Objectives
The decolonisation process at BMS was initiated by students through a range of activities that culminated in an official exchange between the BAME Medical Students Group and the BMS Executive Committee in Summer 2020. There was strong agreement between BMS exec and the student group that coloniality needed to be analysed, catalogued and acted upon with BMS. In order to make this process effective, sustainable and positive, we also need to understand the views of the general body of educators within BMS. To this end we designed an audit that aimed to
- Engage staff early on, give them a voice and invite them to get involved
- Gauge motivation
- Evaluate barriers to work on decolonisation
- Ask what support will be required
- Understand what work is already underway
The audit was aimed at programme directors and unit leads for all courses across the medical school. The questions posed are in a document at the end of this article.
Summary of results
- Response was good, representative of most courses and clinical/non-clinical divide
- Vast majority think decolonisation is relevant to their topic
- Overall very positive attitude and willingness to engage
- Work has already begun proactively in many cases
The main barriers reported were:
- Workload / time pressure
- Scope and understanding of decolonisation not clear
- Need of practical resources e.g. case studies
- Culture
The main areas of support requested were:
- Recognition of work and contribution to workload models
- A framework to work towards
- Case studies of good practice
- Education for educators on the process and issues
Analysis
Below we’ll draw some of the key messages from the audit
Who responded
- 59 responses – mostly programme directors, unit leads and year leads, also 7 professional services staff
- 17 responses from MB ChB
- Representation from most MSc and BMS-run iBSc courses (but low numbers within each programme – representative?!)
- Approximately 50/50 for clinical/non-clinical
- Representation from 10/29 short courses
- We’re not sure how many programme directors and unit leads there are across the school so it’s not clear how representative this survey is. Likely to overrepresent strong opinions / people already engaged
Current engagement in decolonisation activities
62% reported being either not aware or not having had time to engage with current guidance
Those that did use guidance found it useful (64%)
Is decolonisation relevant to your topic?
Only 3 out of 59 responses thought that decolonisation was not relevant to their topic
Work already being done
- Work is reported to have been undertaken across various aspects of the curriculum – many are already proactively working on this – this can contribute to catalogue of good practice and case studies
- Most have not created a formal plan – we could help
- Notably the vast majority hasn’t started diversifying their reading lists to include scholars from different backgrounds (qs. 19.9, 25.4)
- Notable that <20% or respondents have undertaken decolonisation action plan/review
- BUT some excellent examples (Q19.1-12) which could be shared
How might decolonisation benefit your teaching?
Many positive responses e.g.
- Inclusiveness
- Broader relevance
- Links to other courses
- Teach critical thinking
- Improved population health due to better trained doctors
- Attractive to students
Other comments
- Overall very positive about importance of this work
- There is evidence amongst respondents of insight into the wider importance of this topic
- Integrate with teaching peer-review
- ‘Hidden curriculum’ has not been thought about in PGT (i.e. the culture of different departments/groups to which PhDs are exposed – parallel piece of work?)
- One respondent stated some scepticism – asking for an evidence-based approach, beginning with evidence that there are detrimental outcomes due to colonialization. This is likely an unspoken feeling amongst many.
- Often this is framed by respondents in context of limited resources hence questioning justifcation of time and effort
- Potential solution to focus on engagement/education e.g through examplars and guidance in order to i) sharing the evidence e.g attainment gap ii) make it clear that this work will be recognised and resourced (hopefully). Iii) Important to recognise existing good practice in NHS and academia – but more can be done)
- Need to setup evaluation of the framework