1. Critical Pedagogy and Course Design
Critical Literacies Achievement and Success Program
Dr. Anna Plemons

2. Colonialism
resources
ideology

3. every dimension of human life.”
To what extend does the design of our courses contribute to
“an order of normative reason that extends a specific formulation of economic values, practices, and metrics to
every dimension of human life.”
--Wendy Brown,
Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution

4. Decoloniality & Critical Pedagogy
Decolonial theory allows scholars to consider how the “effects and complicities of historical and contemporary colonialism” influence:
Research and educational institutions
Theories
Methodologies
Methods**
Scholarship
Everyday embodied practices**
Haas (2015)

5. A host of scholars study Indigenous, decolonial options in academic design:
Maracle (1990)
Hampton (1995)
Atkinson (2001)
Weber-Pillwax (1999)
Mihesuah and Wilson (2004)
Wilson (2008)
Tuhiwai Smith (2012)
Haas (2007, 2012)
Arola (2013)

6. Research as Ceremony
Shawn Wilson (2008)
Wilson calls for research methodologies “whose purpose is the strengthening of relationships and/or the bridging of distance.”

7. annaplemons.com

8. 5/8/2019
We can’t wait to speak until we are perfectly clear and righteous. There is no purity and, in our lifetime, no end to this process. --Adrienne Rich, Contradictions
Template-WSU Hrz black

9. 5/8/2019
If you are interested in decolonial classroom work, course design is a great place to start. - Readings - Assignments - Feedback structures
Template-WSU Hrz black

10. Respect
Relationality
Reciprocity

11. Example: Asking students, “Does that make sense?”

12. Respect
Relationality
Reciprocity

13. Questions for Small Groups
As we think about course design, how can we prepare to identify colonial aspects of our course design?
What examples have we seen of decolonial course design (readings, assignment sequences, feedback practices, etc.)?