Action Research, Postcolonialism and The Act of Commemoration

The challenge of putting the 'post' of Postcolonial into Action Research in
visible, explicit and transparent ways is an exciting project, for me.

The standard of judgement I draw on to evaluate whether the 'post' of
postcolonialism is alive and mune within Action Research is primarily
epistemological. But it is not wholly nor yet solely epistemological.

The standard of judgement of "postcolonial visibility" (Murray, 2005) I
have in mind has ethical, moral and political contours, too. Thus I would
expect to see and read in Action Research accounts that purport to situate
the 'post' of postcolonialism in action research key expressions of an
ethical and moral disposition in respect of slavery and colonialism, and
the contemporary state violence of racism.

Putting this another way, i'd expect to sense and feel the jouissance of
recovering memory acting to subordinate the seductive and slippery hubris
of whiteness. One reason i experience anger when I encounter insensitive
and callous whiteness is because i judge the quality of my practice in an
encounter (with callous whiteness) in terms of whether i am realizing those
embodied values of 'once were slaves' a critical and compasionate lens
through which i distinguish my postcolonial critical pedagogy (McNiff,
2005).

I have in mind the twin and connected embodied values that have transformed
in the crucible of my practice into stable standards of judgement
concerning [1] my critical gaze that interrogates whiteness to destruction,
and [2] my compassionate gaze of 'convivencia' through which I subordinate
partisan and zealous anger and outrage to the dialogic project of walking
in the space of mutual availability with a student of any colour, creed and
ethnicity (though usually white, British and nominally Christian in my
College context) in that moment that she/he recognizes their educational
journey to be crucial for the realization of their personhood. Jean has
influenced my education concerning the construction of my own living
standards of judgement through the exchange in this e-seminar (Thank you,
Jean).

As a postcolonial critical educator i embody values of resistance and
antipathy (towards the colonial) that echo the words of Huguette Bello,
representative of Reunion Island, National Assembly (February 1999) when
she said,

"We are not the victims but the children of a crime against humanity"

in referring to the crime against humanity of colonialism and slavery.

What i like about Action Research accounts is how they carry hope for the
future for humanity. They feel optimistic. Sometimes i imagine my nihilism
places me at a disadvantage as an action researcher (Smile)

However, Action Researcher colleagues have criticized me in the past for
going back over history rather than attending to today and tomorrows
improving actions. Their concern focuses, quite reasonably in one sense, on
my failure to move on. In turn this seems to trigger a reciprocal concern
on my part. Could it be possible that my colleagues' willingness to remain
in the here and now (for me a 'here and now' of whiteness and its shadow,
vestigial colonialism) is tantamount to an evasion of those historical-
material realities that impact me today, that mediate my explication of my
life, and provide fertile and fecund data for third person analyses of
sociocultural power relations? I believe this is also a possibility. Moving
on for some action researchers means not having to explicate and explore
colonialism (historically) in order to assess the 'here and now' of
whiteness, in order to appreciate and value what it will take for all of us
to move on in a spirit of restorative justice. When I perceive action
researchers choosing to belittle and evade the awful, looming and immanent
colonial questions I begin to mistrust their ethic of inclusion. For an
inclusive now and future, I suspect we need to level, and be honest about
the differential privileging and pain we've encounterd through whiteness.
Surely this sense of mutual availablitly to what the future holds in store
(after Marcel)requires us to be clear, honest and expiatory about how we
got to here? How is this unreasonable?

One effect of whiteness is a certain amnesia. In a whiteness-centred
society such as Britain one could imagine this amnesia manifesting as a
social forgetfulness. Before 'moving on' I expect a commemoration of events
that are important for Diaspora could act to recover lost memory. Slavery
and colonialism are those kind of important events i'd like to see
commemorated in ther Wesrt, especially in Britain. Most commemorations are
public events. But i think that whiteness can be dismantled on the sly
through private commemorations held in our shared ideas, talking and
writing as action researchers. A great beginning would be to see white
Living Educational Theorists framing their accounts with(-in)an awareness
of whiteness.

This would point to the kind of commemorative act I have in mind as a non-
western, mixed-race, and Muslim action researcher.

I know I'm asking for a heck of a lot: maybe what i don't know is how much
i'm asking for. A white action researcher can only give what she/he has to
give after all.

In putting the 'post' of postcolonial into action research I agree with
Francoise Verges (1999) who wrote in Radical Philosophy: 95,

"Finally, a politics of reparation must become a central issue of debates
in post-colonial theory"

For my part, a politics of reparation is one aspect of the 'certain ethics
and politics of postcolonialism' that i have in mind. Action Researchers
who claim to care about the struggle against colonialism wherever they
encounter it would probably need to explore how they are disposed towards a
politics of reparation as part of their own ethics, politics, philosophy
and practice of postcolonialism or 'non-colonialism'. I imagine they would
relish this in order to provide evidence of their commitment to struggle
against colonialism beyond mere rhetoric.

Another facet of a commemorative 'move' could be shown in those action
research accounts that articulate standards of judgement about white
identity and the operation of whiteness in the performance of a white
identity as teacher, or educator. I notice that Erica Foldy has made a start
(Action Research Journal, March 2005.

This idea of commemoration is very important to me. In 2002, Jean McNiff
accompanied by Jack Whitehead and Mary Roach suggested that propositional
theories do not explain 'real life'. I agree with their judgement. Of
course, neither does my first person narrative entirely explain my 'real
life', and completeness is not assured or guaranteed by adding an element
of dialogue, either.

How can accounts that are predominantly self-referential, or predominantly
propositional explain the multidimensional complexity of my, your or
any 'real life'?

All accounts are partial and incomplete; as an action researcher i account
for this quality of incompleteness within my standards of judgement
concerning scholarly authority and narrative authenticity. I refer to
Boyer's fourth characteristic of the work of the university: integration.
What delights me about Richard Dyer's propositional theory of whiteness as
explored in his book, White, is that it enables me to explore more fully
and consciously, more alertly and fastidiously the complex context of my
real life in which my agency is mediated, for better and worse, by material
sociocultural realities of citizenship encountered within a space of power
relations that can be characterised as state violence in the ways meant by
Joy James. In other words, I am able through integration to show more
facets of my lived, subjective experience in ways that enable me to
communicate my meanings in ways that others can relate to, more fully:
through empathy, affect and cognition. White action researchers
might 'commemorate' the damage of slavery and colonialism by keeping in
mind how they could dilute and adulterate the ethnocentric bent of their
accounts.

Songa Mbele!