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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on our experiences as early-career researchers in merging decolonial praxis and participatory approaches between the UK, Jordan and Egypt, the session aims to nurture a collective space to creatively and critically reflect about scholar-activism and disrupting coloniality.

Paper long abstract:

As early-career researchers and aspiring scholar-activists, we grapple with the tensions in seeking to weave decolonial theoretical frameworks with participatory approaches. While PAR stems from the radical Freirean teachings of collective ‘conscientization’ (Fals Borda, 1991), longstanding critiques have challenged the extent to which it has become institutionalized and subsequently upholds colonial, patriarchal, neoliberal, individualistic practices and interests in development theory and practice (Cooke and Kothari, 2001). PAR risks becoming a ‘tick-box’ exercise for researchers and practitioners, raising questions about inhabiting spaces of decolonial praxis (Tuhiwai-Smith, 2012). Decolonial praxis invites researchers to be consciously aware of this ‘performative and colonial participation’, and to nurture context-specific forms of resistance to epistemic and material coloniality (Quijano, 2000). Meanwhile, many indigenous and Othered communities are not only resisting colonial power and knowledge systems but also “re-existing” through practices that reconnect to the body, art, spirituality and nature (Seppälä et al., 2021).

This paper explores these tensions through research with rural Bedouin in Jordan and Gazan adolescents in Egypt, alongside experiences with the Centre for Decolonising Knowledge in Teaching, Research and Practice (DECkNO). The session will be based around a creative activity inviting participants to explore what decolonial praxis means to them and how it shapes their actions both within and outside of research. Collectively examining the concept of the ‘scholar-activist’ and the quotidian experiences of decolonial praxis, this session invites affective reflections about how we ‘do our research’ and create communities within UK academic institutions to disrupt coloniality.