‘From Institutional Exclusion to Institutionalisation: “Decolonising” Literary Curricula’

The cultural institutions that were founded during the British Empire still continue to restrict or prevent unconditional access to people whose heritage bears the marks of British imperial dispossession. It is particularly manifest in the school system and in the curriculum content across the educational sector from primary to tertiary levels. While citizens of African and Asian descent have concertedly challenged racism, under-representation, lack of value, and white dominance— in what is taught and who teaches it – from the post-war period onwards, a new momentum has gathered in addressing this social injustice. This article examines the internventions made into British education through the MA Black British Literature, the EdExcel Pearson A-level in English Literature syllabus, Contemporary Black British Literature and how students respond to and receive these decolonial approaches.