Embracing Interdisciplinarity: A Step Towards Decolonising the Curriculum

As educators, we are often reminded of the transformative power of education. Yet, beyond primary schooling, efforts to create truly interdisciplinary learning spaces remain sporadic at best. In secondary education, the prevailing reliance on compartmentalized, discipline-specific teaching restricts opportunities for students to engage in systems thinking—an approach vital for understanding and addressing complex, interconnected global challenges.

This fragmented approach has implications not only for learning outcomes but also for the broader aim of decolonising the curriculum. A decolonised curriculum seeks to dismantle eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and incorporate diverse, global perspectives. However, achieving this requires more than tokenistic gestures or adding new content to traditional silos; it calls for a fundamental shift in how knowledge is structured and taught.

At our school, we have partnered with the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) to embed systems thinking into students’ learning through the Local to Global Project. This social action initiative begins with students addressing issues within their local community and scaling their understanding to global contexts. Through this project, students learn to transcend disciplinary boundaries and embrace interdisciplinary methodologies. By synthesizing insights from humanities, sciences, and social sciences, they tackle real-world challenges such as food insecurity, environmental degradation, and social inequality.

The results have been striking. Students not only demonstrate an increased ability to think critically and holistically, but they also exhibit greater confidence in addressing issues that have no clear, single-discipline solutions. In integrating systems thinking into their learning vocabulary, we are equipping them with the tools to navigate and solve the complex problems of tomorrow.

It is important to emphasize that interdisciplinarity goes far beyond occasional collaboration between two departments or cross-curricular projects during a single term. Many schools, like ours, are now beginning to envision a more ambitious future—one that challenges restrictive, exam-driven curricula and shifts towards project-based learning as a norm. This involves breaking away from narrowly defined learning objectives and embracing frameworks that allow for creativity, critical inquiry, and collaboration.

Decolonising the curriculum is about creating a space where all students can see themselves and their communities in what they learn while building the skills to navigate a pluralistic, interconnected world. Interdisciplinary approaches, rooted in real-world applications, are essential to this vision. By pushing beyond traditional boundaries, we can cultivate a generation of learners who are not just informed but empowered to drive change.

It is time to move beyond small steps and commit to a bold, transformative reimagining of education—one that places interdisciplinarity at its heart.