‘While I knew I was raced, I didn’t think much of it’: the need for racial literacy in decolonising classrooms

Abstract

ABSTRACT International recognition of racial literacy is growing as a field of postcolonial scholarship but has yet to gain momentum in Australia. In this article, we argue for the need to develop a racial literacy approach for Australian contexts and draw on a qualitative study which engaged with university students who participated in the subject Racial Literacy: Indigeneity and Whiteness delivered at an Australian university. The experiences of these students, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, reveal the classroom to be reflective of broader tensions that manifest in relation to race as a topic and can be a critical space for racial literacy and decolonising education. We argue here that the application of racial literacy is required to address the significant anomaly that exists between critical race scholarship, common understandings of race, colonisation and the practices and impacts of racism. We contend that to develop a racial literacy approach, which does not perpetuate the limits of critical race studies, the role of race in Indigenous dispossession and the ongoing legacies of colonisation must consistently be foundational.