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Anti-racist curriculum
Anti-racist education is important because racism and racist beliefs continue to exist in Scotland.
An anti-racist curriculum is part of a whole school approach to responding to racism and racist incidents. It applies to the totality of all learning that is planned for children and young people, across the four contexts for learning.
Learning opportunities should challenge outdated and harmful stereotypes in the curriculum. An anti-racist curriculum can:
- ensure every child feels valued as an individual in a learning environment that is safe and inclusive
- allow every child to see themselves in the curriculum and recognise that it is relevant to them
- help every child develop the skills and confidence to stand up to racism together
- improve relationships between children and young people
- reduce prejudice and biases
- increase empathy and a sense of shared humanity
- create learning opportunities that balance British and European perspectives with global perspectives
Emerging from the Anti-Racism in Education Programme, an anti-racist curriculum was formally introduced in Scotland in 2023. Breaking the Mould: Principles for an anti-racist curriculum (PDF) support learners, educators and leaders to understand what an anti-racist curriculum can mean in practice.
The title 'Breaking the Mould', was coined by a Black young person and Member of Scottish Youth Parliament who co-designed the principles with anti-racist educators and experts.
Breaking the Mould describes a diverse, decolonised and anti-racist curriculum. It promotes racial literacy and enquiry into Scotland’s role in historical world events. This includes trans-Atlantic enslavement and colonial histories, and their continuing impact today.
There are 9 principles for children and young people and 8 principles for educators and leaders. These can be used to audit the 4 contexts for learning,design a new curriculum and as part of a proactive whole-setting approach to responding to racism and racist incidents.
Why we need an anti-racist curriculum
Breaking the mould is about recognising and challenging aspects of outdated and Eurocentric perspectives in the curriculum and introducing modern, relevant and responsive contexts for learning for all children and young people.
The anti-racist curriculum principles strengthen opportunities to embrace, celebrate and embed equity, diversity and social justice.
Our curriculum can create space to disrupt racism and other forms of discrimination. The Principles help value, respect, recognise and represent the diversity of all children and young people. They also promote global citizenship and a sense of belonging as part of an inclusive learning environment.
The Vision, Values and Call to Action from the National Discussion on Education, has highlighted the importance of a curriculum that advances human rights, equity, inclusivity, and appreciation of diversity to recognise, respect, and represent the unique talents, characteristics, needs, interests, and potential of all learners.
It is recognised that to fully value, respect, and represent the diversity of people in Scotland, it was important that this is reflected in the curriculum. Principles such as anti-racist education were identified as being paramount.
Educators are the key to bringing anti-racist education to life. They are key to 'breaking the mould' to create a contemporary curriculum that prepares learners for the modern world.
In working towards an anti-racist curriculum, educators will find support from the Scottish Government, Education Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (and their successor bodies), local authority personnel and other system leaders.
How to use the principles
Creating an anti-racist curriculum is a process that requires understanding, reflection and commitment.
Educators, local authorities, schools and early learning and childcare settings can consider how they wish to enact the principles for and with their learners and wider communities.
The principles can also support professional learning, dialogue and reflection for staff and self-evaluation. They promote the co-design of an anti-racist curriculum with learners.
The Principles should be engaged with and alongside:
- children’s rights and human rights
- sustainable development goals
- education professional standards
- equality and inclusion legislation
- Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence
Improvement questions
- Which aspects of your practice already align with the Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles?
- What could be done differently to enact the Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles?
- What support might you need to feel confident to co-design an anti-racist curriculum?
Diversifying the curriculum refers to addressing the absence of diverse narratives, ideas and practices.
A curriculum which represents everyone involves normalising diversity so that learners routinely see language, content and imagery that reflects the diversity of culture, identities, and experiences, including their own.
Normalising difference is more powerful than one-off lessons that explore or celebrate diversity.
Celebrating difference may reinforce stereotypes and careful consideration is advised. This can have the unintended consequence of othering those who are not from the majority group.
Normalising diversity within the curriculum gives every learner the important message of being valued and belonging.
Mirrors and windows
Many educators are using Rudine Sims Bishop’s mirrors and windows approach to diversify the curriculum. This involves asking:
- Where are the 'mirrors' in the curriculum for learners to see themselves and their diverse identities?
- Where are the 'windows' into the lives and perspectives that are not their own?
- Are any of those mirrors and windows presenting distorted, stereotypical or harmful representations?
This approach can be used to consider protected and non-protected characteristics that can lead to marginalisation such as:
- age
- ethnicity, culture and race
- disability and neurodiversity
- gender and sex
- linguistic
- sexual orientation
- family, for example, care-experienced, young carers, nomadic families, LGBT families, lone parents
- religion and belief
- socioeconomic
It is most valuable when done with children and young people.
More information about Mirrors and Windows can be found in the Inclusion Wellbeing and Equalities Framework.
Linguistic diversity and multilingualism
Efforts to diversify the curriculum should include placing greater value on linguistic diversity and multilingualism.
The Scottish Government’s 1+2 Languages Approach describes a framework for language learning based on the mother tongue plus 2 additional languages model.
Race Equality and Scottish School Education notes that currently there are limited opportunities for the learning of heritage languages during the school day. Learners are often taught heritage languages by community members in the evening or at weekends.
The following questions can support reflection:
- How successfully do we promote the benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism in our learning community?
- How are the heritage languages of learners acknowledged and incorporated into the life of the school?
- To what extent is progress in language learning that takes place outside your setting recognised and celebrated?
- How successful are the approaches you use to ensure that bilingual learners have equal access to the curriculum?
Decolonising the curriculum recognises that knowledge presented in education is not neutral. This requires educators to explore:
- which knowledge is valued?
- how is it assessed?
- how was it produced?
- by whom?
- at what cost?
By actively addressing colonial legacies, decolonising the curriculum enables anti-racist education and uncovers multiple, intersectional diverse perspectives.
Drawing attention to marginalised knowledge and to the roots of knowledge encourages consideration of the social, cultural, environmental implications of historical and ongoing unjust practices. See Gandolfi, 2021.
For example, being aware of the human and environmental cost of artificial intelligence or the discoveries during the Enlightenment that relied on the exploitation of women, children, disabled, LGBT, colonised and enslaved people.
Using pedagogical approaches such as critical literacies, children and young people can contribute to the examination of traditionally dominant, normative knowledge. They can amplify historically marginalised knowledge and engage in the co-creation of new knowledge for a socially just and sustainable world.
The Anti-Racist Literacy framework supports practitioners to use critical literacies to design an anti-racist curriculum.
Anti-racist education resources
Funded by the Scottish Government and developed in partnership with practitioners, Scotdec and WOSDEC, antiracisted.scot brings together a wide range of useful anti-racist curricular resources that align with Scotland’s principles for an anti-racist curriculum. These resources include:
- early level anti-racist curricular resources
- first level anti-racist curricular resources
- second and third level anti-racist curricular resources
- anti-racist literacy framework
Curriculum development
The Introduction to anti-racist curriculum development is a guide for teachers, aimed at supporting better practice in Scotland's schools.
STEP offers a curricular toolkit for supporting Gypsy and Traveller education.
Signposts for Global Citizenship provides a wide range of anti-racist curricular resources created by Scotdec, WOSDEC and Highland One World.
Further resources
Lesson plans and resources for:
- teaching Slavery in Scotland
- teaching the impact of Scots settlers on the Indigenous peoples, cultures and lands of Canada, Australia and New Zealand
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