Understanding hospitality and invitation as dimensions of decolonising pedagogies when working interculturally

Abstract

This chapter reports on a pilot study conducted in Canada in 2015. The context for the study was a Culturally Responsive Literacy Education course that has a service-learning component in which pre-service teachers work with a student from a minoritised, marginalised community, for one hour a week on the university campus. The study investigated how pre-service teachers might use the concepts of invitation and hospitality as part of a decolonial approach to developing non-coercive relationships with the students. The majority of the students are from First Nations communities, while the pre-service teachers are predominantly from white settler communities. In this regard the relationship between them is influenced by colonialism, hence the course was designed to decolonise pre-service teachers’ minds as part of their preparation for working in decolonial ways with the students. The chapter reports on the initial findings and concludes by considering the implications for education for sustainable and just futures.