2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

MODL3620 Decolonial Approaches

20 creditsClass Size: 32

Module manager: Dr Stuart Green
Email: s.n.s.j.green@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module will equip students with an understanding of decolonial approaches to research, which they can apply to their own research projects and wider studies. This will entail an investigation of Eurocentric norms of Learning and Teaching in university studies. It will centre indigenous and marginalised knowledge systems. Students will be encouraged to take a self-reflective approach to their own positionality as researchers.

Objectives

To interrogate the ideological bases of the assumptions that underpin university- based research.
To acquire a nuanced knowledge of non-Eurocentric epistemologies and research methods
To investigate and apply cross cultural research skills to academic practice in appropriate ways.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to;
1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of how thinkers, writers and activists critique Eurocentric critical concepts and methodologies from a variety of positions.
2. Devise a research methodology for application in current and future research and critical thinking, for example in their Final Year Projects.
3. Reflect critically on their own knowledge, research methods and positionality.
4. Locate non-Eurocentric sources of knowledge and critically evaluate them.
5. Construct a detailed argument supporting their chosen research methodology and evidence this using primary and/or secondary sources.

Syllabus

Outline syllabus:
This field summarises the indicative content and areas which will be taught during the module. The syllabus will cover a variety of subjects which may include;
● The meaning and contested nature of the term ‘decolonise’
● Principles/practices/methods of cross-cultural research
● Gendered research and the tyranny of gender binaries
● Racism, Orientalism/Islamophobia, anti-Semitism
● Finding and using sources differently, asking different research questions, centring indigenous and marginalised knowledge systems
● Building non-traditional sources into a coherent and analytically sound research methodology (sources such as the figure of the ‘x-ian’, oral poetry of the Tamazight in colonial Morocco).

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Tutorials	1	0.50	0.50
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Seminar	8	1.00	8.00
Private study hours			180.50
Total Contact hours			19.50
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Students will be expected to prepare for each lecture and seminar by undertaking private study of set texts and appropriate secondary material. (4hrs per week) They will also be expected (with help from lecturers) to identify decolonial sources that speak to their FYP research (2 hrs).
More in-depth reading and viewing will be necessary to prepare for the two assessment tasks. The reflective log necessitates weekly short writing tasks. It can not be undertaken all at once towards the end of the module.
Full guidance on how students should structure their time will be given in the first week of the module.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Seminars
Feedback on literature review will feed into reflective log.
Students will be offered formative feedback on plans for both the literature review and the reflective log during their tutorial.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Literature Review	2000 Words	40.00
Reflective log	3000 words (written) 20 mins (podcast)	60.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Reflective log can be submitted in a written format (including blog – 3000 words), or audio podcast or video presentation (20 mins). Full training will be provided for blog, and podcast/video presentation.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 01/05/2024

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