Papers by Sharon Subreenduth
Race Ethnicity and Education, Mar 1, 2008
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, May 1, 2012
are Pollyannaish, and, even if well intentioned, are for the most part impractical, the well theo... more are Pollyannaish, and, even if well intentioned, are for the most part impractical, the well theorized yet concretely grounded recommendations from Whose University are indispensable. Another significant strength of the text is the divergent methodological approach by the authors; a mixture of theorized experiences and empirical qualitative experience. This careful attention to methodological considerations adds to Whose University’s ability to critically tread on what the editors appropriately describe as the gendered terrain of higher education. Through this approach the reader is given instances and insights on how a specific teacher or administrator encounters patriarchy or homophobia, while in others the systemic structures of colonialism or classism are exposed through a macro-level analysis of an entire discipline or profession. In this sense, the text is a resource for both academics and activists, as well as those who work and study along numerous points of this thorny continuum. In conclusion, my only request from the text would be a similar level of attention to systemic structures of oppression as was paid to individually reported instances of oppression. This is not to suggest that both were not addressed, but I found there to be a greater focus on the individual than the systemic. It might be said that this is a critique less of this book, than of the general direction taken by most research to date developed by those engaged in social justice work in higher education. Moreover, this emphasis on individual as opposed to systemic types of oppression often results from a visceral reaction to first-hand encounters of subjugation that appear so close and present that they blind us to the broader structures that actually formulate oppressive systems and subsequently remain under-theorized. Chapters like Maria Martimianaki’s “Reconciling Competing Discourses” and Linda Muzzin and Jacqueline Limoge’s “A Pretty Incredible Structural Injustice,” included in this volume, start this work but I think more is needed in the field.
This article focuses on the larger project of identifying oppressive structures (during apartheid... more This article focuses on the larger project of identifying oppressive structures (during apartheid more specifically in this instance) and how educational policy/textbooks (post-apartheid) produce transformative knowledge for decolonization. It presents Black South African teacher perceptions and desires of what/how educational policy, history textbooks can intervene in apartheid indoctrination and what role these have in addressing the nation’s meta-narrative of equity and social justice. I take up these teacher narratives as a way to further critique textbooks currently used and examine the written and visual content against post-apartheid decolonizing intentions. Teacher narratives and textbook analysis indicate that even prescriptive post-apartheid textbooks struggle to reimagine history wrought through with colonialism. Decolonizing analysis of visual images in the textbooks show how curriculum policy/practice in South Africa is a collision of anti-apartheid desires and post-apa...
This chapter explores activism as/in/for global citizenship theoretically, historically, and in p... more This chapter explores activism as/in/for global citizenship theoretically, historically, and in practice. We argue one necessarily learns hierarchical violences that disconnect the world and self from the so-called Other. Therefore, to think and act more relationally, and outside of regimes of truth, requires a radically different way of knowing that does not simply follow our usual habits, but unlearns them (Foucault in Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Pantheon Books, New York, 1980; Spivak in An aesthetic education in the era of globalization. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2012). Thus, we focus on the long-term project of ‘decolonising the mind’ (wa Thiongʼo in Decolonizing the mind. James Currey, London, 1986). To do this, we explicitly connect theory to practice and we draw on contemporary events and materials, such as Black Lives Matter and Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis. Pantheon, New York, 2003). We also provide examples, questions,...
A complex critique of how society constructs women of color in the academy combines with deeply p... more A complex critique of how society constructs women of color in the academy combines with deeply personal interludes and a polyphony of scholarly voices to demonstrate ways that their objectified bodies can not only resist but also improvise as they question what it means to be different.
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016
this article discusses the manufactured absence of African epistemologies, that we refer to as 'e... more this article discusses the manufactured absence of African epistemologies, that we refer to as 'epistemicide', in formal education in Africa. the exemplifying case for our argument is the western hegemonic positioning of university and school-based knowledge in south African education during the past 20 years. This is taken up in the first half of the article where we illustrate how this (westernised) knowledge form is instantiated in the education body politik. the
Higher Education for the Public Good, 2012
Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2006
Qualitative Research in Education, Oct 28, 2013
Neoliberalizing Educational Reform, 2015
Educational Studies, 2015
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2006
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2010
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Papers by Sharon Subreenduth