Event report: Widening Horizons. Diversifying Education

An event hosted by the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy in partnership with the Global Lives Research Centre – Wednesday 17^th April 2024.

The educational world stands at a troubled nexus. Awareness of the importance of the vibrant diversity of our society and educational institutions (schools, colleges and universities) is growing apace. At the same time, however, the pressures of an increasingly dominant examinations system, draconian monitoring of assessment outcomes and political inspection, set alongside unquestioned agendas related to ideas of the 'knowledge curriculum' lead many students' experiences of education to be increasingly controlled and narrow. The immense value of engaging with a wealth of diverse knowledge, ways of seeing and creative experiences of learning are in many cases lost.

In response to this situation, Global Lives – in partnership with the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy – hosted a Widening Horizons event as part of its Conversations of Diversifying Education: Voices from Local Communities (CODES) project.

In the spirit of joint endeavour, the event was opened by Mr John Perkins of the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy and Professor Claire Turner of Brunel. The panel, excellently and entertainingly chaired by Professor Daljit Nagra, comprised Gareth Davies (a local headteacher), Chinedu Agwu (Brunel Life Sciences), Dan Lyndon-Cohen (Chair of the Schools History Project) and Lesley Nelson-Addy (Runnymede Trust). We were also very happy to be joined for the event by representatives from Penguin’s Literature in Colour – an initiative seeking to effect a step change in relation to the teaching of texts in a range of genres and subject areas by writers of colour – and by a group of students from the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy VIth Form. The students present particularly enjoyed the panel discussion, one commenting on how pleased they were to see that educators were willing to spend time discussing the issue of diversity in education. 

 Ultimately, the aim of a project like this is the tangible shifting of practice around the diversification of education and the decolonising of subject curricula. Beyond that, however, it seeks to create deeper understandings of the diversity of thought and practice across the education system more broadly. These are ambitious and long-term goals that may take years to fully realise. However, the shorter term raising of awareness and widening of perspectives in teaching and learning practices are within reach of this project partnership.

This event was a first step in what we hope will be an on-going and significant engagement between Brunel and the schools in our local community, drawing on the excellent partnership networks the University has developed through, amongst other channels, its Education Department. We hope to move on to engage in the process of developing and conducting a variety of related activities, including school-based workshops with both teachers and pupils so that we can provide meaningful avenues for discussion and frame deepening understandings of what a truly diverse educational experience would mean and could lead to.