Dr Sara Ganassin, Senior Lecturer
Education, Communication and Language Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
What did you do?
The Virtual Summer School Decolonising Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics and Education (11-15 July 2022) brought together 25 research students and six staff members from the School of Education Communication and Language Sciences (Newcastle University) and the School of Education, University of Nicosia (Cyprus).
Who is involved?
The initiative was funded by the Global Virtual Exchange & Engagement Fund (Newcastle University) and led by Dr Sara Ganassin.
What did you do?
The Virtual Summer School Decolonising Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics and Education (11-15 July 2022) brought together 25 research students and six staff members from the School of Education Communication and Language Sciences (Newcastle University) and the School of Education, University of Nicosia (Cyprus).
How did you do it?
The Summer School included a set of virtual synchronous and asynchronous activities and ran over one week in July 2022 for a total commitment of 15 hrs. Drawing on decolonising theoretical perspectives, we explored four key areas: critical race theory; critical visual literacy; researching ethically and multilingually; inclusivity in language and identity research.
The Summer School drew on research-informed teaching linked to practical, ‘real-life’ issues. It provided a problem-solving based critical exploration of the experiences of different groups in research settings including the experiences of vulnerable, displaced and minority groups (e.g. learners with special needs, refugees in Europe).
The focus and contents of the summer school were based on the partnership’s extensive experience of developing research and teaching contents in the areas of intercultural communication, virtual exchange and inclusive education. Contents and delivery style were selected based on student feedback of the postgraduate modules and other online training programmes taught in both institutions (e.g. duration, mix of asynchronous and synchronous activities, workshop style lectures, group discussions, digital resources).
The Summer School was delivered in English as shared partnership lingua franca and students were encouraged to use in a creative and flexible way their other linguistic resources. A key pedagogical goal of the event was building researcher’s capacity and equipping early career researchers with the skills they need to progress in their academic career including intercultural and multilingual awareness, research and collaborative skills. Participants received research skills passports issued by the partnership.
Why did you do it?
This is the second successful collaboration on a virtual exchange (VE) project between ECLS, Newcastle University and the School of Education, University of Nicosia (Cyprus). We are keen on developing a number of VE initiatives that will benefit our students and allow students (whether they can travel or not) to develop global and cultural awareness and intercultural communication skills.
The Summer School drew on decolonising theoretical perspectives to build researcher’s capacity and to equip doctoral students with the research skills they need to progress in their academic career. The theme of the summer school aligns with NU’s commitment to education in social justice and sustainability in that it offers practical guidance to participants on how to unpack and critically evaluate discourses of otherness, vulnerability, and power in research. It also addresses a gap in current training provision for PGR students at both institutions.
Does it work?
Student-participants were asked to complete a pre- and post-Summer School self-evaluation questionnaire delivered via Microsoft Forms. The questionnaire items reflected the learning outcomes of the Summer School and students were asked to self-asses how the summer school supported them to gain the following:
- language and intercultural communicative skills needed for employment and global engagement
- digital competencies
- ways in which different types of identities (gender, age, racial, ethnic, national, geographical, historical, linguistic, etc.) impact research relationships
- awareness of the power differences between researchers and the researched with a focus on participants who are marginalised or vulnerable
- awareness to make ethics-informed decisions at all stages of the research process
- an academic understanding of ‘decolonisation of research methodologies’ that allows engagement in critical discussions
- understanding of how language and interculturality are empowering resources for engagement with others
- the ability to name, critically question, and explain to others their research experiences in different educational settings
- skills to analyse a series of critical incidents and research case studies and assign reasons to them beyond easy attributions to cultural differences
- willingness to engage with others in a professional context and to identify ‘good’ research practices.
Participants reported significant improvement on every aspect of the knowledge, skill, awareness, attitude mentioned above, especially on their awareness to make ethics-informed research decisions, academic understanding of decolonisation of research methodologies, understanding of how language and interculturality are empowering resources for engagement with others, their language and intercultural communicative skills as well as on their willingness to engage with others in a professional contexts.
The final survey revealed high satisfaction rates (94.12%). Specifically, participants valued how the Summer School supported them to develop research, teamwork and transversal skills. Participants also saw the Summer School as an opportunity to develop further international collaborations and networks.
Student Voice
Students provided feedback on the Summer School:
- When I stated this virtual training course, I had no idea about decolonizing methodologies but now I can see it has a wider context than just to end the colonization, especially in relation of the way of thinking about culture, power and domination.
- The training is very rich in content and very meaningful. We had great discussions over various topic, including the most controversial ones.
- It’s been an amazing week. Thank you.
Graduate Framework
This approach develops the following attributes:
- Socially Responsible
- Future Focused
- Resilient
- Critical Thinkers
- Confident
- Creative, Innovative and Enterprising
- Digitally Capable
- Curious
- Collaborative
- Engaged