Decolonizing the Classroom: Disrupting the Coloniality of Knowledge

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Focusing on College Student Communities (Table 12)

Abstract

We draw from the field of education leadership and transcultural literacies to showcase interdisciplinary collaborations that address the crisis of coloniality embedded in our education systems. We employ decolonizing approaches in instructional practices and pedagogy to research, remedy, and repair curricula and learning activities in undergraduate and graduate classes. Further, we challenge neoliberal Western-centric canonical structures in college teaching and prioritize culturally affirming onto-epistemologies to acknowledge and value voices from oft-marginalized worldviews. The use of participatory methodology in this exploration highlights decolonizing strategies and methods in college teaching, imperative for those peripheralized by systemic inequalities enacted through deleterious and othering practices that obscure the promise of a just education.

Authors

• Karen Ramlackhan, University of South Florida

• David Bwire, The College of New Jersey