果冻影院

The new director of the 果冻影院 Institute of Education (IoE) has said that the centre 鈥渟hould be at the forefront of the decolonising education agenda鈥�.

Li Wei told听Times Higher Education听that he felt it was a critical issue for the IoE听as it is a leading centre for education and social research, and because he hopes to build on the institution鈥檚 international and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Professor Wei, who took up the post earlier this month and was previously chair of applied linguistics and director of the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the IoE, said it was 鈥渞eally important鈥� to decolonise both pedagogies and the curriculum, because 鈥渢he fact that people have different knowledge systems and educational practices is a good thing. The added value of the differences must be considered very carefully and really respected.鈥�

At the IoE, this will involve 鈥渓ooking at what we teach and research but also the way we train teachers for this country, for Europe and the huge number of teachers we train all over the world鈥�. The IOE is one of the UK鈥檚 largest teacher training providers. 听

鈥淭his is the time for us to really reflect on what we have achieved, but also involve our partners in the Global South to revisit and revise our curriculum and pedagogy,鈥� Professor Wei said.

鈥淚 really see the IoE leading the decolonisation agenda. It means a fundamental change of our mindset and our approach to the curriculum and how to genuinely collaborate and work together with people from the Global South and of the global majority.鈥�

For example, university language teaching has been very much confined to European languages, but for Professor Wei, the study of a wider range of languages and broader cultures was essential.

Already the IoE鈥檚 Centre for Languages and International Education means undergraduate students can do languages from Arabic to Chinese to British Sign Language as part of their degree. However, he warned that the听听among GCSE and A-level students was 鈥渁 real worry鈥�, especially because it has prompted a number of recent course closures in UK universities.

鈥淗ow can we even think about global Britain without building the nation鈥檚 multilingual capacity? The closure of university language departments affects Britain鈥檚 capacity to produce the best linguistic and cultural talents for the 21st century and beyond,鈥� he said.

Professor Wei added that there was growing concern that studying modern languages in higher education was becoming the preserve of students from private schools.

The institution had noted that the profile of language teachers 鈥渉as changed quite considerably. It highlights the reliance of modern foreign language teaching on the independent school sector,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause of Brexit, we are reliant on UK language students, who generally come from the independent school sector. The loss of teachers of multiple languages and cultural skills in the state school system is really significant.鈥�

Professor Wei added that it was 鈥渄isappointing鈥� that the government鈥檚 recent proposals on initial teacher training, which would require all providers to go through a process of reaccreditation, did not reflect feedback from the sector.

鈥淭he past 18 months have demonstrated the strength of the existing system, with provision rooted in close partnership between universities and schools having maintained the vital supply of new teachers despite the immense disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic,鈥� he said.

This article first appeared in on 12 July 2021.

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