Together with Catherine Windey I teach a course in Transformative methodologies in development in the Advanced master programmes at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp.
In this course students learn about the paradigms and principles of transformative research. They assess the transformational potential of produced knowledge, evaluate existing kinds of transformative methodologies and critically reflect upon issues of power and knowledge, including the dominant Eurocentric epistemological and methodological foundations of research.
The specific learning outcomes are the following:
- Students understand the paradigms and principles of transformative research in development studies (such as participatory methods, action research, feminist approaches)
- Students can critically reflect upon the validity of transformative research, on the researchers’ positionality, power/empowerment, and knowledge creation, including from a decolonial perspective.
- Students can apply some concrete, transformative methods of data collection and analysis.
