SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.52 issue1Reflecting on the ethics of PhD research in the Global South: reciprocity, reflexivity and situatednessEpistemic (in)justice and decolonisation in higher education: experiences of a crosssite teaching project author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Acta Academica

On-line version ISSN 2415-0479
Print version ISSN 0587-2405

Abstract

IDAHOSA, Grace Ese-osa  and  BRADBURY, Vanessa. Challenging the way we know the world: overcoming paralysis and utilising discomfort through critical reflexive thought. Acta acad. (Bloemfontein, Online) [online]. 2020, vol.52, n.1, pp.31-53. ISSN 2415-0479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa52i1/sp3.

Reflexivity has been foregrounded as an important practice in scholarship regarding the scrutiny of ethical research and knowledge production. What is at risk, however, is reflexivity becoming counter-productive and consumed within the hegemony of Western practice, ultimately making little contribution towards disrupting power asymmetries. In this paper, we ask, at what point can critical self-reflexivity become productive, rather than self-indulgent and paralysing? Reflecting on the assumptions that underpin our scholarship, we ask, how can we utilise emotions of paralysis, discomfort and contradiction towards positive social change? Drawing on our experiences, we highlight the messy nature of reflexivity and argue that these emotions are important and entail a constant re-examination of the assumptions embedded in our pedagogy, scholarship and motives for engaging with the world. In so doing, we show how challenging the ways we know the world through reflexivity and critical thought are vital in the process of decolonising knowledge.

Keywords : Critical reflexivity; contradiction; paralysis; knowledge production; decolonisation.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )

 

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License