Biographic and institutional entanglements: reframing differences through a diffraction lens

Abstract

Despite the inability of the higher education sector to address colonial apartheid, relegating the associated indigenous cultures and traditions to a submissive space, the fight for a more legitimate and transformed higher education system continues. The study examines how biography and institutional context deepen how co-authors engage pragmatically in a collective project and secondly theorises “thinking differently about difference”. Through a triadic lens of reflection, diffraction, and decoloniality, we address the research question: How can an understanding of each other’s lived experiences and institutional contexts guide us towards engaging differently with one another and with differences? We employed autobiographical narrative inquiry as the most appropriate methodology. Our argument is that collaborative constructions of “self” unfolding through time and across space must centre difference as a driver of transformation in a collaborative partnership and scholarship. We offer a number of guidelines and questions for collective reflection and reflective practice that can be adapted for various social work and educational settings. The study concludes that by engaging with difference differently, and through deepened individual/contextual awareness, socially just co-authorship and cross-institutional partnerships could be nurtured.