Decolonizing trauma studies in education: implications for reorienting qualitative research practices

The aim of this article is to call for qualitative researchers in education and other human sciences to grapple with recent developments in trauma studies and engage in reconceptualizing their research practices so that they pay attention to the catastrophic effects of colonialism on individuals and communities. Joining other critics who have called for decolonizing trauma studies, I turn to decolonial and postcolonial perspectives to reorient qualitative research practices for the collection and analysis of trauma narratives and suggest a decolonial understanding of trauma in education. In particular, I draw on literature from decolonizing trauma studies to propose two decolonial research orientations for qualitative researchers: (1) Acknowledging the problems of Eurocentric approaches to trauma in education; (2) reinventing research practices that are delinked from Western frameworks of understanding trauma, while embracing “other(ed)” ways of doing research on trauma. Specific examples are provided to show how researchers might advance these orientations.