Thread by @heroicendeavour

Settling in for what will no doubt be a really interesting and informative Zoom webinar on ‘decolonising the business school’. 182 attendees - clearly a real hunger to learn more on this topic in the academic community. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Gurminder Bhambra from Sussex talking about the new intensity to decolonisation in the current climate of BLM  and toppling of statues - and also the sad and inevitable backlash already stirring among those to whom empire is (or was) a positive force. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

British taxpayers were still paying off the bond used to compensate slave holders when slavery was abolished as recently as 2015. That’s you and me and every citizen. Paying compensation to slaveholders. We are all complicit, however unknowing. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Stella Nkomo from University of Pretoria talking about her paper on how theories of management and leadership are not neutral and how African examples are not included in the literature on organisation studies. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Africa’s first representation in this body of literature was invisible. Excluded. Most studies of leadership generally draw on American examples but portray this as universal. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

In Africa, had to use the phrase ‘African leadership’ to distinguish from mainstream (white) theories of leadership. But the African examples often portrayed ‘deficient, incapable, underdeveloped and corrupt’ leadership. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Banu Ozkanzanc-Pan from Brown now talking about why we decolonise, who we are doing it for. It’s about rethinking our assumptions and breaking down structures. #DecolonizeTheBSchool.

Something I have been talking about recently - the limited range of academic literature, most predominantly published in the Global North, means our theories are limited, our worldview is not universal. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

There's a lack of depth in the information that can be provided to business students if we fail to bring in aspects from other disciplines such as sociology, politics etc to shed light on the context in which business operates. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Sadhvi Dhar from QM University of London raises the questions, why here, why now? Is this all virtue signalling, a sign of white fragility? We have to hold ourselves accountable, honestly. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Many business scholars do not understand what decolonisation means, confuse it with EDI. They see it as a set of isolated tasks instead of a long term project of radical revolution. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Business schools promote the myth rather than exposing the roots of capitalism as based on exploitation and oppression. They marginalise voices that deviate from the 'great man' trope of leadership #DecolonizeTheBSchool

The business school is colonial. The legacy of empire is rooted throughout western capitalism and cannot be separated. The language of business is frequently imperialistic in its talk of markets, exploiting resources, domination, competition. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

So what do we do? First, recognise this is not a new movement. There have been campaigns, alliances and critiques for over two decades. So why now? Why were these demands not heard earlier? #DecolonizeTheBSchool

This webinar held up as an example -why is it just academics having this conversation? Where are the university managers? Where are the students? Where are the publishers? Where are the business leaders? Are we talking within our own filter bubble right now? #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Universities are not the only knowledge producers, but we legitimate and amplify knowledge, and we have a responsibility therefore to acknowledge whose voices we are amplifying and whose we are stifling. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

How do we measure what a 'good student'? We look at attainment (but we know there's a gap and that attainment is racialised). We have student engagement (but the curriculum we teach is not inclusive or representative). 1/ #DecoloniseTheBSchool

We have employability (but we know students of colour are discriminated against and struggle to gain advancement). So our systems of how we define and assess good students actively discriminate against students of colour. 2/ #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Decolonisation has to be done collectively. It cannot be done in isolation. And it will not be done quickly, maybe not even in our lifetimes. Systems constructed over hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, do not fall quickly. Or comfortably. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

White people do not realise how much racial labour people of colour have to put in just coming to work. Laugh at the jokes, keep your head down, be the token representative of diversity. Decolonisation should not be their burden too. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

We hear BAME all the time in universities. What does it even mean? What does minority ethnic mean? Who determines who fits into that category? (Give you a hint - they probably look a lot like me. Though maybe not with the pink hair... 😉) #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Being an ally is about more than just saying ‘I’ve got your back’. It’s about sacrifice - is this worth your time, your money, your comfort, your power. What are you prepared to give up? #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Important to represent your experiences as that - 'YOUR' experiences. Not universal, default, or representative. There's a place for personal experience in the classroom but not presented in a way that excludes the possibilities of other ways and worldviews. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

De-centre the UK and US view of what entrepreneurship means - a concept we often take for granted. View it as a discourse across different groups and members of society. What does it mean to design for a community rather than for a product or a market? #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Can't find case studies focusing on Africa or Asia (or anywhere other than the US/UK/European)? Write your own. Or even better, challenge your students to research and write them. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

And if they can't find the resources, the research, the data, get them to explore why. Get them thinking about issues of knowledge production and data collection, of access to platforms of knowledge dissemination. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Bring alumni into your review of the curriculum - genius idea! Ask them what proved useful in their professional lives, what did not. Where did their programme fail them? Where were the gaps? What did they wish had been covered? #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Model discomfort for our white students. Talk to them about how to have uncomfortable conversations. Make the classroom a safe space, have 'micro disruptions' by flipping the conventional narratives, ask them to imagine alternative dialogue and worldviews.#DecolonizeTheBSchool

Get your professional union involved - and the Students Union too. Use your university’s pride in its reputation as a tool in this fight. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

How do you measure your own success? Academia would tell us it’s all about impact factors and publication numbers and rankings - but that’s not all there is, and we need to resist that narrow academic definition of success. 1/ #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Recolonising our selves and our students and our institutions is something to be proud of, and can’t be equated with an article in the Harvard Business Review in terms of real world impact! 2/ #DecolonizeTheBSchool

Colonisation was a violent destructive process. Decolonisation needs to be about unity, about reconnecting - and it means we cannot use the same structures that created and contributed to that destruction in the first place. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

But to understand why it’s necessary we have to teach that history. (And not via the medium of statues! 🙄) our colonising history needs to be taught, acknowledge, brought into the light, examined. #DecolonizeTheBSchool

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