From access to epistemology: a critical review of decolonising STEM education through equity and inclusion practices

This critical review interrogates how contemporary diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reforms in STEM education engage the deeper project of epistemic decolonisation. Framed by critical race theory, feminist science studies, and decolonial scholarship, it asks whether inclusion agendas move beyond representational expansion to disrupt Eurocentric hierarchies of legitimacy; which pedagogical and curricular innovations enact pluriversal STEM; and what institutional conditions constrain transformation. A multi-stage search of Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, Google Scholar, and grey literature (2010–2025) yielded 152 records; PRISMA-informed screening produced 80 sources for interpretive thematic synthesis. Findings show that DEI initiatives have increased access and participation, yet typically preserve assumptions of scientific neutrality and universalism, leaving epistemic injustice largely intact. In contrast, decolonial innovations, such as two-eyed seeing, culturally sustaining and place-based pedagogies, history, philosophy, and sociology of science integration, and project-based learning grounded in indigenous knowledge systems, reposition learners and communities as co-producers of knowledge and reframe science as situated and relational. However, these practices remain peripheral due to assessment regimes, accreditation pressures, funding and tenure incentives, disciplinary gatekeeping, and limited educator preparation. The review argues that meaningful reform requires structural reconfiguration of curricula, evaluation, and institutional reward systems to recognise multiple epistemologies, cultivate ethical relationality, and enable sustained community partnership.