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Volume 11
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10.3390/educsci11070359
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Article

Laying the Groundwork to Investigate Diversity of Life Sciences Reading Lists in Higher Education and Its Link to Awarding Gaps

by
Maria Taylor
,
Jacob Hung
,
Thi Elena Che
,
Daniel Akinbosede
,
Katy J. Petherick
and
Md Zahidul I. Pranjol
*
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Educ. Sci. 2021, 11(7), 359; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070359
Submission received: 6 May 2021 / Revised: 17 June 2021 / Accepted: 13 July 2021 / Published: 17 July 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Research on Equity and Diversity in Higher Education)
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Abstract

This study presents a case for decolonising the life sciences curriculum to improve representation of the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) scholars—a step in eliminating the race “awarding gap”. Here, we investigated diversity among authors in terms of ethnicity and gender of reading lists at the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex. We show that the reading lists are not diverse and do not represent the demography of the student body. For instance, a disproportionately high number of authors in the reading lists are white 83.40 ± 5.70% (n = 977 authors), male 75.90 ± 5.40% (n = 878 authors), and of European descent. Additionally, our analysis of the geographical locations of publications reveals that a significantly high number of our materials stem from the USA or the UK, whereas the second highest global output of scientific literature (after the USA) comes from China, which is only featured in 1.02% of the reading list. Moreover, we constructively provide potential solutions to decolonise the curriculum of the University of Sussex’s School of Life Sciences by diversifying their reading lists. This study should help to establish a foundation, along with other work that is being conducted, to address the BAME awarding gap and to better showcase the work of women and ethnically underrepresented scientists in history and in modern day.
Keywords: decolonisation of the curriculum; BAME awarding gap; reading lists; representation; gender; race decolonisation of the curriculum; BAME awarding gap; reading lists; representation; gender; race

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MDPI and ACS Style

Taylor, M.; Hung, J.; Che, T.E.; Akinbosede, D.; Petherick, K.J.; Pranjol, M.Z.I. Laying the Groundwork to Investigate Diversity of Life Sciences Reading Lists in Higher Education and Its Link to Awarding Gaps. Educ. Sci. 2021, 11, 359. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070359

AMA Style

Taylor M, Hung J, Che TE, Akinbosede D, Petherick KJ, Pranjol MZI. Laying the Groundwork to Investigate Diversity of Life Sciences Reading Lists in Higher Education and Its Link to Awarding Gaps. Education Sciences. 2021; 11(7):359. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070359

Chicago/Turabian Style

Taylor, Maria, Jacob Hung, Thi Elena Che, Daniel Akinbosede, Katy J. Petherick, and Md Zahidul I. Pranjol. 2021. "Laying the Groundwork to Investigate Diversity of Life Sciences Reading Lists in Higher Education and Its Link to Awarding Gaps" Education Sciences 11, no. 7: 359. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070359

APA Style

Taylor, M., Hung, J., Che, T. E., Akinbosede, D., Petherick, K. J., & Pranjol, M. Z. I. (2021). Laying the Groundwork to Investigate Diversity of Life Sciences Reading Lists in Higher Education and Its Link to Awarding Gaps. Education Sciences, 11(7), 359. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070359

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