We've been WEIRD for long enough!

Boundaries are blurring and silos are dissolving. Across creative education and professional sectors, we are seeing increasingly innovative approaches to the use of materials and processes. Seemingly diverse disciplines are collaborating to co-create solutions to societal challenges. Contributions from public, private, and third-sector organisations to higher education curricula content and delivery continue to evolve. All of these, and more, represent a growing reflection of transdisciplinarity.
This shift goes beyond technological advancements, but reflects, possibly, a deeper evolution in how we think, create and collaborate. A boarder movement in learning, in how we act as global citizens and connect across borders must acknowledge the urgent need to decentre our curricula and practices.
To adopt a truly global perspective, we must move beyond the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) lens as presented by Henrich (2020). Recognising in our transit, that the WEIRD theory of social change - astoundingly - sidesteps European nations’ histories of ‘slavery, racism, plunder, and genocide’.
To learn about and from knowledge systems across the globe, including Indigenous and First Nations peoples is to expand our lens to reflect the diversity of human experience and thought. To navigate this evolving landscape, we need approaches and pedagogies that equip learners to acquire the competencies they need to survive and thrive in their communities, be they local, regional, global.