Decolonizing trauma studies in education: implications for reorienting qualitative research practices

Abstract

The aim of this article is to call for qualitative researchers in education and other human sciences to grapple with recent developments in trauma studies and engage in reconceptualizing their research practices so that they pay attention to the catastrophic effects of colonialism on individuals and communities. Joining other critics who have called for decolonizing trauma studies, I turn to decolonial and postcolonial perspectives to reorient qualitative research practices for the collection and analysis of trauma narratives and suggest a decolonial understanding of trauma in education. In particular, I draw on literature from decolonizing trauma studies to propose two decolonial research orientations for qualitative researchers: (1) Acknowledging the problems of Eurocentric approaches to trauma in education; (2) reinventing research practices that are delinked from Western frameworks of understanding trauma, while embracing “other(ed)” ways of doing research on trauma. Specific examples are provided to show how researchers might advance these orientations.

Keywords:

• Trauma studies
• decolonization
• education
• qualitative research methods
• psychologization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Zapata (2021) explains that the term ‘insidious trauma’ was coined by Maria Root in the context of feminist criticism but was popularized by Brown (1995, p. 107) as that which “refers to the traumatogenetic effects of oppression that are not necessarily overtly violent or threatening to bodily well-being at the given moment but that do violence to the soul and spirit.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michalinos Zembylas

Michalinos Zembylas is Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus, Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, human rights education and citizenship education. His recent books include: Affect and the rise of right-wing populism: Pedagogies for the renewal of democratic education, and Higher education hauntologies: Living with ghosts for a justice-to-come (co-edited with V. Bozalek, S. Motala and D. Hölscher).