Integrating Antiracism, Social Justice and Equity into the Chemical Sciences Curriculum

When we require learners/educators to engage with uncomfortable systemic racism topics it can be challenging to support racial equity in a practical way.

Our aims are to reframe the Chemistry curriculum in the context of anti-racism, social justice, and equity. Initially, an audit of prior understanding of staff and students across three institutions with differing demographics and journeys of race equality (Kingston, Brighton, and Imperial) will be conducted.

These findings will help develop new toolkits/resources, co-created with staff and students, alongside experts from social sciences, to explore themes through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These will encourage structured, thought provoking conversations and ultimately equip students with empathy to be future leaders in global justice. Following implementation across 3 institutions, the impact will be measured through an improved sense of belonging and inclusion for Chemistry students, and best practice will be shared in a newly-formed Community of Practice.