Postcolonial Autoethnography: Healing Wounded Humanities

Abstract

We have encountered the views of research as apolitical, ahistorical, aculture, and value free: the most powerful weapon for the imposition of Western-Eurocentric thought. It does not embrace the voice and epistemology of Othered people. Against this backdrop, we offer significant features of postcolonial autoethnography. It has three major attributes: exploring the colonial legacy for revitalizing others, dialectical reasoning to create a synergy of meaning perspectives, and metaphor of transformative praxis to bring a paradigm shift. Likewise, we describe three ethical considerations: empathy, inclusiveness, and healing, which possibly help empower the researcher and research participants to become conscious citizens.

Reflection-on-/in-/for-actions: Deconstructing hegemonic pedagogical culture in science education

“…In this study, I consciously apply the transformative notions of autoethnography to excavate the hegemonic pedagogical cultures embedded in my science teaching and learning and to demystify the ways for moving forward in the future. Moreover, this method can be significant for healing the wounds (Lamichhane and Luitel, 2023) caused by acceptance of the invisible dominant ideology (Yusuf et al, 2017). In my personal experiences, there is a nexus between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ for (de)constructing the hegemonic pedagogical culture in science education.…”

Mapping the Landscape of Data Collection: A Reflection on the Dynamics of Fieldwork in Qualitative Research

“…Research ethics in the Nepali context from Eastern Philosophy (i.e., Hindu Philosophy) is discussed less despite there being moral and ethical rules and guidelines in Nepali society. For instance, Lamichhane and Luitel (2023) present the broader ethical approach in the Nepali research context as empathy, inclusiveness, and healing, which, in fact, is the relational approach that values participants in the center of the inquiry process. Notably, decolonizing the qualitative fieldwork is the urged need; this Eastern notion of research ethics inspired my fieldwork.…”

Political sensitivity and autoethnography: a case on negotiating the personal political front

“…Autoethnography has its potential to give voice to marginalized perspectives because its success is set on the mission "to disrupt taboos, break silences, and reclaim lost and disregarded voices" (Adams et al, 2015, p. 36). In explaining postcolonial autoethnography as a means of healing, Lamichhane and Luitel (2023) have proposed its power for the oppressed to introspect the reasons for social injustice and racial/ethical superiority, which have silenced and neglected their "voices, perspectives, and lifeworld" (p. 444) for centuries. For example, Carey (2016)'s account on her cultural healing after the trauma associated with her identify awakening to being a M aori woman in New Zealand.…”