“We believe it is important that every young person can see themselves in the curriculum, have role models and have a sense of belonging.” This young person from Drum Chapel high school anti-racist club highlights the need for developing an anti-racist curriculum. And while many teachers and early years practitioners in Scotland want to do this, there can be a lack of knowledge and confidence around how to do it. This newly launched website seeks to provide the tools and ideas to support educators in Scotland to build an anti-racist curriculum which responds positively to the diverse needs of the individual learners where all cultures religions, identities and languages are recognized and valued. The website provides both professional learning for teachers to build their understanding around key themes and classroom learning materials.
Partnership Working
The resources have been developed by Scotdec and Wosdec in partnership with a racially diverse group of children, young people and educators across different sectors of Scottish education. The children and young people in both Drum Chapel High school, St Eunan’s PS and Newark PS gave us their views on how they wanted to learn. They told us they would like to learn about this topic in an interactive way, for example through videos, discussion and fun activities. In response we have developed workshop style lessons with supporting animations, video clips and lots of participatory activities for the 2nd and 3rd level materials.
"To stop racism, we need to become anti-racist as a society. This means changing the way we think and act, and being prepared to challenge others to do the same."
Practitioner Collaboration
It is important that the resources supported the needs of teachers. Working with teacher groups we identified the 5 themes which the 2nd and 3rd level resources are shaped around and tried out the materials in their classrooms. The themes are wide ranging and cover bias, identity, intersectionality, race, racism, power and privilege. The final theme explores what it means to be anti-racist and take action for change. Each theme follows a similar format with a short animation providing a succinct overview of the theme and workshops which can be adapted to suit the needs of the learners.
First level materials are currently in production and utilise storyline approaches through 5 exciting episodes. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know when they are launched in spring 2025.
The Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles
The Education Scotland Anti-racist curriculum principles provided a further framework to the development of the resource. These principles were co-designed with young people, anti-racist educators and experts and support educators to develop a curriculum which can create space to disrupt racism and other forms of discrimination. They promote the co-design of an anti-racist curriculum with learners and can be seen in practice through these new resources.
"We believe it is important that every young people can see themselves in the curriculum, have role models and have a sense of belonging."
Early Level Resources
Guided by the anti-racist curriculum principles, we created a suite of materials to support those working at early level. We unpacked the principles and reflected on what they would look like when working with young children and have provided practical ideas and examples of good practice for developing spaces, experiences and interactions which support those principles. Alongside this you will find guidance around working in predominantly white settings, with EAL learners and gypsy, traveller families and some audit and self-evaluation tools.
Professional Learning
There is a programme of professional learning running across Scotland to support the implementation of these new education resources with both in-person and online sessions available. Details will be shared through participating local authorities and on Signposts. If you are interested in organising training in your local authority please contact your local DEC.
