Co-creating curriculum through the course Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World

School:  Social and Political Science

Team Members:  Meryl Kenny, Fiona Mackay, Radhika Govinda, Sarah Liu

Abstract

Proposals for students to collaborate in pedagogical planning and curriculum development have taken on increasing weight in calls for sharing responsibility for learning among students and teachers and building community. Yet while much has been written on student engagement in curriculum design, less work has been done on how to engage students in curriculum operation. In other words, student co-production is sometimes treated as a one-off exchange, rather than an ongoing process.

This project seeks to fill this gap, working with past and current students, tutors and lecturers on the pre-Honours course Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World (UGCW) to (re)design and pilot new co-production structures and practices; further embed intersectional and decolonial feminist approaches and pedagogy into course content and delivery; and promote student belonging and build student-student and staff-student community. In doing so, it takes forward the Belonging and Curriculum Transformation agendas, employing collaborative and experiential co-production practices that will allow students to work in partnership with their peers and faculty to shape substantive teaching at the university; to reflect and integrate their learning into their own practice; and to discover the relevance and value of their learning through a hands-on real-world application that will make a difference to their peers.