(Un)Making the international student a settler of colour: a decolonising autoethnography. Issue 5 (3rd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Chen
• Is Part Of: Qualitative research in sport, exercise & health. Volume 13:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 743
• Page End: 762
• Publication Date: 2021-09-03
• Subjects: Settler colonialism -- international students -- autoethnography -- settler of colour -- sport-related degrees; Sports sciences -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Health -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 613.71
• DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2020.1850513
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2159-676X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper reflects on my experience as a non-white international student at a top-ranked sport/kinesiology faculty in Canada, particularly the (un)learning of my complicity within settler colonialism. Following a decolonising autoethnographic approach, I juxtapose my own desired pathway of pursuing international study with shapeshifting forms of settler colonialism. The stories reveal that Canada's marketing of higher education, settler geography, the whiteness of university, and the spectacle of 'reconciliation' can operate in concert to prevent international students from developing critical understandings of the violent conditions of their stay on occupied Indigenous land. While elusive opportunities of (un)learning and resisting do exist, I argue that the seemingly natural trajectory of (re)producing settlers of colour warrants critical intervention.