ERIC Number: EJ1427683
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0729-4360
EISSN: EISSN-1469-8366
Autoethnography as a Decolonising Tool: Bringing Identity into the Classroom
Higher Education Research and Development, v43 n5 p1142-1155 2024
The need to include indigenous perspectives in curricula is a challenge facing education internationally. In the context of higher education, decolonising practices and processes are the responsibility not just of institutions but also individual academics. Despite individual aspirations to decolonise teaching, it can be difficult to know where to start. Our aim is to guide others to engage in teaching practices that seek to decolonise. To do this we outline our respective teaching and research experiences that are united by our use of critical autoethnography in workshops we have designed for our respective teaching in different institutions. Our paper describes different ways to bring into focus the lived experience and nuanced views of groups who, through the process of colonisation, have not previously been given space or voice in higher education. Enabling the inclusion of indigenous enquiry within classroom settings provides a valuable decolonisation tool for groups such as the indigenous Maori population in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our practices seek to create space to prioritise storytelling, the sharing of researcher positionality, and personal identity in a way that centralises indigenous perspectives. We argue that these autoethnographic practices help teachers and students to hold hegemonic systems to account, explore strengths-based solutions and express aspirations for the future.
Descriptors: Ethnography, Autobiographies, Decolonization, Self Concept, Educational Practices, Teaching Experience, Research, Indigenous Populations, Foreign Countries, Praxis, White Teachers, Higher Education, Ethnic Groups, Pacific Islanders
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A