Decolonizing Development Education and the Pursuit of Social Justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhana Sultana
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
International Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Decolonization has become a popular discourse in academia recently and there are many debates on what it could mean within various disciplines as well as more broadly across academia itself. The field of international development has seen sustained gestures towards decolonization for several years in theory and practice, but hegemonic notions of development continue to dominate. Development is a contested set of ideas and practices that are under critique in and outside of academia, yet the reproduction of colonial power structures and Eurocentric logics continues whereby the realities of the global majority are determined by few powerful institutions and a global elite. To decolonize development's material and discursive powers, scholars have argued for decolonizing development education towards one that is ideologically and epistemologically different from dominant narratives of development. I add to these conversations and posit that decolonized ideologies and epistemologies have to be accompanied by decolonized pedagogies and considerations of decolonization of institutions of higher education. I discuss the institutional and critical pedagogical dilemmas and challenges that exist, since epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical decolonizations are influenced by institutional politics of higher education that are simultaneously local and global. The paper engages with the concept of critical hope in the pursuit of social justice to explore possibilities of decolonizing development praxis and offers suggestions on possible pathways forward.

scholarly journals “There’s a Human Being Here”: A Doctoral Class Uses Duoethnography to Explore Invisibility, Hypervisibility, and Intersectionality

10.28945/4658 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 637-652
Author(s):  
Annemarie Vaccaro ◽  
Chiquita Baylor ◽  
Desiree Forsythe ◽  
Karin Capobianco ◽  
Jana Knibb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Doctoral Education ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Post Secondary

Aim/Purpose: This paper contributes to the scholarly literature on intersectionality and social injustice (invisibility, hypervisibility) in higher education and serves as a model for enacting doctoral education where research, theory, and practice converge. Background: Invisibility and hypervisibility have long been documented as social injustices, but very little literature has documented how doctoral students (who are also university employees) make meaning of intersecting privileges and oppressions within post-secondary hierarchies. Methodology: This study used a 10-week Duoethnography with co-researchers who were simultaneously doctoral students, staff, instructors, and administrators in higher education settings. Contribution: This paper offers a unique glimpse into currere—the phenomenon of theory and practice converging—to offer an intensive interrogation of life as curriculum for five doctoral students and a professor. Findings: This paper illuminates rich meaning-making narratives of six higher educators as they grappled with invisibility and hypervisibility in the context of their intersecting social identities as well as their varied locations within post-secondary hierarchies/power structures. Recommendations for Practitioners: Duoethnography can be an effective strategy for social justice praxis in doctoral programs as well as other higher education departments, divisions, or student organizations. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can use Duoethnography to explore a plethora of social justice issues in doctoral education and across staff, faculty, and Ph.D. student experiences within the power structures of post-secondary education. Impact on Society: Examining intersectionality, invisibility and hypervisibility is an important way to delve into the complexity of oppression. There will be no justice until all forms of oppression (including hypervisibility and invisibility) are extinguished. Future Research: Future research can more deeply explore social injustices and the intersections of not only social identities, but also social locations of doctoral students who are simultaneously employees and students in a university hierarchy.

scholarly journals Transgressing Boundaries between Community Learning and Higher Education: Levers and Barriers

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Macintyre ◽  
Martha Chaves ◽  
Tatiana Monroy ◽  
Margarita O. Zethelius ◽  
Tania Villarreal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Learning ◽  
Community Based Learning ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
Learning Ecologies ◽  
Levers And Barriers

In times of global systemic dysfunction, there is an increasing need to bridge higher education with community-based learning environments so as to generate locally relevant responses towards sustainability challenges. This can be achieved by creating and supporting so-called learning ecologies that blend informal community-based forms of learning with more formal learning found in higher education environments. The objective of this paper is to explore the levers and barriers for connecting the above forms of learning through the theory and practice of an educational approach that fully engages the heart (feelings), head (thinking), and hands (doing). First, we present the development of an educational approach called Koru, based on a methodology of transgressive action research. Second, we critically analyze how this approach was put into practice through a community-learning course on responsible tourism held in Colombia. Results show that ICT, relations to place, and intercultural communication acted as levers toward bridging forms of learning between participants, but addressing underlying power structures between participants need more attention for educational boundaries to be genuinely transgressed.

Towards a Theory and Practice of Diversity and Inclusion in Globalizing US Universities: Transformational Solidarities of Knowledge Activism

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-281
Author(s):  
Michael D. Kennedy ◽  
Merone Tadesse
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Brown University

Concerns for social justice in and commitments to globalizing universities are rarely part of the same portfolio among academic managers, or even among students, but these articulations of transformation in higher education increasingly intersect in both decolonizing theory and practice. Following an elaboration of various meanings of solidarity, diversity, and globalizing knowledge, we consider various connotations of the decolonizing mobilization in universities. We then consider in more detail the challenge of linking struggles over diversity to the practices of globalizing knowledge in the usa, especially at Brown University. We conclude by considering particular forms of transformational solidarity in direct and categorical associations, in contests defining equivalent oppressions, and in efforts to deepen awareness of racisms beyond more familiar contests in societies and global extensions most associated with US power.

Social Justice Leadership—Theory and Practice: A Case of Ontario

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 470-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Justice Leadership ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Just Community ◽  
Justice Practice

Purpose: This study is to investigate how principals promote social justice to redress marginalization, inequity, and divisive action that are prevalent in schools. Research Method: This study employs a qualitative research design with semistructured interviews. Twenty-two elementary and secondary school principals were interviewed in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. Research Findings: Principals who are social justice advocates exercise their influence by focusing on people in an effort to build a socially just community. Their people-centered leadership practice focuses on: putting students at the center, positioning as a social justice leader, developing people for social justice, building school climate through social justice, and fostering positive relationships with families and communities. Social justice leadership is grounded in a very proactive way in bringing about the changes that such a paradigm demands. Implications: This study generates discussions among participants on the dynamics associated with social justice practice and helps practitioners navigate tactically entrenched power structures for the well-being of their students. It also deepens our understanding of social justice leadership by providing empirical evidence how social justice advocates take risks and innovative approaches to social change that embraces the value of democracy, inclusion, representation, and difference.

scholarly journals (Re)cognition

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shana Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
International Development ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
White Male ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Social Work Theory ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
Political Economic

In this paper I draw from critical work on the historical, social, political, economic, and cultural functions of race, to trace how Axel Honneth’s recognition as a critical social theory of justice is activated through racial thinking.  In my analyses, I outline the need to theorize recognition as a “racial recognition”; complicating current theories, which seem to continuously inscribe the bourgeois white male as the true provider of justice and the bearer of rights; the true subject. Critical questions for social work are raised.  How might race/racial thinking underlie our visions of social justice, and who benefits from this? What happens when we re-view the social and political justice intentions of social work through the lens of global white supremacy, say, as we move towards international development work in the global south? This paper presents important theoretical positions on race and the "morality" of recognition as social justice, which contribute highly to critical, socio-political, anti-racist social work theory and practice.

Educating Architecture Students for Sustainable and Environmental Responsibilities

2020 ◽  
pp. 120-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alshimaa A. Farag ◽  
Rahma M. Doheim
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Developing Cities ◽  
Sustainable Development Education

Rapidly developing cities are significantly damages the environment and imposes a crucial need for sustainable development education. Higher education institutions must grasp their responsibility towards leading the community to respond to the challenges. Universities shape the minds of future leaders, therefore, students must be genuinely prepared with a deep understanding of environmental issues and sustainable development in both theory and practice. This chapter provides a guide for architecture educators to adopt learning approaches that can improve students' sense of sustainable responsibility. Potentially, this would qualify students to connect with communities and contribute to solving local social, cultural, and environmental problems.

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