Introduction
This report focuses on the Intervention I carried out around decolonising knowledge, literature and publishing for MA Publishing students at LCC in May 2025.
The Intervention is born out of my positionality (Bayeck 2022) of being an Indian woman academic in Publishing Studies in the UK. As the only POC teaching on the course, I feel the passion and pressure (pressure to be the ‘voice that you didn’t sign up for’ is discussed by Garrett 2024) to decolonise the curriculum and broaden the predominantly white British reading lists with other perspectives. I have been mostly happy to do so as my research is about the postcoloniality of British publishing. In fact, one of my first actions in this job was to recommend books from Asian and African academics to the LCC Library. My positionality is also significant since I – as an academic, writer and former publisher – am personally impacted by my research and wish to enact change to benefit myself and future academics, writers, readers, and publishers.
This report utilises secondary research regarding theories discussed in the IP Unit and my independent reading, along with the primary research I conducted via a student survey, feedback from my manager, peer feedback, and my own reflection on the execution of my Intervention.
Context
I am a Lecturer on MA Publishing at LCC. My manager received funding from the LCC Climate, Racial and Social Justice Fund to create a student publication on decolonising the LCC Library’s Special Collections and brought me on board to conduct a one-off session. I delivered a session on theories around colonialism, imperialism, hegemony, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, and decolonising, applying them to spheres of literature and publishing. The students used the theories and discussions to foreground their engagement with the chosen archival items to create their publication. I also wrote a foreword for the publication. Images of the publication and my foreword are in the Appendix. More information about the context can be found here.
Inclusive Learning
As future publishers, our students have the opportunity to improve the publishing system from within – as employees at established firms – or from outside – as founders and creators of new publishing projects. Thus, it is key that our students are exposed to theories around decolonising to understand the powerful role British publishing plays and how it impacts other nations’ literature and knowledge systems (Misra 2024). Decolonising allows students to critically question the curricula and note the absences, the silences (Moncrieffe et al 2024; National Education Union nd; UCL 2014). This critical eye is important for intersectionality to understand the complex power dynamics at play in identity politics. The intersectionality I focused on within my session was between race, nationality and language. I did so by examining:
- the position of the English language as the ‘the world’s main commercial language’ (Graham 1998, pp 25-26) and as a colonial remnant in India
- the privileging of white British voices within English-language publishing and literature (Misra 2024), as is within the ‘institutional whiteness’ (Ahmed 2012, p 33, cited in Lukkien et al 2024, p 5) of British academia
More information around this intersectionality can be found in my foreword to the publication (see Appendix).
Reflection and Evaluation
I have combined these two sections as I already carried out my Intervention and can reflect on and evaluate its process.
The biggest drawback was something I knew would be an issue – I only had half an hour to cover immense, important themes in a one-off session. Moreover, the session was only delivered to volunteering students (10 out of class total of 28), so the entire cohort didn’t engage with it. The peer feedback from my IP Unit group echoed this constructive feedback:
Laura-Beth: ‘Short time for session, broad themes and subjects, maybe ask students to focus one aspect and the present it to the class to show understanding of learning. Is there scope to make something in the course assessment specifically focus on this i.e a blog post, essay?’
Paul: ‘Great to acknowledge that it needs to be embedded. Would be great to offer specific ways this could happen in class activities/assignments etc.’
I agree with these points. However, I chose to treat this Intervention as a positive opportunity – a pilot – to test student response to decoloniality themes and embedding them within the course. I conducted an anonymous short survey for this, sharing the link after the session via email. The survey sample size was anyway small (1o students) and only 4 answered (40% response rate). Thus, I realise this data must be taken with a grain of salt. My IP Unit group peer Misha raised a good point: ‘If student response rate is too low and hard to manage, maybe you can try to collect students’ feedback during the session, rather than afterward?’ Ideally – and in future – I would do this. But I couldn’t as there wasn’t enough time in the 30-minute session.
a. Survey Findings
Overall, students felt they learnt something new and useful from the session:
Regarding the use of teaching theories around decoloniality for lifelong learning (discussed in Blog Task 3 and by Sadiq 2023 regarding diversity), it is important to note that three students could see the relevance in their careers:
This was heartening to see due to the long-term impact I hope this Intervention will have (discussed in Inclusive Learning section).
Two students felt this teaching should be embedded in the course, while one was unsure and another said no (latter two didn’t provide a reason). The two saying yes said that it should be embedded in the MA Publishing Context unit (discussed more in Action section). To have more open dialogue and show students the relevance of decoloniality in their student life, I shared some information regarding unconscious bias and Awarding Gaps at British universities (inspired from our IP workshops). One student liked the video excerpt I played about ‘white curriculum’ (UCL 2014). The slides from my session are attached in the Appendix.
Regarding the curation of the Special Collections artefacts by LCC Librarians, a student had this insightful thought: ‘I think instead of approaching decolonisation whereby we shed light on works that discussed, shared, celebrated ideas and views now deemed wrong, offensive or inappropriate, we could instead look for works that got sidelined because of where they came from or who made them, and give those the spotlight. Just some thoughts, may not be applicable.’ This view is extremely applicable as it is within the spirit of decolonisation – instead of just critiquing the canon, we must open the canon to voices that have been so far silenced. I will take this feedback on board if we repeat this project.
b. Manager Feedback
I asked my manager for her feedback to the session, and she stated:
Her comments underscore the significance of engaging with these foundational theories before diving into the activity as it led to a richer discussion. The students were able to interact with the artefacts from a better-informed position, with a more critical eye. I appreciate my manager’s agreement in embedding these theories in a formal manner within the course for the benefit of the entire cohort.
Action
My next actions include developing a longer lecture and activity on this for the Context unit and also using this experience as a foundation for my Action-Research Project (ARP). I have so far believed that teaching staff must carry the weight of the learning and provide knowledge to willing students since they pay high fees to attend university. However, in doing so, I became a gatekeeper and authority figure in the classroom, which was not my aim. Through discussions in the IP Unit (and realisations I’ve had in my blog posts and interacting with peers’ blogs), I have realised that I must democratise my classroom and teaching. Thus, in the future, I will ask the students to do some readings before the Context session and leave more time for class discussion and activities. Inspired by the feedback I received from my tutor Victor, I will also create a ‘collective resource’ to which my students and colleagues can add recommendations throughout the course. This could be one of the aims for my ARP.
For the ARP, I am considering organising a hybrid panel of publishers and academics from around the world to platform voices not often heard in British academia. Also, I will include the students and other (non-POC) teaching staff to create a rich list of resources in the ‘collective resource’ throughout the course for the different topics we teach from different perspectives. By doing so, I will empower students to include voices from their cultural and national contexts (encouraging intersectionality) and encourage colleagues to have these conversations within their classrooms too.
Conclusion
This Intervention served well as a pilot to show that students can be eager to learn about theories around decoloniality and appreciate its application in their careers. My positionality is significant regarding decoloniality and EDI due to my professional interests and my personal position as an Indian woman writer and academic. However, I must extend the social-justice aims and inclusivity to the methods I employ, as Smith rightly (2021) states: ‘methods are not neutral’. Thus, I aim to democratise my methods by enabling and empowering students to engage with decolonising. While my PhD is based on postcolonial theory , I am by no means an authority on all relevant subject knowledge, especially from different global perspectives. Thus, in this process I will develop my own knowledge and become a better-informed educator. By including both students and colleagues in this process, I will also enact long-term, sustainable intersectional social justice as I will no longer be the sole person pressured to include decoloniality and intersectionality within the course as the only POC teaching staff.
References
Ahmed, S (2012) On Being Included. Duke University Press.
Altbach, P G and Teferra, D (1998) Publishing and Development: A Book of Readings. Massachusetts: Bellagio Publishing Network.
Ashcroft, B et al (1989) The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. London: Routledge.
Batty, D (2020) ‘Only a fifth of UK universities say they are “decolonising’ curriculum”, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/only-fifth-of-uk-universities-have-said-they-will-decolonise-curriculum.
Bayeck, R Y (2022) ‘Positionality: The Interplay of Space, Context and Identity’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21, pp 1-9. DOI: 10.1177/16094069221114745.
Brouillette, S (2007) Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Casanova, P (2004) The World Republic of Letters. Translated by M B DeBevoise. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Chakava, H (1996) Publishing in Africa: One Man’s Perspective. Massachusetts: Bellagio Publishing Network.
Gandhi, L (1998) Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Garrett, R (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp 1-15. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886 (Accessed 17 July 2025).
Graham, G (1998) ‘Multinationals and Third World Publishing’, Publishing and Development: A Book of Readings. Edited by Philip G Altbach and Damtew Teferra. Massachusetts: Bellagio Publishing Network, pp 17-30.
Huggan, G (2001) The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. London: Routledge.
Lukkien, T et al (2024) ‘Addressing the diversity principle–practice gap in Western higher education institutions: A systematic review on intersectionality’, British Educational Research Journal, pp 1-9.
Merriam, S B et al (2011) ‘Power and positionality: Negotiating insider/outsider status within and across cultures’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20(5), pp 405–416. DOI: 10.1080/02601370120490 (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Misra, S (2024) Whose words are we reading? The Cartelisation of Anglophone Trade Book Publishing and Its Postcolonial Impact: The Case of India. PhD Thesis. University of Stirling.
Moncrieffe, M et al (2024) The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice. Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/the-bera-guide-to-decolonising-the-curriculum (Accessed 21 July 2025).
Muldoon, J (2019) ‘Academics: it’s time to get behind decolonising the curriculum’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/20/academics-its-time-to-get-behind-decolonising-the-curriculum (Accessed 21 July 2025).
National Education Union (nd) ‘Decolonising Education’. Available at: https://neu.org.uk/advice/equality/race-equality/decolonising-education (Accessed 21 July 2025).
Sadiq, A (2023) ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right | Asif Sadiq | TEDxCroydon’, TEDx Talks [Online]. YouTube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw (Accessed 20 July 2025).
Smith, L T (2021) ‘Decolonial Research Methods: Resisting Coloniality in Academic Knowledge Production: Webinar 2’, National Centre for Research Methods. [Online]. YouTube. 22 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFQ09rPQFyA (Accessed 22 July 2025).
UAL Decolonising Arts Institute (nd) Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute (Accessed 21 July 2025).
UCL (2014) ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ [Online]. YouTube. 11 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dscx4h2l-Pk (Accessed 21 July 2025).
Appendix
- For easy reference, here is what I wrote for the Formative, which provides context to my Intervention:
‘My PhD research analysed the postcolonial impact of the British publishing industry upon the Global South, with a focus on India, due to some business practices. I teach on the MA Publishing programme, and I am one of two POC in our overall department of Journalism & Publishing (while I am the only POC on the Publishing course). Coincidentally (or is it?), both of us are interested in decolonising our subjects for our students to enable them to engage with more perspectives and widen their horizons. It is helpful that my colleague also did the PgCert last year, so we are able to have these discussions foregrounded in the Inclusive Practices Unit.
My manager appreciates the expertise I bring and wished for me to apply it in a one-off session with some of our MA students – the ones who volunteered for an extra-curricular project, Decolonising the Library Collection. My manager was awarded some funding for it and brought me on board. While I have spoken to the MA students more generally about my research in one lecture, this was the first time I engaged them in foundational theories of colonialism, imperialism, hegemony, postcolonialism, neocolonialism, and decolonising, and applied them to the literature and publishing spheres.
In my Intervention Plan, I will assess the execution of this one-off session using my own experience of delivering the lecture, the feedback from my manager, and the feedback from the students in a short anonymous survey I conducted. I will then examine whether it would be useful to include such a session in a more permanent and sustainable manner within the main teaching so that the entire class can benefit from it as opposed to the one-third that volunteered for this extra-curricular project. I will also discuss whether it is more helpful to have one lecture fully dedicated to postcolonialism and decolonising, or if it is more impactful if we address them during all of our teaching.’
2. Here are the slides I used for my session:
3. Here is the foreword I wrote for the publication, inspired by my own session and the discussions we had around the politics of the English language as a colonial remnant:
4. Here is the overall beautiful publication that our MA Publishing student volunteers produced in a tight turnaround:
Figures 5–10: Snapshots of the Decolonising the Archive publication (2025) produced by MA Publishing student volunteers