De-centring the Psychology Curriculum: Diversity, Social Justice & Psychological Knowledge

TY - JOUR

T1 - De-centring the Psychology Curriculum: Diversity, Social Justice & Psychological Knowledge

AU - Kontopodis, Michalis

AU - Jackowska, Marta

PY - 2019/6/24

Y1 - 2019/6/24

N2 - The psychologycurriculum has close ties to the histories and cultural traditions ofindustrialised societies’ white middle-class populations, so it is unclear how itmay reflect the interests and values of students from a variety of ethnic,racial and socio-economic backgrounds in the contemporary higher educationsettings. To address this question, we established an innovative researchproject of de-centring the psychology curriculum, sothat BA students from diverse backgrounds could familiarise themselves withcultural-historical, postcolonial, feminist and other critical psychological approachesas well as reflect on the histories, contexts and epistemologies of classicdevelopmental psychological theories and research. We conducted focus groupdiscussions with the students as to explore their views on the introducedcontents and approaches. The findings of our research form the basis forcritical reflection on the possibilities and challenges of de-centring thepsychology curriculum in the contemporary university settings. © 2019, The Authors. This is an author produced version of a paper published in THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

AB - The psychologycurriculum has close ties to the histories and cultural traditions ofindustrialised societies’ white middle-class populations, so it is unclear how itmay reflect the interests and values of students from a variety of ethnic,racial and socio-economic backgrounds in the contemporary higher educationsettings. To address this question, we established an innovative researchproject of de-centring the psychology curriculum, sothat BA students from diverse backgrounds could familiarise themselves withcultural-historical, postcolonial, feminist and other critical psychological approachesas well as reflect on the histories, contexts and epistemologies of classicdevelopmental psychological theories and research. We conducted focus groupdiscussions with the students as to explore their views on the introducedcontents and approaches. The findings of our research form the basis forcritical reflection on the possibilities and challenges of de-centring thepsychology curriculum in the contemporary university settings. © 2019, The Authors. This is an author produced version of a paper published in THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

U2 - 10.1177/0959354319858419

DO - 10.1177/0959354319858419

M3 - Article

VL - 29

SP - 506

EP - 520

JO - Theory and Psychology

JF - Theory and Psychology

SN - 0959-3543

IS - 4

ER -