LFS Teaching Colloquy 2022: So you want to talk about decolonization?

This year’s colloquy was held on Friday, June 24^th from 9:30am to 12:00pm

The term decolonization is used more and more in higher education, but has different meanings for different people and groups. What are the commonalities and differences between interpretations of the term? How does decolonization relate to our teaching? And where do we even start?

In the final hour, Dr. Vanessa Andreotti (she/hers) joined us to facilitate a discussion on the complexities, challenges, and opportunities of engaging with decolonial perspectives in higher education. Dr. Andreotti is a full professor at the Department of Educational Studies at UBC. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change and is the interim director of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2019. Dr. Andreotti has recently accepted the appointment to serve as Dean, Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria and will share elements of her recent presentation for the position of Dean. 

By the end of this session, our hope is participants have a better understanding of the landscape of decolonization and possibilities for integrating perspectives into teaching spaces.

Suggested pre-session resources:

[Video: 12mins] The Bus within Us
Methodology: An approach to develop the capacity to sit with the tensions, complexities, and contradictions that emerge when engaging with difficult material related to decolonization
[Reading: estimated 80 mins] Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40.  PDF: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630/15554
[Reading: estimated 36 mins] Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1), 21-40.