Decolonizing my curriculum during remote learning: An autoethnographic study

Abstract

The American institution of schooling was shaped around a colonial center wherein the legacy of white Supremacy, racism, and capitalism endure (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Colonial power structures are duplicated especially in the classrooms of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of color (BIPOC). In the sudden switch to remote learning during the COVID 19 pandemic, teachers were tasked with reimagining virtual schooling, but often did so using long entrenched hegemonic expectations, assumptions and standards. In a continuous effort to decolonize my classroom and work against reproducing oppressive power structures, I seized the unique opportunity presented in the shift to remote learning to interrogate the practices that shape my curriculum. In my autoethnographic study, conducted in an urban public high school in New York, I critically examined the ways in which I make and unmake colonial oppression in my practice as an educator and teacher leader through a process of critical reflection. Using guiding questions adapted from Lyiscott’s Fugitive Literacies framework (2019), I interrogated and examined the curricula I created and taught in my English classroom. I center my experiences as an educator during the COVID-19 pandemic working to create more equitable, democratic virtual and physical classroom environments by anchoring my research in decolonizing theory (Smith, 1999), critical constructivism (Kincheloe, 1991), womanism (Walker, 1979), and Indo-Caribbean feminism (Hosein & Outar, 2016). In this presentation, I will share the findings from my autoethnographic study, including reflections on my own researching, teaching and learning process over the last year.

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Jun 10th, 11:30 AM Jun 10th, 12:45 PM

Decolonizing my curriculum during remote learning: An autoethnographic study

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The American institution of schooling was shaped around a colonial center wherein the legacy of white Supremacy, racism, and capitalism endure (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Colonial power structures are duplicated especially in the classrooms of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of color (BIPOC). In the sudden switch to remote learning during the COVID 19 pandemic, teachers were tasked with reimagining virtual schooling, but often did so using long entrenched hegemonic expectations, assumptions and standards. In a continuous effort to decolonize my classroom and work against reproducing oppressive power structures, I seized the unique opportunity presented in the shift to remote learning to interrogate the practices that shape my curriculum. In my autoethnographic study, conducted in an urban public high school in New York, I critically examined the ways in which I make and unmake colonial oppression in my practice as an educator and teacher leader through a process of critical reflection. Using guiding questions adapted from Lyiscott’s Fugitive Literacies framework (2019), I interrogated and examined the curricula I created and taught in my English classroom. I center my experiences as an educator during the COVID-19 pandemic working to create more equitable, democratic virtual and physical classroom environments by anchoring my research in decolonizing theory (Smith, 1999), critical constructivism (Kincheloe, 1991), womanism (Walker, 1979), and Indo-Caribbean feminism (Hosein & Outar, 2016). In this presentation, I will share the findings from my autoethnographic study, including reflections on my own researching, teaching and learning process over the last year.