School of Human Development Interchange explores decolonising research practices

Staff from across DCU Institute of Education came together on Tuesday for a powerful interchange focused on decolonising research and advancing relational research approaches. The event created vital space for staff to question extractive traditions within academia, to listen deeply to voices historically marginalised in research, to question their own practice and assumptions and to explore more equitable, reciprocal ways of working with communities.

Opening the event, Dr Anne Marie Kavanagh, DCU, spoke of the academy’s role “in extracting knowledge from communities without permission, reciprocity, or recognition” but emphasised that “things can be different”. She stated that, “scholarship can be accountable, research can be ethical and just, and universities can be space for genuine dialogue and exchange”. 

Keynote speaker, Dr Adriana Moreno Cely, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, facilitated a powerful interactive presentation on decolonial research approaches. Using critical and dialogical reflexivity, participants explored how extractive mindsets persist even in well-intentioned research and how relational approaches can challenge these patterns. Dr Moreno Cely encouraged staff to move toward an ethic of care, love, solidarity and justice and to “practise critical reciprocity by humbly asking how we can be of service [to communities] before making requests to initiative research”.

Building on Dr Moreno Cely’s presentation, Prof Audrey Bryan, DCU, skilfully explored the role of the researcher as an implicated subject. Her presentation challenged participants to critically reflect on their entanglement with systems of power and privilege and argued that acknowledging this entanglement is central to ethical practice. Prof Bryan said, "Applying the conceptual framework of the Implicated Subject to the research process helps to ensure ethically-informed research practices and relations, and foregrounds considerations of justice, solidarity, epistemic humility and responsibility." 

A particular highlight of the morning was a powerful panel discussion featuring Dr Maggie Green and David Friel, ATU Donegal, and Isabel Machado da Silva and Briana Fitzsimons DCU. Thoughtfully facilitated by Dr Jones Irwin, DCU, the panellists shared how their minoritised identities shape their experiences of the world and the expectations placed upon them by students, colleagues and institutions. The panel discussion resonated deeply with participants who left with a deeper understanding of the disproportionate emotional labour our minoritised colleagues must perform and a renewed sense of responsibility for supporting them and amplifying their scholarship and voices in spaces of power and decision-making.

The day closed with a reflection from Dr Majella McSharry, DCU, which creatively drew together the threads of the morning’s exchanges. Using story, Dr McSharry, vividly captured the complex politics of research and ethical implications of extracting cultural insights from communities without reciprocity. Dr McSharry highlighted how ethical collaboration can move beyond compliance to genuine accountability. She described the interchange as “an exciting moment in the process of acknowledging positionality and relationality within the University”. Drawing together the diverse perspectives of the morning’s speakers, she reflected on the need for “a particular type of self-reflection, self-excavation, self-extraction” where “we ask ourselves who we are as researchers and educators, when we are implicated subjects and how we move forward from this?”

What emerged most strongly from the day was the power of honesty and authenticity and a sense of shared responsibility. Decolonising research is not the task of a few individuals, nor is it a one-off initiative. It is an ongoing process that requires courage, relational accountability, and institutional change. Tuesday’s interchange demonstrated what becomes possible when universities create spaces for minoritised perspectives, critical reflection and deep listening. It illuminated the radical potential such spaces hold for changing how we think, teach and practice research.