National Museums Liverpool secures grant for anti-racist teaching fellowship - Museums Association
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National Museums Liverpool secures grant for anti-racist teaching fellowship

The institution will work with a local school to develop decolonising teaching practices
The initiative will use the collections from Liverpool's World Museum for education purposes
The initiative will use the collections from Liverpool's World Museum for education purposes Peter Carr

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has received a £61,855 grant from Art Fund to carry out a Teacher Fellowship Programme based around anti-racism and Black history. 

The programme, which is also supported by the Clore Duffied Foundation, aims to directly facilitate the development of anti-colonial teaching practices.

NML has committed to creating a National Centre for Teaching Black History as part of its Waterfront Transformation Project. 

The new fellowship will be launched in partnership with Archbishop Blanch School. 

According to NML, the school serves a diverse community where many students from marginalised backgrounds have little to no access to museums. 

Teachers at the school have also expressed an urgent need for anti-racism and Black history resources to meet the demands of increasingly multicultural classrooms. 

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The collaboration will allow a diversity and inclusion coordinator from Archbishop Blanch to co-create a framework for decolonising teaching practices alongside NML’s curators and learning teams. 

The fellowship also seeks to provide a link between the school and NML, which will help enable students and teachers to engage with museum collections and resources.

The initiative will use the collections at NML’s Clore Natural History Learning Space at the World Museum to develop an anti-colonial learning framework. 

It will also introduce students to hidden histories by teaching them about figures like Jamaican naturalist William Thomas March, whose work shaped Caribbean science. 

Claire Madeloso, the headteacher of Archbishop Blanch School said: “We are deeply committed to breaking down barriers to learning and ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to succeed.

“This partnership with National Museums Liverpool is a vital step in fostering inclusion and celebrating the diverse communities that make up our city.” 

Through the fellowship, NML also aims to decolonise its own educational programmes so as to serve as an inclusive space where communities can see their histories and contributions reflected. 

Claire Benjamin, the head of learning and participation at NML, said: “We are hugely grateful to Art Fund for supporting this fantastic opportunity to host a teacher as part of this year-long fellowship.”

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