The psychology curriculum has close ties to the histories and cultural traditions of industrialised societies’ white middle-class populations, so it is unclear how it may relate to the values and interests of students from a variety of ethnic, racial and socio-economic backgrounds in the contemporary higher education settings. To address this question, me and my colleague Marta Jackowska, we established an innovative research project of de-centring the psychology curriculum, so that BA students from diverse backgrounds could familiarise themselves with cultural-historical, postcolonial, feminist and other critical approaches and reflect on the histories, contexts and limitations of classic developmental psychological theories and research. We also conducted focus group discussions with the students as to explore the teaching of psychology through their perspectives. The findings of our research form the basis for critical reflection on the positionality of psychological knowledge and the possibilities and challenges of de-centring the psychology curriculum in the contemporary university settings.
The relevant article (published with Theory & Psychology) is available HERE.
Looking very much forward to your feedback.
CoDesigning Glob@l Childhood & Youth Futures 