I came across this recent paper in the Journal of Chemistry Education that gives an account of York University’s approach to decolonizing the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. It seems that many institutions talk about taking steps towards decolonizing courses, but I have had difficulty finding guidance of how to do this effectively in a post-secondary science department. This paper outlines some of the steps that are being taken to shift the narrative of the courses away from solely a western view of science.
In one example, instructors of a colloidal chemistry course included a discussion of ancient Egyptian codification of knowledge of papyrus. While this is a relatively small step, the instructor is acknowledging that science has been happening by peoples all over the globe for longer than the western view of science has existed.
