You might have been drawn to read this piece because you are familiar with discussions on expansive curriculum, pedagogy and learning. Or you might be interested in learning about it because it appears to be a close neighbour of the more trending inclusive curriculum, learning and pedagogy.
The limitations of an inclusive approach to pedagogy and curriculum
The demand for inclusive pedagogy has grown in response to calls for equity and diversification of the curriculum. Inclusive pedagogy aims to create a more equitable learning environment, including and representing those often excluded and marginalised by the system. However, its implementation is often performative, producing superficial change while leaving intact the system, which produces barriers, inequities, and injustices.
For instance, at my institution, The Open University, our internal inclusive curriculum process includes a checklist of items. One of the components that reviewers evaluate within the module material is the visibility of scholars of the Global South. Yet, it overlooks whether those ideas and scholarship are engaged with meaningfully. This is also often how research claiming to internationalise or diversify performs inclusivity. Simply including these contributions in the module text and in the bibliography is insufficient; hence, inclusive curriculum currently represents an additive approach to the system. It’s the version of ‘gendering’ research by the ‘add women and stir’ approach.
Inclusive approaches are often seen as an approach to overcoming systemic barriers. The ‘barrier’ prevents people from entering the system; the system is not seen as the issue. An expansive approach urges us to consider the system as a whole as a problem that needs a remedy—a transformation—and not just the removal of a ‘barrier’. The object to be changed is the system, not just the barrier.
The solution: an expansive curriculum
An expansive approach to curriculum aims to do things differently to demand the transformation of structures and systems toward more equitable and sustainable systems. In considering expansive, I take inspiration from long-standing and more recent conversations on gender-expansive approaches and expansive learning.
Gender-expansive is a term that emerged from work undertaken by the Human Rights Coalition to refer to youth “who did not identify with traditional gender roles but were otherwise not confined to one gender narrative or experience.”[i] A gender-expansive approach responds to the critiques of a gender binary system.[ii] Since then, gender-expansive approaches have been used to shape teacher education. The crucial point is that it isn’t simply a matter of increasing the ‘representation’ of diverse genders in the teaching material or a curriculum to make students feel included, but instead that the gender binary system needs to be challenged because gender is not binary. Blaire and Deckman comment on the need for gender-expansive teacher education by incorporating a gender-expansive perspective. Similarly, decolonial critiques, queer theory and social justice approaches argue for ensuring gender-expansive environments for teaching.[iii]
I push this further through engagement with other works and conversations on expansive learning and curriculum within the context of education and work[iv]. One strand is developed in the context of education by Engeström[v], with theorisations underpinned by works from Russian cultural-historian school of thought which included Lev Vygotsky, Aleksei Nikolajevitch Leont’ev, Evald Il’enkov, and Vasily Davydov[vi]. A second strand is in the context of vocational work developed by Fuller and Unwin[vii]. The theory of expansive learning emphasises the transformation of systems and structures and not simply reproduce existing practices.
Based on these works and the ongoing demand for decolonisation, I advocate for an expansive curriculum that disrupts and transforms existing systems rather than just ‘opening’ them by removing barriers. An expansive curriculum challenges the system and not- only the barriers. An expansive curriculum:
- changes the system, not just ‘open’ it
- shifts our analytical lens
- alters our starting point, start from elsewhere
What could an expansive curriculum look like?
In my talks, I often use my current institutions as an ideal example of this expansive approach. In 1969, The Open University (OU) was established to address a significant flaw in the system. It wanted to democratise education and give access to those who would not usually get it, such as single parents, women who left school, those who might not be able to access conventional universities, and others.
Instead of finding ways to remove the barriers, the OU’s founders envision a new system of education in which learning is not dependent on being on-site or in a particular place. Learning at a distance becomes crucial.
The aim was not to include those who had been excluded but to create a new system that would serve a wider population. Never was this more obvious during COVID when enrolment shot up due to the OU’s established and trusted system of learning that did not need to ‘adapt’ to online learning. It was already set up for it.
It did not critique the existing system, simply offered a new system.
And so, it is no surprise that it is a place that supports similar endeavours to do things differently. In our own teaching, we considered how we could teach geography differently in setting up our geography research dissertation module (D325). Developing and presenting a module at the Open University is a team effort that takes upto 3 years. A team of academics and associate lecturers comes together to think through the structure and content of the module and then produce that material in the form of a text book, online learning material and audio/visual material. This endeavour is supported and complemented by a team of curriculum managers, learning designers, accessibility experts, editors, rights clearance teams and project managers.
In developing our level 3 module for the BA (Hons) Geography degree, Researching Everyday Geographies (D325), we started on the path to employing an expansive approach to curriculum. Reflecting the expansive curriculum approach, we altered our starting point. We started with Feminist, Black and Queer geographies and Indigenous studies. We did not critique the canon. We accepted that the canon will be there; other modules would provide that knowledge. And so here we chose to present the feminist, Black and Queer geographies with the same privilege and entitlement that the canonical scholarship – which is shaped by predominantly white and Western sites – is assigned.
We also wanted to change the practice of research. And so, we embedded a care-ful approach in the module. In doing this, we encourage our students to recognise the gaps and absences, the limitations of their research, and the implications of the positionality of their research as a practice. We encourage students to think about their practices and, most importantly, encourage them to transform their practices in ways that help them overcome some of the gaps they have identified. The final aim is to encourage students to employ a care-ful set of research practices at an individual level. This then translates into how students analyse their data. This approach leads to a shift in the analytical lens students employ when they examine the data they generate for their research project.
In all, through an expansive approach to curriculum, the module develops the skills of a care-ful geographer, and thus changed set of research skills and practices, which enables our students to think about geography differently.
Author credit: @gunjansondhi, January 2025
[i] https://www.hrc.org/resources/resources-on-gender-expansive-children-and-youth#:~:text=Using%20this%20sample%20of%20youth,one%20gender%20narrative%20or%20experience.
[ii] Lugones M (2007) Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System. Hypatia 22(1): 186–219.
[iii] Chapman R (2022) Moving beyond ‘gender-neutral’: creating gender expansive environments in early childhood education. Gender & Education 34(1). Taylor & Francis Ltd: 1–16.
[iv] Beighton C (2016) Expansive Learning in Professional Contexts. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. Available at: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/978-1-137-57436-7 (accessed 31 January 2025).
[v] Huang X, Lai MY and Huang R (2021) Teachers’ learning through an online lesson study: an analysis from the expansive learning perspective. International Journal for Lesson & Learning Studies 10(2). Emerald Publishing Limited: 202–216.
[vi] Engeström Y and Sannino A (2017) Studies of Expansive Learning: Foundations, findings and future challenges. In: Introduction to Vygotsky. 3rd ed. Routledge.
[vii] Fuller A and Unwin L (2004) Expansive learning environments: Integrating organizational and personal development. In: Workplace Learning in Context. Routledge.
Gunjan Sondhi 
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