Decolonizing knowledge : starting points, consequences and challenges
TL;DR: In this article, an interesting overlap between some Indian epistemologies and postcolonial theories can be observed with regards to the central role of the contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general.
Abstract: The call for the decolonization of knowledge refers to both its colonization and contingency and puts the focus on the multiplicity of knowledge. This contradicts European-North-American thinking and definitions of knowledge. Consequently, to advance an epistemological decolonization of knowledge, the actual process of defining knowledge will be analysed and the multiplicity of perspectives stressed at the epistemological level. Using Indian epistemology as an example, I will work out differences in definitions of knowledge and therefore basic diversifications in describing and explaining the emergence of knowledge. Truth-value-neutral forms of knowledge in particular challenge dominant European-North-American philosophical definitions, which incontrovertibly include assumptions of true or false knowledge. An interesting overlap between some Indian epistemologies and postcolonial theories can be observed with regards to the central role of the contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general. If the incentives gained are to be taken seriously, the consequences for educational science in general as well as educational practices must be discussed. According to the findings of organizational theory, emphasis on diversification and complication is also seen as an opportunity for the emergence of fresh meaning. Referring to Helen Verran’s concept of generative tension as a sign of collective creativity, encounters between diverse forms of knowledge and epistemological principles are seen as sources of creative processes and prerequisite for the emergence of new positions, perspectives etc., and thus as incubators for innovations.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the data which have been obtained in a research project on education during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the framework of the international project Gira por la Infancia 2020.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the data which have been obtained in a research project on education during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the framework of the international project Gira por la Infancia 2020. The aim was to construct a critical, active, and participatory citizenship. The method used has been the pedagogical hermeneutic in which the qualitative analysis of data was preceded by a process of child participation which allowed the analysis of the opinions of 6867 children and adolescents from 22 countries and 3 continents. The results present the children’s thinking about the closure of schools, the alternative teaching carried out, the role of teachers and families, and on the return of the "new school" with the health protocols. This work provides the children’s view on the measures of social distancing and massive school closures. However, without doubt, it also shows children’s and adolescents’ potential to empower themselves in complex situations which put the world’s schools in an unprecedented crisis. In addition, it shows the opportunity to take into consideration a joint construction of a society from the germ of its citizenship: children.
8 citations
TL;DR: In contrast, mainstream environmental politics has become a largely technical, problem-solving matter of realising concrete targets as discussed by the authors, against environmentalism's roots in radical re-thinking of society.
Abstract: Against environmentalism’s roots in radical re-thinking of society, mainstream environmental politics has become a largely technical, problem-solving matter of realising concrete targets. Environme...
7 citations
01 Jun 2019
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigated the impact of learners' non-substantive responses in online course forums, referred to as online listening responses, on e-learning performance and found that learners' listening responses positively influence learner performance in online courses.
Abstract: PurposeThis research investigates the impact of learners' non-substantive responses in online course forums, referred to as online listening responses, on e-learning performance. A common type of response in online course forums, online listening responses consist of brief, non-substantive replies/comments (e.g. “agree,” “I see,” “thank you,” “me too”) and non-textual inputs (e.g. post-voting, emoticons) in online discussions. Extant literature on online forum participation focuses on learners' active participation with substantive inputs and overlooks online listening responses. This research, by contrast, stresses the value of online listening responses in e-learning and their heterogeneous effects across learner characteristics. It calls for recognition and encouragement from online instructors and online forum designers to support this activity.Design/methodology/approachThe large-scale proprietary dataset comes from a leading MOOC (massive open online courses) platform in China. The dataset includes 68,126 records of learners in five MOOCs during 2014–2018. An ordinary least squares model is used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsOnline listening responses in course forums, along with learners' substantive inputs, positively influence learner performance in online courses. The effects are heterogeneous across learner characteristics, being more prominent for early course registrants, learners with full-time jobs and learners with more e-learning experience, but weaker for female learners.Originality/valueThis research distinguishes learners' brief, non-substantive responses (online listening responses) and substantive inputs (online speaking) as two types of active participation in online forums and provides empirical evidence for the importance of online listening responses in e-learning. It contributes to online forum research by advancing the active-passive dichotomy of online forum participation to a nuanced classification of learner behaviors. It also adds to e-learning research by generating insights into the positive and heterogeneous value of learners' online listening responses to e-learning outcomes. Finally, it enriches online listening research by introducing and examining online listening responses, thereby providing a new avenue to probe online discussions and e-learning performance.
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: This article argued that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology, which allowed the formidable expansion of the Western empires.
Abstract: What makes us modern? This is a classic question in philosophy as well as in political science. However it is often raised without including science and technology in its definition. The argument of this book is that we are modern as long as we split our political process in two - between politics proper, and science and technology. This division allows the formidable expansion of the Western empires. However it has become more and more difficult to maintain this distance between science and politics. Hence the postmodern predicament - the feeling that the modern stance is no longer acceptable but that there is no alternative. The solution, advances one of France's leading sociologists of science, is to realize that we have never been modern to begin with. The comparative anthropology this text provides reintroduces science to the fabric of daily life and aims to make us compatible both with our past and with other cultures wrongly called pre-modern.
8,858 citations
"Decolonizing knowledge : starting p..." refers background in this paper
...Raina (2009) emphasises the analogies to postcolonial theories, stressing contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general (Latour, 1993)....
[...]
...So how does educational science react to the increasing awareness of multiplicity and the insights gained from focussing on the social dimension of knowledge production, concepts, and epistemological bases? Instead of welcoming the growing desire for multiplicity (Spiess & Seesemann, 2016) in the course of awareness of the social dimensions of epistemology, to which Raina (2009) referred in the above, educational sciences have been dominated by homogenization tendencies on the reflexive level as well as by practices in recent decades....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1984
TL;DR: In this article, Luhmann and Soziale Systeme, Grundrisse einer allgemeinen Theorie (1984) / Niklas Lohmann (1927-1998) were described.
Abstract: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Documents about the work Soziale Systeme, Grundrisse einer allgemeinen Theorie (1984) / Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Pages in data.bnf.fr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Related authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 This page in data.bnf.fr lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Sources and references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Link to the main catalogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Variant of the title
2,544 citations
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show the relationship between the two theorems, and indicate their implications for regulation, in the cybernetic sense, when the system to be regulated is extremely complex.
Abstract: Recent work on the fundamental processes of regulation in biology (Ashby, 1956) has shown the importance of a certain quantitative relation called the law of requisite variety. After this relation had been found, we appreciated that it was related to a theorem in a world far removed from the biological—that of Shannon on the quantity of noise or error that could be removed through a correction-channel (Shannon and Weaver, 1949; theorem 10). In this paper I propose to show the relationship between the two theorems, and to indicate something of their implications for regulation, in the cybernetic sense, when the system to be regulated is extremely complex.
894 citations
"Decolonizing knowledge : starting p..." refers background in this paper
...According to the author, it generates meaning «when the variety in present experience is made sensible by equivalent variety in conceptual substitutions» (Weick, 2016, p. 339), referring to Ashby (1958) and his principle of requisite variety....
[...]
...339), referring to Ashby (1958) and his principle of...
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1911
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a book that is a kind of precious book written by an experienced author, and they show the reasonable reasons why you need to read this book.
Abstract: Any books that you read, no matter how you got the sentences that have been read from the books, surely they will give you goodness. But, we will show you one of recommendation of the book that you need to read. This some problems of philosophy is what we surely mean. We will show you the reasonable reasons why you need to read this book. This book is a kind of precious book written by an experienced author.
226 citations
"Decolonizing knowledge : starting p..." refers background in this paper
...Raina (2009) emphasises the analogies to postcolonial theories, stressing contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general (Latour, 1993)....
[...]
...William James (1996) already knew that, in general, conceptual «systems are monstrous abridgements but each is an equivalent for some partial aspect of the full perceptual reality» (James, 1996, p. 96)....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 2001TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at science, mathematics, and logic come to life in Yoruba primary school and reveal that in contrast to the one-to-many model found in Western number systems, Yoruba thinking operates by figuring things as wholes and their parts.
Abstract: Does two and two equal four? Ask almost anyone and they will unequivocally answer yes. A basic equation such as this seems the very definition of certainty, but is it? In this text, Helen Verran addresses precisely that question by looking at science, mathematics, and logic come to life in Yoruba primary school. Drawing on her experience as a teacher in Nigeria, Verran describes how she went from the radical conclusion that logic and maths are culturally relative, to determining what Westerners find so disconcerting about Yoruba logic, to a new understanding of all generalizing logic. She reveals that in contrast to the one-to-many model found in Western number systems, Yoruba thinking operates by figuring things as wholes and their parts. Certainty is derived not from abstract logic, but from cultural practices and associations. This is the story of how one woman's investigation in this everyday situation led to extraordinary conclusions about the nature of numbers, generalization, and certainty.
224 citations