DECOLONIZING HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL of RELATIONAL ALLYSHIP and COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES in ADVANCING TRUTH and RECONCILIATION
Date
2024-10-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-7519-7069
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
This manuscript dissertation explores allyship as relationality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, as enacted through collaboration and decolonizing research, scholarship, and teaching and learning in higher education, with the goal of living together in a good way and moving toward reconciliation. One of the manuscripts is a literature review, two are examinations of methodologies and two share results of studies, one with a colleague, and one with my supervisor. The first chapter provides the background for the study and my positionality. The second chapter and first manuscript, Evolving Perspectives on Allyship: An Examination of Ally Definitions, Models, and Motivations in Contemporary Academic Discourse and Literature, is a comprehensive review of the literature on the conceptualization of allyship since its beginning to present day. The following chapter and the second manuscript, Métissage, explains the progression of this qualitative, collaborative methodology used for life-writing by curriculum theorists to more current use by Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers and scholars to work together in an ethical space of engagement. Chapter Four, the third manuscript, Decolonizing Research Methodologies: Weaving a Third Space with Métissage and Duoethnography, is a comparative piece, illustrating the utility of the two methodologies that closes with an analysis of both approaches against a decolonizing practices framework. Chapter Five, the fourth manuscript, Knowing Community through Story: It’s Where We Come Together, shares one thread of results from a métissage study done with a colleague, Terrance Pelletier. Our research involved an exploration of our pedagogical and curricular practices, resulting in many conversations and reflections about our ontologies and epistemologies. Chapter Six, the fifth manuscript, is a duoethnography study done with my supervisor, Michael Cottrell, Accepting the Invitation to Help with the Paddling: Lived Experiences of Non-Indigenous Allies in a Site of Post-Secondary Indigenization. Through personal narratives and reflection, we worked through our perceptions around engaging as non-Indigenous post-secondary educator allies with Indigenous Peoples and how we strive to create decolonized spaces. The seventh chapter offers the major conclusion of the dissertation. Allyship requires a reconceptualization in current usage to frame it as aspirational, relational, and invested. Allyship compels dispositional roots and a solid commitment to living in relationship, both of which are foundational to decolonizing higher education. Four areas emerged from my research and are represented as outgrowths of relational allyship: teaching and learning Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, being connected in relationship with Elders, Knowledge Keepers and community, using collaborative research approaches, and teaching about Treaty and shared responsibilities of Treaty. The reimaging of allyship ties together the five manuscripts, culminating in a conceptual framework for decolonizing higher education, grounded in personal dispositions, relational accountability and decolonizing teaching and research practices.
Description
Keywords
allyship, collaborative research methodologies, decolonize, higher education, relationality, reconciliation
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Educational Administration
Program
Educational Administration