5.2 Community collaboration towards anti-colonial principles

Alexandra Guerson, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, New College, Tyson Seburn, Assistant Director, International Programs, New College, Melissa Levin, Assistant Professor Teaching Stream, New College, Jeff Newman, College Librarian, New College

Classrooms, in both form and content, are never neutral spaces. Inayatullah (2022) reminds us that educational institutions have historically been sites of imperialist production, with teachers as its agents. The pedagogical imperative to disrupt this relationship demands deliberate strategies and approaches that seek to facilitate social change. De-colonial and anti-colonial thought and pedagogies are, at their cores, attempts to re-envision what we do in the classroom and beyond as tools for fostering human flourishing and dismantling taken-for-granted categories (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2020). But, and implied above, classrooms do not operate unmoored from their historical context. We cannot think our way out of coloniality (cf Tuck and Yang, 2012). However, we can begin to create environments that foster critical and equitable modes of being. In the continued presence of colonial land dispossession and exploitation, what does a de-colonial or anti-colonial classroom practice look like? New Pedagogy, a community-driven group at New College met over the autumn of 2024 to articulate five criteria we believe can provide an educational experience that focuses on transformation, critical inquiry, and thriving. This session will begin by sharing the document that was collegially developed by the members of New Pedagogy and the discussions that led to it. Workshop participants will then be invited to collectively discuss how these principles may apply to their contexts and what institutional considerations enable or impede their application.