Epistemic (in)justice and decolonisation in higher education: experiences of a cross- site teaching project

Khoo, Su-ming; Mucha, Witold; Pesch, Christina; Wielenga, Cori

doi:10.18820/24150479/aa52i1/sp4

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…All three initiatives partnered with colleagues in both authorship and quality assurance processes where colleagues were in a "participatory design" role in the publishing of the open textbooks. This Partnership/Co-Creation Model is the most transformative model, in that it promotes "re-acculturation" (cultural recognition), in which multiple voices represent local knowledge, creating relevant materials and nullifying the need to rely on traditional hegemonic perspectives (Hodgkinson- Williams and Trotter, 2018, p. 220;Khoo et al, 2020). This model also remedies political misrepresentation/misframing by "re-framing" the balance of power in the authoring of textbooks (Hodgkinson- Williams and Trotter, 2018, p. 220).…”

Section: The Co-creation/partnership Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable open textbook models for social justice

2022

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Growing inequity continues to manifest within and between higher education institutions, highlighting the plight of the disadvantaged versus the advantaged. Against this backdrop, students’ ability to access quality textbooks and educational resources with locally relevant content presents a critical equity issue. Open textbooks provide opportunities to address social justice in the classroom. Highlighting the injustices which motivated authors in the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative at the University of Cape Town (UCT), this study uses Catherine Bovill’s framework of inclusion to examine the processes of 11 open textbook initiatives at UCT in terms of their degrees of inclusivity, with a focus on student participation. The authors draw on the work of political philosopher Nancy Fraser and her central norm of “parity of participation” in order to analyze the cases in terms of their ability to provide affirmative or transformative remedies to injustice. The data presented in this study were derived from a mixed-methods research and implementation approach, in which a survey was administered to the lead authors of the 11 open textbook initiatives. The proposals submitted by ten of these initiatives in their application for a DOT4D grant and their grant reports were also an important data source. These data, combined with insights from two rounds of in-depth interviews with five authors from the study sample provides insight into the injustices academics were grappling with and the ways in which they endeavored to address them. This article articulates four open textbook models with varying degrees of colleague and student inclusion. Examining authorship, quality assurance and publishing activities as nodes of inclusivity, the article provides insight into the strategies open textbook authors at UCT adopt in order to address social injustice in the classroom related to access and representation. It also considers ways in which higher education institutions can address sustainability in order to support the endeavor.

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Section: The Co-creation/partnership Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable open textbook models for social justice

2022

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“…Therefore, when students are taught these facts, they must be assimilated without dispute and any alternative worldview presuppositions or understanding must be suppressed. Khoo et al (2020) refer to this form of education, dominated by Western forms of thinking, perspectives and concepts, while suppressing and dismissing alternative worldview presuppositions or understandings of the world imbedded in the lived world realities of the students, as epistemic injustice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Waghid (2018), over the last decade this call for the inclusion of more African indigenous knowledge in the university curriculum has become rather urgent as educators have become more vocal and critical of Western models, and in the process, it appears as if Western 129 knowledge has lost its absolute monopoly in South African education. This is because educators have come to the realisation that the epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies that they teach their students in universities not only determine what they learn content-wise, but how they will act as future knowledge (re)producers (Khoo et al 2020). A direct consequence of these anti-Western sentiments has been that the university sector finds itself swamped with rival claimants as to what constitutes worthwhile knowledge that speaks to the vibrant diversity on the African continent and the various ways of being, also referred to as African indigenous knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

Koopman

2021

SAJHE

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In this article we will argue that South Africa's capitalist neoliberal agenda for higher education, where the focus is on the shift from a knowledge economy to a digital economy, will choke the life of indigenous knowledge out of the university curriculum. To support this claim the article discusses, firstly, the impact of the core neoliberal ideals on the university curriculum landscape.Secondly, drawing on the scholarly work of Martin Heidegger and his anticipation of the spirit of the time in the technological epoch, the article shows how humans in this era will be viewed as a heap of fungible raw materials, resources, or standing reserve (Bestand) awaiting optimisation. In this technological age knowledge is subject to the demands of the market, where the focus will be exclusively on knowledge that has a utilitarian value in and impact on the technological epoch. A direct consequence of this is that little space will be provided for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the curriculum. We conclude by showing how the current Covid-19 pandemic dismissed the voices and disregarded the efforts of indigenous healers in the fight against the pandemic. All these developments illustrate government's power to impose its neoliberal agenda on the university that will ultimately lead to the detriment and neglect of indigenous knowledge.

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“…From this normative position the remit of ‘decolonisation work’ has grown and fragmented over the past decade resulting in a multi-pronged attack on racial injustice. These include, but are not limited to: decolonising the curriculum, problematising the lack of ethnic diversity within occupations, and positions of power and authority in society, and expanding an epistemic critique of western/white/Eurocentric knowledge production to include additional theoretical and methodological tools, such as intersectionality, critical race theory, and anti-racism work (hooks, 1984 ; Khoo et al, 2020 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite these calls for transformative action on racial injustice in all its facets, the support for decolonisation work, as any critical movement, has not been universal or straightforward. Despite an initial flourishing as grassroots, student led activism in South Africa, UK and US, it has been noted that the decolonising project has had limited impact in some European countries (Khoo et al, 2020 , p. 61). Even in the UK, where decolonisation has gained institutional recognition in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), decolonising work runs the risk of being downgraded to ‘a metaphor’ (Tuck & Yang, 2012 ) or co-opted into the neoliberal machinery of HE and transformed into an ‘institutional taming’ or ‘strategic advancement’ (Shain et al, 2021 , p. 921) exercise.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonising dental educational research: reflections from a white researcher

Neville

2023

Adv in Health Sci Educ

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While there is an emerging scholarship on decolonising dentistry, the debate about reflexivity, positionality and white privilege in dental educational research and practice is still at a developmental stage. This article aims to contribute to this nascent debate by contemplating the question- is it appropriate, or possible, for a white researcher to undertake decolonisation work in dental education? If so, what would it entail or ‘look’ like? To answer this important question, the author offers a reflective account of their ethical and epistemological journey with this very question. This journey begins with how I, a white researcher, first became aware of the everyday racism experienced by my racially and ethnically minoritized students, the whiteness of dental educational spaces and how my white privilege and position as a dental educator consciously and unconsciously implicated me in these processes of exclusion and discrimination. While this revelation led to a personal commitment to do better in my practice, both as an educator and a researcher, I continue to struggle with my white ignorance and white fragility as I strive to make my work more inclusive. To illustrate this, I discuss an ethnodrama project on everyday racism that I lead on and how, despite choosing a more democratic research method, hegemonic whiteness continued to make its presence felt through my ‘going it alone’ method of work. This reflective account reaffirms that regular and routine self-reflection is key to ensuring that racialised inappropriate and damaging assumptions, frameworks of thinking, and ways of working are checked for. However, my praxis won’t evolve through critical introspection alone. I need to be open to making mistakes, educating myself about racism and anti-racist practice, asking for help and guidance from my minoritized colleagues and more importantly, committing to working with people from minoritized communities rather than on them.

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Epistemic (in)justice and decolonisation in higher education: experiences of a cross- site teaching project

Cited by 14 publications

References 21 publications

Sustainable open textbook models for social justice

Sustainable open textbook models for social justice

The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

Decolonising dental educational research: reflections from a white researcher

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