Using the pluriverse concept to critique eurocentrism in education

As universities attract more diverse student populations, teachers need to interrogate and transform how Eurocentrism underpins educational practice. This presentation argues teachers can actively engage with decolonial frameworks and concepts to shape teaching practice and curriculum in an inclusive direction. We describe how six teachers ‘walked with’ the concept of the pluriverse (a sense of multiple co-existing differences) during collaborative reflections about our teaching practice. Our research processes were underpinned by the principles of collective autoethnography and collaborative reflective practice. We coparticipated in conversations where we aimed to collectively explore how the pluriverse concept intersects with our teaching, and undertook qualitative co-analysis of themes emerging across all the conversations. The presentation outlines how having the pluriverse concept as a companion to our reflective process enabled us to ask critical questions about Eurocentrism in our teaching practice and content. Our questioning in turn generated principles for embedding the pluriverse in curriculum, pedagogical approaches and teacher dispositions. The presentation discusses what enables and hinders the pluriverse being embedded in curriculum materials and classroom activities, and the limitations of our activities in relation to the broader project of decolonising pedagogy.