Staging Dissent: Decolonizing Together With Young Women of Color

• In Event: Transnational and Decolonizing Perspectives on Curricular Memory and Vision

Abstract

In this paper, the author argues for critical curriculum studies (Au, 2011) to incorporate youth-based inquiry and analysis of dissent as part of a “pedagogy of solidarity” (Gaztambide-Fernández, 2012) or what Harsha Walia (2012) terms the process of “decolonizing together.” More specifically, the author explores how student inquiry involving activism and dissent can serve as productive tools in social justice education both inside and outside of the classroom. There are two objectives of the paper: a) to provide a conceptual framework for thinking about dissent and solidarity in working with youth; and b) to illustrate the possibilities and limitations of this framework based on the author’s experiences working with young women of color.

Author

• Lisa Weems, Miami University