Exploring colonial and decolonial influences in the teaching of indigenous perspectives at Swedish Universities.

Abstract

This thesis engages the topic of colonial and decolonial influences within teaching of indigenous epistemology, ontology, and methodology, here abbreviated to indigenous perspectives, at institutions of higher education. More specifically this study brings the discussion into a Swedish setting. Little is known about the colonial and decolonial influences in the pedagogy at Swedish universities, particularly in relation to the teaching of indigenous perspectives. The aim of this study was to explore colonial and decolonial influences within the teaching of indigenous perspectives at Swedish Universities through the experiences and perspectives of scholars engaged with researching and teaching about indigenous perspectives. Since many previous studies focus on student’s perspectives and experiences of colonial and decolonial influences within curriculum, another aim of this study was to highlight the experiences and perspectives of the scholars working with these kinds of questions. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with scholars working within the Swedish universities: Gothenburg University, Lund University, Linköping University, Uppsala University, and Umeå University. The data collected was then subjected to a thematic analysis through a theoretical lens consisting of Decolonial Theory and key concepts within Decolonial Theory in relation to knowledge, pedagogy, and indigenous perspectives. It was found that there exist both colonial and decolonial influences within the teaching of indigenous perspectives. The data showed that colonial influence has its foundation in a domestic culture that comes to affect the institutional processes which ultimately influence the curriculum and teaching, while the decolonial influence comes through from scholars’ and students’ individual initiatives enabled by an encouragement to generate diversity.