Decolonizing Higher Education: Rationales and Implementations from the Subject of Music History

Abstract

In addition to ongoing territorial and material re-organization of power as a result of 19th-century European colonialism, there has been an increasing focus on decolonializing knowledge practices in higher education. Research communities are discussing what it could mean to decolonize thinking practices, conditions of knowledge creation, and access to higher education. Since the arts are a powerful tool for change, we want to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion by introducing examples of decolonial practices used in the Bachelor program in music performance. By presenting three cases from the subject of music history at two Norwegian universities, we provide insight into why and how we can teach differently, what kind of resistance we meet, and how we can make use of discomfort to decolonize knowledge practices. Our empirical material is composed of our own experiences, student course evaluations, conversations with students and teachers, as well as module descriptions. In the basis of our findings, we propose a strategic canonism to mediate in an increasingly polarized field.