Translanguaging decoloniality in a divided island as post-colonial pedagogic praxis: Cyprus and cultural subversions

Abstract

As a political and pedagogic project, decolonisation involves the deconstruction of dominant Eurocentric forms of knowledge production, and the pluralisation of the knowledge field. But, in the case of a divided Cyprus, such practices and structures take on different meanings, within and beyond different contexts. In this article we link feminisms of resistance to curricular practices as a decolonial pathway to erasure of epistemic and gendered violence. If we are to suggest a collective project of decolonisation of higher education in Cyprus, we initially need to deconstruct conceptual frameworks of social justice through decolonising pedagogic practices. We consider ‘translanguaging decoloniality’ as one such avenue to pedagogic praxis through enabling cultural subversions, storytelling in the curriculum, and re-framing/re-telling narratives of the nation.