantitatively coded the identifiable ‘race’, gender and nationality of the authors set as reading at the beginning (in 2015–16) and three-years after the project began (in 2019–20). Our analysis revealed no significant change in the dominance of Globally Northern (95 per cent), white (95 per cent) and male (57 per cent) authors over time. Indeed, there were more White, male authors named John than BAME-female and male authors, of any name, collectively. We call on organisational bodies to promote decolonisation as part of course re-accreditation converging with staff’s interest.