Western Ways Research Articles

From Croce’s intuition to Zhu Guangqian’s Zhijue 直觉: A cross-cultural interpretation

ABSTRACT Zhijue直觉 is the Chinese translation of the English word ‘intuition’. These two terms, however, do not hold completely equivalent meanings. Before this translation, traditional Chinese lacked a precise counterpart for the concept, though intuitive thinking has long been integral to Chinese culture. Consequently, Zhijue not only inherits the cultural connotations of the Western term ‘intuition’ but also integrates traditional Chinese intuitive thought. Translating intuition into zhijue goes beyond linguistic conversion—it reflects a cultural hybrid shaped by intercultural collision and fusion. This paper investigates how the concept of intuition, as developed in Croce’s aesthetics, is reinterpreted and adapted by Zhu Guangqian in the modern Chinese aesthetic context, generating new meanings. By tracking the cross-cultural journey of the term ‘intuition’, this study explores the comparative exchange between Western and Chinese ways of thinking and their cultural implications, offering insights into the traveling of concepts across cultures.

Bridging epistemologies: Indigenous Methodologies and Western Journal Practices

This editorial reflects on the role of academic journals in supporting and disseminating Indigenous research. It is inspired by Dr Paul Callaghan’s invited article published in this issue of Advancing Scholarship and Research in Higher Education (ASRHE) which extends on his keynote presentation at the 2024 HERDSA Conference. Callaghan outlines the fundamental differences between Western and Aboriginal culture, pedagogy, epistemology, ontology, and axiology, and suggests how universities can leverage their positions of influence to create improved wellbeing for Aboriginal people and the nation as a whole. The editorial explores prior literature, including the 2021 HERD Special Issue on Indigenous voices, and identifies challenges in reviewing Indigenous research using Western frameworks. It advocates for more flexible journal formats that allow Indigenous researchers to present their work authentically, without conforming to Western ways of researching and publishing. An ‘open’ article category, supported by an exegesis, is proposed, to facilitate a more inclusive and multifaceted understanding of research. The editorial calls for feedback and collaboration to shape a future where journal publishing truly embraces diverse research traditions.

A Critical Analysis of Cremation Burials Within Some of the South African Tribes: A Contextual Practical Theological View

The colonial erosion of African traditional and cultural practices continues to dislocate the African identity in different ways. The changes and shifts made to burial practices have simply paved a way for the colonial agenda to bring about more Western ways of doing things, burial rites included. It is important to note that cremation, as another way of burying the dead, is slowly becoming a norm for black people. This paper intends to not only unveil the causes and contestations around cremation burials, but to also seek an African theological response as a way to guide black African culture moving forward.

Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism, Postcolonialism and Hybridity in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and August Wilson’s Radio Golf

This paper is a thematic study dealing with a postcolonial critical view of Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and August Wilson’s Radio Golf (2005). In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha views Western cultures as superior and she ultimately opts for Afrocentrism. The spirit of Beneatha will be analysed with a focus on Frantz Fanon’s arguments against ‘négritude’ and Eurocentrism. Hansberry, through the voice of Mama Lena, calls for a union between the African and the American selves, as well as between the Western and the non-Western cultures. The issue of the oscillation between Eurocentrism and Africanness is shared by August Wilson in his last contemporary play where he exposes different facets and layers of identity. Contemporary black citizens have achieved their American dreams of collecting lucre, but they are still grappling between keeping faithful to their African heritage and cultural repertoire or adopting the Western way of life and distance themselves from their roots. This dilemma is best exemplified through Harmond and his wife Mame Wilks. Unlike Wilks, who imitates the prestigious way of life and looks for appearances and social status, Harmond crosses the boundaries of Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism and he tries to find a space for intercultural communication between the Western and the African cultures. The discussion part will relate the two plays to the recent events surrounding Floyd’s murder during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The aim is to examine the critical situation of blacks during crisis and to demonstrate that they are disproportionally targeted. The rationale for choosing a modern African-American text that explores contemporary Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism, assimilation, nativism, and decolonization is to show that race is a universal issue. The goal is to suggest hybridity as the best alternative for establishing a more humanitarian society where different races can be interwoven.

Syndemic Connections: Overdose Death Crisis, Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19

This article will use syndemic theory to identify and analyze overlapping health and social conditions, focusing specifically on how gender-based violence is systemically interconnected with contemporary public health issues. The overdose death crisis that continues to afflict Canadian populations is not an isolated health issue. Across Canada, it is intertwined with mental health, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and structural violence—the chronic and systemic disadvantages affecting those living in poverty and oppressive circumstances. Opioid use is an often-avoidant coping strategy for many experiencing the effects of trauma, relentless fear, pain, ill health and social exclusion. In particular, Indigenous and non-Indigenous women’s experiences with opioid addiction are entangled with encounters with gender based-violence, poverty and chronic ailments within structurally imposed processes and stressors shaped by a history of colonialism, ruptured lifeways and Western ways of knowing and doing, leading to disproportionate harms and occurrences of illness. While biomedical models of comorbidity and mortality approach substance misuse, gender-based violence and major infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 as distinct yet compounding realities, this article argues that these conditions are synergistically interrelated via the critical/reflexive lens of syndemic frameworks. Through secondary research using academic, media and policy sources from the past decade in Canada, complemented by prior ethnographic research, the synergistic connections among opioid addiction, gender-based violence and the effects of the COVID pandemic on diverse women will be shown to be driven by socio-structural determinants of health including poverty, intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism and Western optics. Together, they embody a contemporary Canadian syndemic necessitating coordinated responses.

Cosmologies, coloniality and quantum critique: Exploring conversations with Native American ways of knowing

Worldviews provide orientation in the world. They also have worlding power as part of material assemblages within which our responses to political issues are devised. This article turns the gaze inward to “decenter” Western ways of knowing, cosmologies, and stories of the origins of the universe. It questions considering science as a way of knowing completely separated from religious and political thinking and highlights how Western theories of matter became entangled with practices of colonial power. Furthermore, this article argues that by emphasizing uncertainty, relationality, and the relevance of processes of mattering, Quantum Social Theory worldviews challenge the pillars of the onto-epistemologies of the Enlightenment and bring us closer to some elements of Native Peoples onto epistemologies. This piece aims at decentering the ways of knowing of the Empire, building a bridge with non-Western worldviews, and showing that relational onto-epistemological orientations may chang how we engage with other human and non-human beings and how we address political matters.

Beyond Western Notions of Creativity in Education: Toward a Trans‐Epistemological Approach

ABSTRACTIn this editorial for the special issue on Beyond Western Notions of Creativity in Education, we provide an overview of six articles that challenge the normative ontological, epistemological, and methodological underpinning of creativity research and practice in education. This special issue aimed to interrogate and problematize the notion of creativity as a Western conception, to expand it toward developing a more global, diverse, inclusive, and decolonized vision. Articles in this issue contribute to a more expanded conception beyond traditional Western ways of knowing and point to new areas for research within existing understandings of creativity. We explore creative practices and conceptualizations, as well as diverse research paradigms beyond Western traditions to present a more holistic understanding. We share implications for future research and practice for educators and scholars interested in expanding beyond the Western conceptualizations of creativity.

An Indigenous-informed scoping review study methodology: advancing the science of scoping reviews

BackgroundHistorically, Indigenous voices have been silent in health research, reflective of colonial academic institutions that privilege Western ways of knowing. However, Indigenous methodologies and methods with an emphasis on the active involvement of Indigenous peoples and centering Indigenous voices are gaining traction in health education and research. In this paper, we map each phase of our scoping review process and weave Indigenous research methodologies into Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework for conducting scoping reviews.MethodsGuided by an advisory circle consisting of Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and allied scholars, we utilized both Indigenous and Western methods to conduct a scoping review. As such, a circle of Knowledge Keepers provided guidance and informed our work, while our methods of searching and scoping the literature remained consistent with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. In keeping with an Indigenous methodology, the scoping review protocol was not registered allowing for an organic development of the research process.ResultsWe built upon Arksey and O’Malley’s 5-stages and added an additional 3 steps for a combined 8-stage model to guide our research: (1) Exploration and Listening, (2) Doing the Groundwork, (3) Identifying and Refining the Research Question, (4) Identifying Relevant Studies, (5) Study Selection, (6) Mapping Data, (7) Collating, Summarizing and Synthesizing the Data, and lastly, (8) Sharing and Making Meaning. Engagement and listening, corresponding to Arksey and O’Malley (2005)’s optional “consultation stage,” was embedded throughout, but with greater intensity in stages 1 and 8.ConclusionAn Indigenous approach to conducting a scoping review includes forming a team with a wide array of experience in both Indigenous and Western methodologies, meaningful Indigenous representation, and inclusion of Indigenous perspectives to shape the analysis and presentation of findings. Engaging Indigenous peoples throughout the entire research process, listening, and including Indigenous voices and perspectives is vital in reconciliation research, producing both credible and useable information for both Indigenous communities and academia. Our Indigenous methodology for conducting a scoping review can serve as a valuable framework for summarizing Indigenous health-related research.

One Health, many perspectives: Exploring Indigenous and Western epistemologies

Abstract The One Health approach, which assesses the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health, fails to include and amplify Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous scientists. To effectively center Indigenous knowledge next to and within the One Health approach, which is historically based in Western science, the similarities and differences between Indigenous science, specifically Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and One Health must be explored. The objective of this project is to identify values in Indigenous science that are unsupported or underrepresented in Western science and then collaboratively ideate recommendations that Western allies can take to center and support Indigenous scientists and elevate Indigenous knowledge. From January to March 2023, the study team conducted semi-structured interviews with Indigenous knowledge keepers via Zoom video calls. American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian (Kānaka Maoli), and other Indigenous participants from the global diaspora residing in the continental United States and Hawaiian Islands were recruited through social media and referrals from Indigenous leaders who had participated in formative (phase 1) interviews completed in 2022. In those formative interviews, four themes emerged and called for further exploration of Indigenous perspectives on (1) the natural world, (2) cultural heritage, (3) value expression, and (4) reflection. These ideas were reframed into questions asked in subsequent (phase 2) interviews in 2023. Thematic identification methods were used to highlight key ideas throughout the interviews. Participants noted gaps between their Indigenous worldviews and the One Health model, particularly relating to contrasts with Western culture, holistic expression, power in action, identity and belonging, maintaining community and cultural practices, and sharing information/education. It was also noted that One Health must do more than just uplift Indigenous values to support Indigenous scientists and should instead collaborate with TEK keepers and foster practices that are inclusive and validating of other knowledge systems. Phase 2 interview responses highlighted Indigenous principles that are underrepresented in One Health practice. These principles were transformed into considerations specifically for Western-rooted scientists to improve allyship to Indigenous science and scientists. Adoption of the considerations would strengthen partnership between One Health practitioners and Indigenous scientists and promote collaboration across many ways of knowing. One Health impact statement The One Health theory encourages transdisciplinary collaboration to break down siloing and innovate solutions. Yet, One Health practice, and the Western scientific approach it takes, often excludes involvement with Indigenous ways of knowing and disclaims Indigenous knowledge keepers who have been conducting “One Health” work since time immemorial. Indigenous knowledge keepers who self-identified as cultural bridges between Native communities and Western communities were interviewed and asked to speak to values found in Indigenous science and research. The featured principles highlight some of the similarities and differences between Indigenous and Western scientific approaches. The identified values informed recommendations for Western scientists to be better allies to Indigenous scientists and to amplify Indigenous voices and science. One Health practitioners will benefit from these guidelines by navigating research in a more equitable way and by creating sustainable reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous scientists. This makes One Health more open and accessible to Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.

Modern Enlightenment in China from the Chinese-Western Rites Controversy

The Sino-Western Rites Controversy was a controversy sparked by the missionaries during their missionary work in China. The focus of the controversy is whether Chinese customs such as ancestor worship, Confucius worship and heavenly worship are contrary to the principles of the Catholic belief, and whether a policy of tolerance should be adopted in view of the special circumstances of Chinese customs. They argued fiercely and defended for their own positions, but in the end they failed to find a way to reconcile, as a result, both sides refused to compromise. The rite controversy between China and western countries was a prelude to the fusion of Chinese and western culture. At that time, China was still able to debate with them as an equal party and made corresponding moves to prohibit missionary work. After the Opium War, China lost the conditions for exercising its free will, and was simply carried along by the world trends. On the surface, the ritual controversy was a clash of religions and customs between two different civilizations, and impacts was limited to missionaries and Chinese believers, but it actually reflected deeper cultural issues. Chinese culture is a complete system independent of other cultures, with its own logic of operation, and when it meets with western culture, Chinese culture still maintains its traditional patterns, with a very distinctive cultural characteristic. Hidden behind the rites controversy is a broader conflict of cultural modes of thinking, and it is these irreconcilable factors that led to the obstruction of Chinese enlightenment. Therefore, this article will study the deeper structure of Chinese and Western way of thinking from the face of this rites controversy, and the inspiration brought by the collision of the two cultures, by which China's future path of enlightenment may be get inspired.

Merits and Demerits of English Language Coursebooks Designs: A Scoping Review

The evaluation process of English coursebooks in Saudi schools began long back when the English curriculum was updated in the 1980s. This paper reviews the works that have surveyed the Saudi English syllabi from the 1990s to the present. It aims to explore the timeline of the most prominent evaluation endeavors. The findings reveal that the common components of evaluations include content, form, learning tasks, and instruction methods. The majority of these attempts were executed using standardized checklists but implemented on a relatively small number of respondents. However, one study was conducted as part of a project launched by the Ministry of Education (MOE) for the development of the English curriculum. The distinctive satisfaction themes of merits among all evaluations were the visuals, syllabi appearance, and overall content. While teaching methods and the difficulty of tasks were highlighted as demerits. From a cultural perspective, syllabi tend to be contextualized in a Western way, based on the local Saudi culture. This paper recommends conducting a more comprehensive evaluation process online to cover more participants, developing a well-tailored checklist that suits the content and culture of Saudi Arabia, and considering the new technological changes in coursebooks.

Humanities and Social Sciences in French Engineering Education: A Sociohistory of their Integration in an Apolitical Stance

In France, the social consequences of industrial development have long been questioned, but technological disasters of the last decades of the twentieth century led to a rethinking of Western ways of life and production. Engineering education has faced the challenge of taking these considerations into account via the humanities and social sciences (HSS) curricula, including themes ranging from work organizations to science and technology in society. Taking a sociohistorical approach, this article describes the apolitical stance of the integration of HSS into French engineering education. Following a problematization within the framework of curriculum sociology, the first part presents the sociohistorical context of French engineering education, with a particular focus on HSS. The second part highlights the difficulties of recognizing the scientific and critical nature of HSS in the larger engineering educational system. The article then presents the results of a review of current HSS curricula as posted on school websites, which reveals a pattern that HSS are taught in an apolitical stance, based in corporate themes rather than questioning the social order or science and technology in society. The review suggests that only a handful of schools have been able to break the boundaries between the engineering sciences and HSS.

A Historical-Analytic Perspective on Islam and Cinematic Culture in Northern Nigeria

This article reviewed the intricate relationship between film/cinematic culture and Islam in northern Nigeria and more importantly, the reception of film as a culture in Hausa Muslim societies. Various media ethnographical studies have revealed that since the introduction of cinema, the acceptance and consumption of film and other cinematic products are to a large extent influenced by the Sharia (Holy/ Islamic Law), which serves as a guide for northern filmmakers and a corrective measure for the media representations of the happenings in their societies. The belief of northern Muslims is that films and cinema are harbingers of immorality and should be eschewed. Indeed, and arguably so, this is the general disposition of the northern Muslims to western ways. The overwhelming exertions of the Kano State Film and Video Censors Board (KSCB) make this claim evident. This study considered the mobility and survival of cinematic culture in the heart of Nigeria’s most Islamic centre, Kano, otherwise known as Kannywood. It adopted a historical-analytic approach to the study of the development of cinema in northern Nigeria and examined the cinematic culture vis-à-vis Islam in northern Nigeria. The paper contended that globalisation and the advent of advanced technology are yet to influence film contents from the region or mass acceptance and consumption of modern films by its populace. It concluded that the Sharia and the involvement of Islamic scholars/clerics have inhibited the growth of Kannywood.

Manifestations of Epistemic Violence in Assumptions of Students in an Undergraduate Classroom in Bangladesh

Epistemic violence refers to the silencing and displacing of a system of knowledge deemed to be inferior by another system of knowledge self-perceived as superior. In postcolonial context, it refers to the dominance and imposition of Western ways of perceiving the world by displacing the non-Western ways of perceiving the world. Colonial discourse is so encompassing in the postcolonial countries that students come to the classroom with assumptions that carry baggage of epistemic violence. According to Freire, the manifestations of this global “theme” may take particular dimensions in particular societies. Critical interrogation of epistemic violence requires identification of the particular manifestations of epistemic violence in particular societies. Following the approach of critical discourse analysis, this paper attempts to explore how epistemic violence manifests itself in the student assumptions exposed in their classroom interactions in an undergraduate classroom in Bangladesh, a postcolonial country. The findings reveal that besides the Western form of epistemic violence, there are local varieties of epistemic violence in Bangladesh. The discourses contributing to epistemic violence have been so ingrained in society that they appear as symbolic capital exercising symbolic violence where education plays a big role. The manifestations of epistemic violence in the context of Bangladesh revealed in this study have implications for framing critical instruction for problematising epistemic violence in postcolonial countries like Bangladesh.

Lost opportunities for globalisation, digitalisation, and socially sustainable education? Advocating for digital and global Bildung in Swedish upper secondary schools

In this article, we point to how the making visible of diverse linguistic, digital, and cultural competences can contribute to more sustainable and inclusive classroom contexts and future societies. Western notions of universal knowledge reproduces a western way of viewing the world and, as a result, this usually discounts alternative knowledge systems, which perpetuates inequality and may cause tensions in today’s diverse classrooms. Our 2022 pilot study, drawing on an online survey with more than 700 respondents and focus group interviews with 27 participants, indicates that for some multiethnic, multi-abled, and otherwise diverse upper secondary students underlying, often ethnocentric, norms of Swedish education create hurdles in educational contexts. Firstly, in the Swedish context, non-normative and often global experiences are not recognised at school. Secondly, topics addressed in the courses they take are primarily focused on aspects originating in a Swedish, Nordic, or Western tradition. Curricular policies and classroom practices must take lost opportunities, which we argue are not socially sustainable, into account as a more global and holistic approach when articulating what educational learning is supposed to be about, for, and for whom, and thus integrating learning, digitalisation, and social sustainability.

Land2Lab Project: Reflections on Learning about Mi'kmaw Foodways.

Land2Lab is an evolving community-based intergenerational program that brings together Elders and youth on the land and in the kitchen and lab to share and celebrate Mi'kmaw foodways. Rooted in an Etuaptmumk-Two Eyed Seeing (E-TES) perspective, which acknowledges both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, the project to date has featured seasonal food workshops, involvement in a children's summer math camp, a food safety training workshop for teens, and the development of an online toolkit. The project was guided by the Mi'kmaw principle of Netukulimk, which reinforces respect for Mother Earth and stewardship of the land, water, and air for subsequent generations. Involvement of community leaders has been key to successful planning and implementation. While technology plays an important role, lessons learned on the land are critical and will inform efforts to include language and ceremony in future programming. Dietitians are encouraged to support Indigenous-led land-based learning in support of the profession's commitment to reconciliation.

In a Good Way: Braiding Indigenous and Western Knowledge Systems to Understand and Restore Freshwater Systems

Insights from Indigenous and Western ways of knowing can improve how we understand, manage, and restore complex freshwater social–ecological systems. While many frameworks exist, specific methods to guide researchers and practitioners in bringing Indigenous and Western knowledge systems together in a ‘good way’ are harder to find. A scoping review of academic and grey literature yielded 138 sources, from which data were extracted using two novel frameworks. The EAUX (Equity, Access, Usability, and eXchange) framework, with a water-themed acronym, summarizes important principles when braiding knowledge systems. These principles demonstrate the importance of recognizing Indigenous collaborators as equal partners, honouring data sovereignty, centring Indigenous benefits, and prioritizing relationships. The A-to-A (Axiology and Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology, Data Gathering, Analysis and Synthesis, and Application) framework organizes methods for braiding knowledge systems at different stages of a project. Methods are also presented using themes: open your mind to different values and worldviews; prioritize relationships with collaborators (human and other-than-human); recognize that different ways of regarding the natural world are valid; and remember that each Indigenous partner is unique. Appropriate principles and practices are context-dependent, so collaborators must listen carefully and with an open mind to identify braiding methods that are best for the project.

A Narrative Review Exploring the Similarities between Cilento and the Already Defined "Blue Zones" in Terms of Environment, Nutrition, and Lifestyle: Can Cilento Be Considered an Undefined "Blue Zone"?

Longevity is rightly considered one of the greatest achievements of modern society, not only as a function of lifespan, but, more importantly, as a function of healthspan. There are Longevity Blue Zones (LBZs), regions around the world, such as in Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California; Icaria, Greece; and Ogliastra, Sardinia, that are characterized by a significant percentage of residents who live exceptionally long lives, often avoiding age-related disability to a significantly higher degree than in the Western way of life. Longevity is not a universal phenomenon, so if there are places in the world with characteristics similar to the LBZs, it is important to identify them in order to better understand what other factors, in addition to the known ones, might contribute to a long and healthy life. This narrative review aims to identify common factors between Cilento and the five LBZs, taking into account environmental, nutritional, and lifestyle factors. Articles from 2004 to the present, limited to studies published in English, German, and Italian, were searched in PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The co-authors agreed on 18 final reference texts. In order to evaluate the similarities between Cilento and the LBZs, a descriptive comparative approach was used. Cilento and the LBZs share several common factors, including a hilly altitude ranging from 355 to 600 m; a mild climate throughout the year, with temperatures between 17.4 and 23.5 degrees Celsius; traditional professions, such as agriculture and animal husbandry; and a predominantly Mediterranean or plant-based diet, with typical recipes based on legumes, tubers, vegetables, and extra virgin olive oil. Additionally, maintenance of strong intergenerational family relationships, religious devotion, and social relationships within the community are also prevalent. Given the similarities to Cilento, one might wonder if this is an LBZ waiting to be discovered. The lessons learned from this discovery could be applied to the general population to protect them from non-communicable chronic diseases and help slow the aging process.

The mission and people of God: Rethinking theology and theological methodology in Asia

The 20th century brought unprecedented growth to the global church. With this growth came new and contextual forms of theology, as well as recognition of the limits of the Western theological tradition. However, compared with Africa and Latin America, Asian theology has been slow to develop in response to this shift, especially among conservatives and evangelicals. While several prominent names are often cited as representatives of Asian theology, their work has little impact on much of the Asian church, which is characteristically grassroots and conservative. Scholars continue to debate what Asian theology is and how to do it. This article explores some of the methodological implications of the global shift in theology, specifically for Asian contexts. It also identifies some of the hindrances to better and more relevant Asian theology: (1) a universal top–down approach to theology in Asia and (2) overly Western ways of thinking that have shaped the discipline. Finally, this article offers two possibilities for Asian theology going forward: (1) mission and the reality of God’s work in Asia and (2) the people themselves and the stories of God’s work among them.

Kiskisom

As an urban Indigenous academic, I struggle to comprehend and work within the schism between Indigenous and Western ways of knowing and being. Kiskisom, a Cree verb meaning 'to remind [someone],' argues that the cultivation of a plastic brain provides a unique opportunity for Indigenous sovereignty through the decolonizing action of reading Indigenous stories. The understanding that we have the power to rewire the brain through the mindful engagement of colonial ontology, or neurodecolonization, is a unique opportunity for change.