ERIC Number: EJ1338697
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Jul
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1746-1979
EISSN: N/A
The Spatial Imaginaries of International Volunteer Teachers: Contrapuntal and Disconnected Geographies
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, v17 n2 p171-187 Jul 2022
Scholars argue that international volunteering must not be framed as altruism or charity; rather, it should invoke themes from decolonial justice theorizing. Volunteers who have benefited from colonial-imperial structural advantages should understand their labor as a kind of reparation for ongoing structural dispossession. I argue that spatial imaginaries are central to this project. Volunteers can better situate themselves with decolonial intentionality if they adopt what Edward Said called contrapuntal theories of geography. The volunteer orientation phase is the best time to instill this spatial imaginary. This study analyzes how volunteers theorize "home" and "away" as they become teachers in Namibia. Drawing from a "netnographic" discourse analysis of their public blogs, I find that volunteers are likely to subscribe to a geographical imaginary of atomized and disconnected spaces, lacking the conceptual tools needed to grapple with decolonial justice and to implement dues-paying volunteering in their classrooms.
Descriptors: Volunteers, International Programs, Foreign Countries, Postcolonialism, Discourse Modes, Attitudes, Imagination, Cultural Influences, Electronic Publishing, Web Sites, Student Teachers, Personal Narratives, Politics, Geographic Regions
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2814
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Namibia; Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A