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E3

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Culturally Responsive Pedagogies
Saturday, February 24, 2024
1:15 PM - 2:45 PM
CGI C110

Speaker

Stepfanie Alfonso
Other
Csu San Bernardino

Storytelling as a Means of Decolonizing the University and Valid Knowledge Transmission

1:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Abstract

The foundation of university epistemological production is rooted in a history of coloniality with European and Western modes of knowledge production located within the center. These European and Western modes have often and continue to shut out other ways of knowing from academia and have deemed these additional epistemological creations invalid. However, there remains a call from those within and outside the academic system who continue to be marginalized and made to be outsiders of academia to decolonize the university. While there are multiple methods to decolonize the university, one method Indigenous scholars have recommended to reshape epistemological production and understanding in the university is storytelling. Storytelling has been an essential process for knowledge transmission within Indigenous communities and has created a space for lived experiences to be recognized and attested to as truth. These narratives that are produced then offer the opportunity to overwrite the longstanding narratives that originate from racist and colonial perspectives. Additionally, it allows individuals to understand reality from the perspective of those who have been made to be situated on the margins. While this method alone cannot itself decolonize the university, it has the opportunity to disrupt and resist colonial epistemology within academia.
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