In this extra post, Charlie Bevan, Sharon Boateng, and Megan Douglas from the Edinburgh Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program↗️ share valuable insights from their conversation with Dr Omolabake Fakunle, Chancellors Fellow at the Moray House School of Education and Sport and Institute for Education. The blog post highlights the importance and practical challenges in engaging online students in decolonising the curriculum.

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In May 2024, Dr Omolabake Fakunle↗️, Chancellors Fellow at the Moray House School of Education and Sport and Institute for Education, hosted a series of roundtable discussions on decolonisation with The University of Edinburgh students. This is part of Dr Fakunle’s work to support the Curriculum Transformation Project↗️, a long term initiative for the University to review the shape, design, and delivery of the current curriculum. The roundtable talks with students included on-campus and online Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program↗️ Scholars and Fellows from the online Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Programme↗️.

Following the conclusion of the roundtable talks, Charlie Bevan, Sharon Boateng, and Megan Douglas from the Edinburgh Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program team had an engaging conversation with Dr Fakunle afterwards to ask her a series of questions. The topic of the importance and practicalities of meaningful engagement with online students arose very organically, so it was fitting that we had this chat with Dr Fakunle over Microsoft Teams!

Charlie: Can you tell us about the original plan to engage students in the decolonising the curriculum initiative?

Omolabake: This relates to my EDI (decolonisation) role within the Curriculum Transformation Project (CTP). This entails the development of a university-wide holistic framework for decolonising the curriculum. The first step is to understand how decolonisation is currently conceived and embedded in the curriculum across all three Colleges. At that initial stage, collecting data from students did not seem feasible as part of the initial work to be delivered within six months. Hence, at the onset, it was more about scoping conceptual frameworks and existing brilliant initiatives by staff related to decolonising the curriculum.

But students’ input is key, to understand not just how decolonising the curriculum is enacted by academics, but also how this is perceived by students.

It is therefore important to have student input as well.

Sharon: At what point did you decide to include students in the project?

Omolabake: In conversations with other people, including staff, the question arose: what about the students? Because students are the intended recipients of the decolonised curricula. So, I then devised a plan to do a roundtable discussion with a maximum of ten students. Due to connections with Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, I asked Sharon and Megan if they could refer students. We had done a Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program in-person [workshop] during Black History Month.  I felt that a similar in-person roundtable would work perfectly for intimate conversations. Megan suggested that some of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Scholars and Fellows were fully online, meaning they couldn’t be physically present in Edinburgh. This was a pivotal moment, making me realise that we needed to ensure that we also capture the voices of online students’ too.

Megan: How did you adapt the project for online students?

Omolabake: Initially, I planned one roundtable with ten students. To support the intentional integration of the voices of online students, I had to adapt the targeted sample. Due to time constraints and the expediency needed, I asked the gatekeepers to recruit interested students. The response was more than anticipated, so we doubled it to two online roundtables. By this time, due to students’ interest I had to amend plans, and we eventually held three in-person roundtables. We also needed budget approval to compensate students for their time, which was approved due to the high interest.

This inclusion of online Fellows became part of the conversation on decolonising the curriculum, highlighting the importance of inclusivity.

Sharon: What impact did the online students have on the roundtable conversations?

Omolabake: : One of the things I found was that there are some programs, especially the WESAF Doctoral Programme, where everything is done online, and all the students are from different countries (and ethnicities) in Africa. This created a unique cohort with diverse experiences of decolonisation, allowing them to share their opinions.

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program scholars were in more mixed programs, involving students from various ethnic groups within and outside Africa. The dynamics between these programs and their understanding of decolonisation were quite interesting. This variety of experiences and perspectives would have been lost if I had focused only on in-person students. It was a critical contribution to our understanding of decolonisation from the student perspective.

Charlie: What were the logistical challenges in engaging with online students?

Omolabake: Initially, the idea was to reward students with vouchers for a bookshop in Edinburgh, but it wasn’t feasible for the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program to sponsor plane tickets for collecting a £10 voucher! The way around this was to negotiate with students about the type of vouchers they could use in their own country without extra costs. They were unanimous in choosing vouchers usable on a more global platform, although this required an approval process, causing delays.

This experience highlighted the need to consider that not all our students are in the UK, prompting us to think about fair and inclusive ways to reward students. This was an unplanned learning outcome from engaging with online scholars.

Charlie, Inga, Sharon and Megan: Thank you, Omolabake!

We appreciated getting the opportunity to speak with Dr Fakunle, and remain committed to exploring ways in which Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Scholars and Fellows can contribute to positive change, including efforts to decolonise the curriculum. As Dr Fakunle pointed out, engaging with all students, regardless of whether they are online or on-campus, is vital for collecting a variety of experiences and perspectives.

To learn more about Dr Fakunle’s involvement in collaborative efforts to decolonise the curriculum, you can contact her at omolabake.fakunle@ed.ac.uk↗️

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Omolabake (Labake) Fakunle

Dr Omolabake (Labake) Fakunle is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (UoE) and Coordinator of the MSc Education General Pathway, Moray House School of Education. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Labake leads an EDI subgroup at the School level and is a Steering Group Member for the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) Project on Decoloniality (2021-2024). Her award-winning research explores the intersection of internationalisation, inclusivity, employability and education policy. Labake has led and worked with multi-disciplinary teams on national and multi-national research projects in higher education.
Email: omolabake.fakunle@ed.ac.uk
Twitter/X: @LabakeFakunle

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Charlie Bevan

Charlie Bevan is the Program Director of the University of Edinburgh Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

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Sharon Boateng

Sharon Boateng is the Program Manager of the University of Edinburgh Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.

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Megan Douglas

Dr Megan Douglas is the Program Coordinator (Edinburgh) for the Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) Doctoral Program (funded by the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program).

Jul 1, 2024