Symposium on Diverse Epistemologies: Unravelling the Hegemony of Neocolonialism in the Global South: The Significance of African Epistemologies in Knowledge Production
"Colonial conquests around the world were not only focused on the usurping of Indigenous lands, but also on the colonization of the minds of the Indigenous inhabitants. Colonial education and missionary schools functioned as mechanisms for ideological control, including in higher education. This resulted in research epistemologies and methodologies being inherently influenced by colonial perspectives in knowledge production. The focus of this presentation is to discuss ways in which research can be unraveled and transformed for the purpose of incorporating Indigenous, Black and Brown communities, whose identities and knowledge constructions have been systematically excluded in academic research. Drawing from my scholarship, I argue that whether or not research is conducted in the contexts of Indigenous or other marginalized communities, it must embody the elements of decolonization to interrupt and interrogate the long-standing colonial discourse in research. In the context of the global South in particular, such efforts must acknowledge the significance of African and other Indigenous epistemologies, for example, Maori, Quilombola, including other critical epistemologies in knowledge production in order to challenge the colonial canon." -Dr. Bekisizwe Ndimande
Join us as we welcome Dr. Bekisizwe S. Ndimande, Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching and Faculty Associate in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He conducts research in the areas of curriculum studies, education policy, and anti-colonial studies. Dr. Ndimande’s article, From Bantu Education to the Fight for Socially Just Education in Equity & Excellence in Education, was among the 18 articles selected by Taylor & Francis as representative of the interdisciplinary nature of social justice studies. Other publications include Urban Education and Black Racial Identity in South Africa (with Helen Neville) in Urban Education journal; Pedagogy of the Township in Sonia Nieto (Ed .), Dear Paulo: Letters from Those who Dare Teach; The Role of Indigenous Languages and Focus Groups in Qualitative Inquiry; Lutas Docentes nas Escolas Públicas para negros na África do Sul pós-apartheid in Cadernos de Educação (a Brazilian journal); and Unravelling the Neocolonial Epistemologies: Decolonizing Research Toward Transformative Literacy in the Journal of Literacy Research. Dr. Ndimande is currently an editor of Critical Studies in Education journal and serves on several international journal Editorial Boards. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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