ABSTRACT
Decolonization is a process which engages with imperialism and colonialism at multiple levels. For researchers, one of those levels is concerned with having a more critical understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations and values which inform research practices. Common critiques of decolonizing interpretive research can include concerns that it is purely abstract work, which fails to provide a sufficiently challenging research experience, produce practical or useful knowledge, or include the voices of the oppressed. Decolonizing interpretive research signals an analysis that inherently requires a formidable decolonizing process of deductive analysis–an inferential analysis deeply anchored upon the a priori communal knowledge of the subaltern voices emerging from the communities in which they labor. Decolonizing concepts within the context of research have often emerged out of a foundation of critique: a critical analysis of the ways in which colonialism still affects the way the world is viewed.
