By Peter Taylor
I have recently been working closely with a group of EADI members reflecting on the importance of “decolonising knowledge for development”. This is in response to our acknowledgement that social divides are driven by race, gender, religion, class and financial inequities. We know that knowledge is crucial in tackling multiple, intersecting crises grounded in, and amplifying, these divides. Yet, knowledge processes themselves are underpinned by historic, structural power asymmetries, inequities and inequalities. These inequalities are perpetuated through exclusion of many groups, communities and individuals from knowledge creation processes.
This is not simply an abstract conversation, although it certainly invokes complexity and contestation. Many EADI members, and indeed others around the world, are seeking practical opportunities to shift teaching and research in ways that ensure different knowledges and experiences from around the world are acknowledged and integrated, whilst also paying attention to addressing racial and social hierarchies. Within these debates, inequalities and asymmetries loom large, including knowledge asymmetries.
As we approached this series of conversations, reflection and engagements with EADI members, a group of us prepared a “reflection piece” to help EADI consider the implications of decolonising knowledge for development. Our aim has been to open a conversation and promote exchange of knowledges and experience from across the EADI membership, and potentially beyond. We have been reflecting on two major questions:
- What is needed to deconstruct the dominant narratives and personal privileges embodied in our race, class, gender in the context of knowledge for development?
- How, in a knowledge landscape littered with potential minefields, could we help shift mindsets that shape the ways in which ‘we’ understand the world and our subsequent values, behaviours, and attitudes?
In addressing these questions, we have been considering what, and whose, knowledge is valued, counted, and integrated into development processes; how we go about decolonising knowledge in our research and teaching; what kinds of investments are needed to promote learning and change; and what ‘our’ role is in needed transformations, as individuals, as organisations, and as institutions?
Given the challenging nature of the issues being considered, it was important for us to identify a method which would allow a sharing and surfacing of experiences relating to decolonising knowledge for development. Through this method, we also wanted to enable the holders of that knowledge to offer it in ways that were “true” to themselves and their contexts. Storytelling offered us a way to do this.
Why storytelling as a method?
We were inspired by authors and researchers who have also used, and learned from, story-telling as a method. Patrick J. Lewis and Katia Hildebrandt share these reflections:
“Stories and storytelling are central to human experience and understanding. Narrative understanding is an innate human capacity; we think, live, and dream in story form, making it one of the principal forms of human meaning-making. Story and narrative provide a substantial (if unspoken) foundation to many of the existing qualitative methodologies in use today, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, self-study, autoethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, and hermeneutics.”
Julia Christensen suggests that storytelling itself may be a decolonising method:
“I suggest that research storytelling is particularly well suited to community-based participatory research, as we explore methods to present findings in ways that are more culturally appropriate to the communities in which the research takes place. This is especially so in collaborative research with Indigenous communities, where storytelling and knowledge sharing are often one and the same. “
Given the frame of our inquiry – decolonising knowledge for development – these experiences and observations suggested to us that story-telling is a particularly appropriate method for us to use in this case.
How did we approach the storytelling exercise?
We initiated the process as part of series of conversations, including webinars and event(s) linked to EADI’s 50th anniversary activities. We invited EADI members and other collaborators to submit short “stories” of actions they have been involved in that sought to address power imbalances in knowledge processes (why, what they did, what happened, what was learned, and how does this link to our emerging framings around decolonising knowledge?) Our plan was then to share stories in formats jointly selected with authors (blog/long-form article/podcast/video and in compendium form), and also to organise webinars in which authors could elaborate on their experiences in a live conversation.
We received a very positive response, as follows:
- 15 responses in the first round of invitations (1st May 2024)
- The stories originated from different countries and continents
- Authors were located in a diverse range of contexts, many within research/teaching institutions, also other contexts, e.g. a refugee camp, a small island community
- The stories reflect on issues including identity, personal histories and transitions; relationships that led to enormous personal learning; addressing personal/related “complicity” in colonising histories and implications of that for themselves, their work and others; and identifying challenges they are addressing through reform of systems, or approaches to research, teaching and learning
In terms of the process, the EADI Task Group reviewed all the submissions, and found that all 15 submissions merited follow-up. Task Group members were assigned (on voluntary basis) to speak with the storyteller to understand better the story and in what form they would like to share it. Once the format was agreed, the “story-teller” prepared a written draft, (with support from a Task Group member and EADI secretariat) or a podcast/video. Storytellers were also invited to share photos/images as part of their story. The EADI Secretariat offered editorial support, formatting and logistical input. Close to final versions of the stories were then shared with all Task Group members for review and reflections. So far, three stories and two podcasts have been “released” and are available on a dedicated space on the EADI website; a series of others is planned. We have also launched a second call for a further round of story submissions which is open until 20 December.
What have we learned?
A number of lessons have emerged through this process:
- Storytelling is a powerful method for accessing experiences grounded in affective, cognitive and even spiritual dimensions
- The act of storytelling seems to orient the “teller” in a different space, making connections between their experiences and to bring out nuances and complexity
- Stories support reflective processes and seem to facilitate mutual learning between the storyteller and the “listener”
- The “listener” plays an important role in facilitating reflection by the “teller”, by questioning, through body language, or simply by staying silent and helping create space for a story to be told in the way the teller finds natural
- The act of storytelling may help to counter power asymmetries that often shape interactions; telling a story implies presence of trust and respect, essential ingredients of decolonising approaches
- Stories need time to be told; giving time for listening or telling is a gift in itself
What will we do next?
We are very pleased with the process so far, and are excited to see the first stories already coming out, with more to follow. Our next steps include:
- Holding webinars for storytellers to share their stories as a group of peers, co-learning
- Sharing lessons of decolonising practices with other individuals or institutions through different fora
- Testing out this method in other initiatives, (e.g. there is also a Southern Voice-IDS invitation to share stories and strategies to achieve greater equity in the knowledge ecosystem) and to continue learning together
- Finalising and launching existing stories, and continuing to work with more!
To conclude, story-telling appears to offer valuable opportunities to invite, encourage and support reflection on a complex issue such as decolonising knowledge for development. We will continue to reflect on storytelling as a method to draw out lessons and inferences for decolonising knowledge; and we will seek and explore connections between theories and practices of decolonising knowledge to situate this growing collection of stories in this emerging arena of thought and action.
Peter Taylor is Acting Director, Institute of Development Studies
Image: Al-Nawfara Coffee Shop, Damascus, Syria under a creative commons licence on Wikimedia, Abu Shady, the last professional hakawati (traditional story teller) in Syria