Undoing Coloniality and Reorienting Pedagogical Praxis: A Self-Study of an Immigrant, Early-Career Woman Educator in the United States

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Undoing Coloniality and Reorienting Pedagogical Praxis: A Self-Study of an Immigrant, Early-Career Woman Educator in the United States
Language: English
Authors: Bhavika Sicka (ORCID 0000-0001-8757-1639), Brandon M. Butler (ORCID 0000-0002-8794-5183)
Source: Whiteness and Education. 2025 10(1):34-53.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Immigrants, Novices, Decolonization, Mentors, Teacher Attitudes, Beliefs, Whites, Neoliberalism, Racism, Higher Education, College Faculty, Adjunct Faculty, Educational Practices, English Instruction
DOI: 10.1080/23793406.2025.2472364
ISSN: 2379-3406
2379-3414
Abstract: Leaning into her own lived experiences as a woman, immigrant, and racialised early-career instructor, teaching in a U.S. university, the first author used self-study methods to develop understanding of an under-theorised area in higher education: decolonising international teacher selves, pedagogy, and a gen-ed curriculum. She critically engaged with her pedagogic assumptions, practices, biases, and behaviours, as well as the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual frameworks that shaped her thinking, being, and teaching, to probe the possibilities of disrupting white-centring and neoliberal literacies in her classrooms. She also harnessed critical friendship through a decolonial mentorship model with a senior professor and teacher educator, who serves as the second author. Self-study emerged as a valuable methodology to trace the disciplinary boundaries of whiteness, interrogate power, and undo self-colonisation. This article contributes to the literature and understanding about the tensions, complexities, paradoxes, and possibilities of designing decolonial, anti-racist futures in higher education, with a focus on decolonising English literacy studies in the United States.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1471945
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Leaning into her own lived experiences as a woman, immigrant, and racialised early-career instructor, teaching in a U.S. university, the first author used self-study methods to develop understanding of an under-theorised area in higher education: decolonising international teacher selves, pedagogy, and a gen-ed curriculum. She critically engaged with her pedagogic assumptions, practices, biases, and behaviours, as well as the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual frameworks that shaped her thinking, being, and teaching, to probe the possibilities of disrupting white-centring and neoliberal literacies in her classrooms. She also harnessed critical friendship through a decolonial mentorship model with a senior professor and teacher educator, who serves as the second author. Self-study emerged as a valuable methodology to trace the disciplinary boundaries of whiteness, interrogate power, and undo self-colonisation. This article contributes to the literature and understanding about the tensions, complexities, paradoxes, and possibilities of designing decolonial, anti-racist futures in higher education, with a focus on decolonising English literacy studies in the United States.
ISSN:2379-3406
2379-3414
DOI:10.1080/23793406.2025.2472364