Abstract:
This paper explores the theoretical and methodological framework being used in the project. It outlines how the research team has combined Rancière’s (2010; 2012) ideas about intellectual equality and interactive and communal approaches to theorising with postcolonial/decolonial theories of history. Rancière’s (2010; 2012) theories allow us to recast theorising as an educational act whereby Indigenous and non-Western doctoral candidates, whose languages, theoretic-linguistic resources and modes of critical reasoning are often not recognised, can mobilise intellectual equality. Postcolonial/decolonial approaches to history are sensitive to ongoing local/global geopolitical (Beckert, 2014) and linguistic (Gordon, 2015) inequities. Postcolonial scholars have created unique methodologies for recovering the silenced stories of Indigenous, migrant, refugee and international communities. This paper outlines the ways in which our theoretical position is both postcolonial and decolonial because many Indigenous scholars are troubled by the ‘post’ in postcolonial. Our methodological effort is to stand with our Indigenous participants and to acknowledge that the work required to decolonise can be carried out through Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing (Arbon, 2008; Battiste, 2008; Bunda 2014; Nakata,2004). Postcolonial/decolonial historical approaches draw upon methodologies developed by feminist and Indigenous scholars for tracing life histories (eg. Allen, 2009; McCarty et al., 2005). In this project, life history techniques will be used to reconstruct the narratives of up to 10 Colombo Plan graduates and 10 of their supervisors. Where possible, oral history interviews will also be conducted with those Colombo Plan graduates and their supervisors who are still accessible. Life history interview approaches will also be used with contemporary Indigenous, international, migrant and refugee students and their supervisors.Zerubavel’s (2003) innovative approach of using time-maps will also be adopted to trace collective historical memories of both individuals and cultural groups. Time maps allow us to depict the ebbs, flows, ruptures and varied intensity of historical narratives. His work also acknowledges how different cultural groups’ time-maps may be contradictory and therefore need to be overlayed and compared in order to gain a more complex picture of the shape of the past (Zerubavel, 2003). The life history techniques Middleton (2001) drew upon in her study of Aotearoa/New Zealand Education PhDs will also be applied to tracing the intellectual biographies of Colombo Plan graduates and contemporary doctoral students and their supervisors.