Dominant knowledge in education has been widely critiqued for its euro-western, colonial, patronizing, middle-class, white, cisgendered, and heteropatriarchal foundations and exclusion of multiple, non-euro-western, and Indigenous worldviews. It is crucial to recognize the power of euro-western education, curricula, and sources (such as textbooks) in perpetuating colonialism. In this presentation, I offer an example of incorporating Ermine’s (1995) concept of ethical space as a framework for the inclusion and legitimization of multiple worldviews, truths, and knowledges within a re-search methods textbook. This approach moves toward de/anti-colonized education, aiming to "subvert the intentional erasures, omissions, negations, and absences of difference in our institutional settings" (George Sefa Dei, keynote speaker, Dal Conversations Conference 2024). It is a call for non-Indigenous educators to approach teaching re-search as a means of addressing the erasure of Indigenous worldviews, knowledges and methods. The term re-search is intentionally written with a hyphen, as coined by Indigenous scholar Dr. Kathy Absolon, to create a “pause” within the word. This pause invites reflection on its true meaning—“to search again”—and on how dominant euro-western “research” practices have, in many instances, been harmful to marginalized populations, including but not limited to i/Indigenous Peoples.

Authors:
Marina Morgenshtern, Trent University Durham, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Marina Morgenshtern is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Trent University Durham-GTA in Canada

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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