Knowledge out of Balance: Scrutinizing the Positionality of Analytical Tools to Achieve Consequential Education Research

• In Event: Challenging Western Notions of Truth: Toward the Construction of Epistemic Justice

Abstract

Why is there a scarcity of nonwestern knowledge systems for data analysis at academic conferences including those dubbed as international? How might overreliance on Western knowledge systems impede realization of consequential education research? Based on the premise that the foundation of education is knowledge, and the foundation of equitable education is epistemic justice, this presentation demonstrates benefits of diversifying metalanguage and analytical apparatuses for data analysis through challenging Western-centric traditions that construct the global south as incapable of producing analytical tools. Illustrating insights on language and literacy through an interepistemic synergy approach, I employ indexicality and interactional sociolinguistics on one hand and Afrocentric methodology on the other, in analyzing data produced in a grades 9/5 literacy collaboration in Nairobi, Kenya.

Author

• David Bwire, The College of New Jersey
  Presenting Author