Holding up the researcher’s mirror to decolonize knowledge generation: a critical examination of researchers’ positionality beyond the ‘Global North’/‘South’ divide

Abstract

In this article, we scrutinise the importance of researchers’ positionality vis-à-vis the ‘Global South’/‘North’ binary in the field of international and comparative education. Accounting for the different places we speak from, we reflect on our past experiences as doctoral researchers examining teachers’ role as agents of peace and/or conflict in divided and (post-) conflict societies. In doing so, we challenge the rigidity of the ‘North’/‘South’ demarcation as a singular marker of insider/outsider status. Instead, we propose hybrid positions that are susceptible to change over time and in relation to socio-political contexts and structural power relations. To conclude, we situate our experiences along an intersecting insider-outsider and decoloniality continuum.

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