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Session Overview
Session
A5 ONLINE 04.1: Decolonizing Research Practices in History of Education
Time:
Thursday, 05/Sept/2024:
4:00am - 5:30am

Session Chair: Emeline Brylinski, University of Geneva
Session Chair: Niniane Waldmann (TA)

ZOOM - Meeting room 5: Meeting-ID: 837 0614 5365 Kenncode: 234132

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Presentations

The Dialogization of Historical-educational Processes: an Affair of Decolonization.

La Dialogización de Los Procesos Histórico-educativos: Una Cuestión de Decolonización.

Raúl Arango Pérez, Eric Ortega González, Raúl Navarro Zárate

Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

Abstract (in English)

The concern for the democratization of knowledge and, consequently, for its decolonization, is an issue at the forefront of the educational agenda. How have educational processes generally operated throughout history? In this paper we will try to sketch a way of interpreting historical-educational processes, in such a way that we can have a system that allows us an approach that helps us to intuit how the discourses that have survived generationally have been constructed. We call historical-educational processes the discourses and practices that make possible the education of humanity in the course of history. When we refer to the education of humanity, we are pointing to the successive formation of human life, from concrete experiences and through generations, in a diachronic process -although always with synchronic implications- of cultural construction of human existence. This constant erosion produced by the waves of generations is the event that makes possible the formation of human life; that which allows humanity to shape its form. The historical-educational processes correspond chronologically to the passage of a generation -compressed between past, present and future- (Arendt, 2018), and the analysis of their discursive nature seeks to favor the reading of the way in which this erosion has taken place, establishing vertices within their radical singularities. The dialogic and monologic discursive natures differ in that the former "refers to actions that take place through dialogue and argumentation between several people or collectives" (Vila, 2011, p.12), while the latter refer to reasoning or isolated conceptions, which reject the presence of other interpretations. A historical-educational process is more dialogical to the extent that it opens up more spaces and/or draws more from the contributions of other discourses. A historical-educational process is more monological when it silences, persecutes or omits and condemns to disappearance other discourses that are not similar to its own. This classification has great implications for the topic that brings us together, since colonization is closely related to the monologization of discourses, while the dialogization of discourses promotes plurality, respect among discourses, cultures and ways of thinking about the world, thus opening the way to decoloniality. Therefore, from a perspective that rejects absolute meanings, knowledge and values, we defend that the dialogization of historical-educational processes, in the framework we provide, is fundamental in the path towards decoloniality. We understand that "dialogue is not a historical product, but historicization itself" (Freire et. al., 1975, p.21), and that openness will allow us not only greater justice with the voices subjected throughout history and the present, but also that diversity will enrich our interpretations of reality, since dialogue is nothing more than "going out of oneself, thinking with the other and returning to oneself as other" (Gadamer, H-G, 1998, p. 356).

Abstract (in Language of Presentation)

La preocupación por la democratización del saber y, consecuentemente, por su decolonización, es un asunto de primera línea en la agenda educativa. ¿Cómo han operado generalmente los procesos educativos a lo largo de la historia? En la presente comunicación trataremos de dibujar una manera de interpretar los procesos histórico-educativos, de tal forma que podamos disponer de un sistema que nos permita una aproximación que nos ayude a intuir cómo han sido construidos los discursos que han sobrevivido generacionalmente. Nombramos procesos histórico-educativos a los discursos y prácticas que posibilitan la educación de la humanidad en el transcurso de la historia. Cuando nos referimos a educación de la humanidad, estamos señalando la sucesiva formación de la vida humana, a partir de vivencias concretas y a través de las generaciones, en un proceso diacrónico —aunque siempre con implicaciones sincrónicas— de construcción cultural de la existencia humana. Esta erosión constante producida por el oleaje de generaciones es el suceso que posibilita la formación de la vida humana; aquello que permite que la humanidad vaya moldeando su forma. Los procesos histórico-educativos se corresponden cronológicamente con el paso de una generación —comprimida entre pasado, presente y futuro— (Arendt, 2018), y el análisis de su naturaleza discursiva busca favorecer la lectura del modo en que esa erosión ha tenido lugar, estableciendo vértices dentro de sus radicales singularidades. Las naturalezas discursivas dialógica y monológica se diferencian en que la primera «hace referencia a acciones que tienen lugar por medio del diálogo y la argumentación entre varias personas o colectivos» (Vila, 2011, p.12), mientras que las segundas se refieren a razonamientos o concepciones aisladas, que rechazan la presencia de otras interpretaciones.Un proceso histórico-educativo es más dialógico en tanto que más espacios abre y/o más se nutre de las aportaciones de otros discursos. Un proceso histórico-educativo es más monológico cuando silencia, persigue u omite y condena a la desaparición a otros discursos que no sean afines a los suyos. Esta clasificación tiene grandes implicaciones en el tema que nos reúne, puesto que la colonización guarda estrecha relación con la monologización de los discursos, mientras que la dialogización de los mismos promueve la pluralidad, el respeto entre discursos, culturas y formas de pensar en mundo, abriendo así el camino a la decolonialidad. Por ello, desde una perspectiva que rechaza el sentido, el conocimiento y los valores absolutos, defendemos que la dialogización de los procesos histórico-educativos, en el marco que aportamos, es fundamental en el camino hacia la decolonialidad. Entendemos que «el diálogo no es un producto histórico, sino la propia historización» (Freire et. al., 1975, p.21), y que la apertura nos permitirá no sólo una mayor justicia con las voces sometidas a lo largo de la historia y el presente, sino que también la diversidad enriquecerá nuestras interpretaciones de la realidad, puesto que dialogar no es otra cosa que «salir de sí mismo, pensar con el otro y volver sobre sí mismo como otro» (Gadamer, H-G, 1998, p. 356).



Decolonizing Research Practices in History of Education: Issues, Limits and Perspectives.

Emeline Brylinski

University of Geneva, Switzerland

This communication aims to share and engage on an ongoing reflection about the decolonization of our research practices in social history of education. First, it offers a synthesis of the abundant literature, since the 1980s, that commits us to revise our scientific posture and methodology. Second, we will anchor these reflections in the current context, marked by tensions and resistance, and within the framework of European scientific production. And, third, we will identify the tools and methods that are useful to revise the way we conduct research, in order to move towards decolonizing our scientific approaches. The pioneers of the literature on the decolonization of research (wa Thiong’o’, 1986; Spivack, 1988) demonstrate the Eurocentric character of scientific production. The decolonization of sciences and minds does not directly result from political decolonization: it is a process that have been shaped during the 20th century, nourished by the contributions of educational theorists adopting a “critical” stance. Decolonial approaches are distinguished from critical schools of thought – such as postcolonialism – by its political commitment and its emancipatory aim. Thus, scholars adopting such endeavor are sometimes qualified as radicals because they contribute to the definition of a counter-hegemonic approach to the political project which shapes school and society (such as Paolo Freire, John Dewey, Giroux, McLaren, Apple, Shor, Kincheloe). Although this decolonial process is quite well-known and seems obvious, the decolonization of scientific productions generates a certain number of debates and provokes strong reactions. It is a trend severely attacked by conservative politicians, and constitutes a target for the delegitimization of sciences, especially in this current context marked by the rise of authoritarian regimes. For example, in France, we can consider that the university and the human and social sciences research have been under attack for several years, as evidenced by various comments made by politicians against researchers working on matters related to power, minorities’rights and social inequalities. This fear of “decolonialism” comes along with criticism of the so-called “wokism movement”, which tend to normalize the far-right discourse through media to reach public opinion. However, the practices of decolonization of scientific productions, particularly in the field of social history of education, are not new, but - today - it is of utmost importance to anchor the scientific discourse and our posture in this debate. Moreover, considering that decolonial approaches are part of a certain academic tradition, it involves scholars in the creation of a counter-hegemonic research space for the co- and re-creation of knowledge in the history of education.



Contrapuntality and Refusal as a Decolonial Historical Praxis

Sophie Rudolph

University of Melbourne, Australia

The discipline of history has grown up within colonial regimes. State and official archives are created by those who have access to greater power within that state. The maintenance of coloniality – that is, the ongoing power relations of colonialism – is often aided by historical narratives in which particular memories and amnesias are sustained and a story of progress is portrayed. The history of education is particularly prone to narratives of progress and imperial influence (see Kelly & Rigney, 2022). As Radhakrishnan (2008, p.35) has asked when exploring the debates about history and revisionism: ‘How does one, … in a world structured in dominance, invest in the humanly historical in the name of justice and ethico-political equity?’ In this paper I reflect on what this question and this context means for reading and writing histories of education in settler colonial state contexts, with particular reference to the history of school exclusion in Australia. Through bringing together conceptual resources from Critical Indigenous Studies and Edward Said’s (1993) theorising of difference, imperialism and justice I outline some possibilities for historical methods of reading and writing that attend to difference, absence, silence and relation in the colonial historical record. I argue that Said’s notion of contrapuntal reading (Lachman, 2010; Radhakrishnan, 2008) attunes the education historian to the multiple narratives present in the archive but also the ways in which those narratives relate to and work upon each other. While the notion of refusal (see Grande, 2018; Barakat, 2021) places the oppressed in an active encounter with the dominant forces in their lives, enabling the education historian to see and speculate in registers that aim to both hold colonial dominance accountable and actively engage with the always present Indigenous resistance to occupation in settler colonial societies. These methods of engagement with the historical record also work to question and unsettle the linear, developmental narrative of progress that has been part of the colonial regime of control (Kelly & Rigney, 2022). Instead history is understood to be both the past and the past in the present (Rudolph, 2018), requiring a constant reflection on the ways in which the past, present and future are in relation: working on each other contrapuntally and co-constituents in explaining how and why certain educational dilemmas come to be and/or endure. In this paper, I show how these critical tools offer opportunities for decolonial historical praxis for education historians, particularly those working in settler colonial contexts.



 
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