Personal Transnational Experiences: Slow Buen Vivir Countering Neoliberalism

• In Event: Autoethnographies of Critical Action Researchers: Trajectories to Equitable Learning Communities That Challenge Neoliberalism

Abstract

This presentation describes my experiences as a racialized and minoritized immigrant educator to the USA and Canada. I utilize decolonial and solidarity concepts (Mignolo, 2011; Gaztambide-Fernández, 2012, 2020) to understand my lived experiences as I navigate socioeconomic systems in North America.

Using autoethnography as a form of qualitative research (Adams, Jones & Ellis 2014; Russell 1998), I engaged in self-reflection as I explored anecdotal and personal accounts and connected to my different roles as a teacher, teacher educator, and researcher. Written journals, video and audio memos were used as data collected during the 2020+ pandemic. I used content analysis (Kumar 2020) to organise the data in key themes using Nvivo 12. This methodology was particularly useful to analyse my personal and professional lives in collaboration with other teachers and the different cultures I engage with in North America.s Ellis and Bochner (2000) mention "...an autobiographical genre of writing ... displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural" (p. 739). The findings of my study reveal my own sense of reflexivity, accountability and responsibility towards those who have worked with me as well as my own attempt to support others to pursue what I have called Slow Buen Vivir (SBV). Specifically, Buen Vivir is performed as a critical reaction to dominant Western theories of knowledge. It also presents possibilities beyond the modern world in which all humans live well and co-exist in relation to nature and Mother Earth (Gudynas, 2011; Oviedo Freire, 2017). I posit that educators must provide the necessary epistemic tools for students to slowly address the issues of marginalized communities ( e.g., violence, unemployment, drug addiction, homelessness, etc.) with the hope of a long-term solution to living well with each other. In this process, education counters neoliberal narratives of market-driven educational policies, curriculum design and lesson planning that mostly have affected marginalized peoples.

Based on empirical evidence, I argue that SBV is only possible with tangible actions and reflections directed towards the transformation of social structures that oppress the marginalized. It should be stressed that this form of praxis has profoundly positive implications for society, as it empowers students to acquire critical awareness to question their marginal position in the social order. In other words, praxis is performed as a form of decolonization in that it involves concrete actions carried out as part of various English-language learning projects. Dei (2019) explains,: “…for us to be more effective, our decolonial praxis must be about resistance to all forms of oppression given that colonialism and colonization are fundamentally about exploitation and oppression of peoples.” (p. viii). By pushing back against government curricular guidelines, teachers challenge, problematize, and counter oppressive narratives that are part of a decolonial project in action that is “deeply implanted in the ways we transform our political, economic, cultural and school systems.” (Dei and Lordan 2016, p. vii).

My hope is to help researchers imagine alternative approaches and ways to connect with participants in a more humane way.

Author

• Yecid Ortega, Queen's University - Belfast