Academy of Ideas's video: After toppling statues is it time to rewrite the curriculum

This is a recording of a debate hosted by the Academy of Ideas Education Forum via Zoom on Monday 6 July 2020: http://academyofideas.org.uk/events/archive/blm_and_toppling_statues_time_to_change_the_curriculum #.X1ouSGdKigQ Should we welcome the de-colonisation of the curriculum as a way of correcting white Anglocentric bias and institutional racism? Or, however well-intentioned, will it encourage tokenistic box-ticking lessons? Might more diversity in the curriculum allow our BAME students to better see their identities affirmed or is this superficial gesture politics? The answers to these questions may depend on how we see schools. Are they microcosms of society and community, where diversity and identity are explicitly celebrated? Or are knowledge transfer and the curriculum a specific domain which should be immune from the external preoccupations of the world of politics and pressure groups? What should be the aim of a good education: to affirm a young person’s identity or take them beyond it? Tarjinder Gill, Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, Gemma Rees and Andre Ediagbonya-Davies discuss. All Academy of Ideas online events are free - if you are in a position to be able to donate, we’d greatly appreciate your support: http://www.academyofideas.org.uk/donate