A Multimodal Approach
Decolonizing the Syllabus
Examples and Suggestions
Setting out to decolonize a syllabus, whether it was designed by you or someone else, can be a daunting task. These examples and suggestions can help guide you through the process of selecting material and designing assignments.
Selecting Readings
Textbooks, Supplemental Readings, and Handouts
In first year composition (FYC) program at my university, instructors were provided with pre-selected textbooks. If you are also teaching from an assigned textbook, you may wonder what steps you can take to decolonize your readings and assignments.
​
Ideally, the writing program administrator (WPA) will select a textbook with materials appropriate to your students and their needs. However, many textbooks are written, compiled, and edited from a (neo)colonial perspective. For example, WPAs at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, while developing a new anti-racist, decolonial direction for their FYC program, stated that "we recognized in our choice of textbooks a rejection of the histories, cultures, traditions, literacies, and epistemologies shaping our university’s majority Latinx student population. By privileging Eurocentric and Aristotelian rhetorical traditions, our chosen textbooks fostered classroom practices compelling student assimilation to standards and expectations that, if left unexamined, could negate the value, and existence, of the knowledges and rhetorics with which many students entered our classrooms" (Tinoco, Barrera Eddy, and Gage).
​
If working with a sub-optimal textbook, you should first search the material provided for readings that can be useful if reframed or paired with another reading. When I received the instructor copy for my FYC class, I went through the table of contents and highlighted titles that pertained to language and language differences as well as readings that seemed to express a marginalized perspective (women, ethnic minorities, immigrant experiences, etc.) and material that is instructive but not stifling.
​
Once you have culled the useful material from the provided textbook, you should look over what you have selected and determine if there are any subjects that are not properly represented. For instance, you can balance "Western" rhetorical traditions with decolonial supplements from Gloria Anzaldua, Damien Baca, Walter Mignolo, and Enrique Dussell. Although you should select texts accessible to your students, you should also be prepared to guide them through the text to arrive at a fuller understanding of the concepts, providing examples of application.
​
It may be beneficial to provide handouts to accompany your selected readings to encourage students to interrogate decolonial concepts. For instance, you might create a handout that asks students to compare and contrast a "Western" rhetorical practice with a decolonial one, asking "What are the benefits and/or drawbacks of each?" If there is a specific concept you want students to engage with in a reading, you can create a handout with guiding questions that prompt the student to think about the concept and its application.
Designing Assignments
Meeting Course Objectives and Working with Students' Needs
Each assignment should take students a step further toward meeting the course objectives. This includes not only major papers/projects but also in-class exercises, low-stakes writing, and other activities. Keeping this in mind, assignments should be designed in such a way that they introduce a concept or skill, suggest an application of the concept/skill, and then challenge the student to employ the concept/skill in an original way. For example, if you want your students to explore "code switching" (alternating between two or more languages or language varieties), you might begin with a discussion of what it is and why it is used, and then ask students to write a short essay demonstrating code switching. Monolingual students may choose to write alternating between casual and formal language, while multilingual students may shift between languages or dialects.
​
In addition to thinking about course objectives, you should also take students' needs into account when designing the assignments. There are different forms of literacies and intelligences, and you should try to accommodate students' preferences while also promoting growth in weak skill areas. One example of this is allowing for alternative methods of completing an assignment or course requirement. Requiring participation can be a good way to encourage students to engage in class, but it can be difficult for some students due to anxiety and other issues. Providing the alternative to speak with the instructor outside of class, either during office hours or via email, would give these students another way to earn participation credit. This allows them to demonstrate engagement with the material without forcing them into an uncomfortable situation.
​
Accessibility is a major concern when designing assignments. You should ensure that the material is accessible for students with disabilities, meaning that everything from your presentations to your handouts should meet accessibility guidelines. You may also consider flexibility with due dates, the option to collaborate on assignments, and alternative modes of completing and submitting the assignment.
​
For an example of a decolonial course's objectives and assignments, click the button below to view the course page for PWR 194CW: "Brave New Worlds: An Introduction to (De)Colonial Rhetorics" at Stanford University.