As a science teacher, it has always been extremely clear what we teach, when we teach it, and why we teach it.
Biology – making sense of all that is living; chemistry – the study of substances, and so on. Race, ethnicity, gender have nothing to do with it.
However, an issue I have with that view is how do I then get the under-represented groups in science, my students, to make deeper connections with the subject when they do not see or believe that science is for them?
Teaching about the lives of black people, particularly black British people, is not something that (I believe) should be left to the history department, and neither should it be a standalone unit looking only at topics such as at the transatlantic slave trade. Black British History did not end or begin with the slave trade nor enslaved people, and to perpetuate this narrative is inaccurate and too commonly done.
As a scientist and black woman, it is important to me that the many students I teach, who look like me and have similar backgrounds, can see both representation and relatability in our curriculum.
But how could I evolve and improve our curriculum without straying from the exam specifications and adding significant teaching time (which we didn’t have)?
This mammoth task was not achieved overnight, nor could it be done without the help of others (a solid team) or dedicated time, and there would be several steps which we would have to take to get this right.
Step 1: Curriculum audit
I took the time to audit our curriculum: it taught the basic foundations, it was packed with opportunities for literacy and numeracy, it was filled with exciting opportunities for STEM and extra-curricular activities. But it was clear the curriculum was very Euro-centric – many of the notable science greats were found throughout key stages 3 to 5, but they all seemed the same…
Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution in year 7 building on this at year 11 with the less well-known evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck; George Ohm, a German physicist who created Ohm’s Law, and Carolus (Carl) Linnaeus, the creator of binomial nomenclature and classification in biology. There are many more examples I could cite – Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Dimitri Mendeleev. All scientists who have made significant contributions to science (which we should continue to celebrate and teach), but they all had three common denominations: white, male, and long since passed away. Knowing the wider histories and the “big picture” of many of these scientists was where improving our curriculum needed to begin.
Step 2: Decolonising
“Decolonise the curriculum” – three words which have become increasingly common in education since the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Calls for decolonising the curriculum and true reform were made from early years through to higher education, but with the petition to make black History compulsory being denied, as an educator it is a difficult place knowing where to begin.
As a black female educator, well attuned to her history and passionate in science, I used my own knowledge as a starting point. Starting with scientists featured in the curriculum, this would be the basis for our own attempt at decolonising our curriculum. We began starting with Carl Linnaeus.
Scientific racism, often referred to as biological racism, can be traced back to one of its founding fathers – Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. In his work on classification, where he attempted to find defining characteristics in plants, animals, and humans, he deduced four different “species” of man.
Homo Europaeus, the “species” hailing from Europe, were described as white and muscular and seen as inventors and intelligent beings; in contrast, Homo Africanus were a “species” originating from Africa, who were described as black and lazy beings, with hair like wool and personality traits of being sly and deceitful.
Though the term “race” was coined much earlier, Linneaus in his scientific contributions to this field brought clout to earlier theories – that people of colour were inferior to white people.
Other scientists featured in decolonisation efforts included Robert Boyle, featured in the physics and chemistry curriculums at key stages 4 and 5 with relation to Boyle’s laws of gas and pressure. He was one of the earliest scientists to work within the realms of scientific racism. His theories on monogenism meant that he believed all races were born from white people. His work also described an assumed superiority of European features which many scientists at the time and thereafter have dismissed.
By building our curriculum to include the work that was darker, and lesser known, we have been able to empower our young people with the knowledge of the science and scientists they were unaware of.
Teaching our students the “whole story” means they know of the many fantastic things that these scientists did, but also of the less favourable and (often) shocking exploits they may have been a part of, or even created.
Many of our students, particularly black students have been able to engage more enthusiastically and passionately with more parts of the curriculum, bringing opinion and debate more frequently into the classroom.
Step 3: Diversifying
Diversifying and decolonising are two very different approaches to changing a curriculum and achieving real representation, for not just our black students, but also our students from other under-represented groups in science.
As a department, we collectively underwent diversifying as many areas of our GCSE curriculum and bridging key stage 3 to 4 content as possible, with a goal of embedding new content without it becoming tokenistic.
Our department consisted of Caribbean, West African, Far East Asian, European, and American staff members, with unique backgrounds and educational perspectives – this made the task of diversifying easier in many aspects.
We chose scientists of both past and present who directly linked to specification points of our curriculum and who represented the diverse community of students we teach.
DeShaine Murray is a current PhD researcher based in London. We embedded his work on neurotechnology into our lessons on the brain in biology. As a young black male, with a similar upbringing to some of our students, he represents success in STEM which we haven’t always seen.
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan activist and the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace prize. She was passionate about the environment and sustainable development and her movement led to 30 million trees being planted. Her work directly correlates to the biology unit ecology and the discussion of deforestation and land use.
Another well-known name in the scientific community is Henrietta Lacks. With the biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks published in 2019, her life and contributions to science research have become more widely known and it was important that her story was shared with our students also. Henrietta was a cervical cancer patient whose cells were taken and cultured (without her knowledge) to form the immortal He-La cell line, an important cell line of medical research.
Not only does the embedding of Henrietta Lacks into our curriculum fit into the non-communicable diseases and cancer sections of biology, but it also fits within cell biology and the wider debate of ethics in science.
This was made easier through the sharing of resources across networks and hubs, such as the Tes Black Experiences Hub. The hub meant there were other resources that we could find and make use of – not just in science, but across the school curriculum.
Conclusion
Decolonising and diversifying are not easy tasks; made even harder when you want to do it properly. The research takes time – a commodity which is both precious and scarce within the teaching community. The creating of our resources took time, as did the many discussions and then implementation as a team.
Neither is it perfect and complete. However, the time and efforts are worth it when you realise the impact on students, particularly our black students. Students open up, engage, discuss and in some cases realise that science may just be something they can aspire to and be a part of.
- Genevieve Bent is an assistant principal with the Harris Federation.
Further information & resources
To access the Tes Black Experiences Hub, visit www.tes.com/teaching-resources/black-experiences-hub