Practical Turn From Decoloniality to Decolonization: Bridging Scholarship and Practice

Abstract

North-South research collaborations continue to be shaped by unequal structures of power, knowledge, and being that reproduce colonial patterns despite growing commitments to decolonization. While decolonial scholarship has provided critical theoretical insights into these asymmetries, practical approaches for operationalizing decoloniality within everyday research collaboration remain limited. This study contributes to bridging this gap by presenting the participatory co-creation and scientific grounding of two practical decolonial tools for research collaboration: (1) the Institutional get-to-know tool, which addresses structural and institutional asymmetries related to agenda-setting, resource allocation, accountability, and working conditions; and (2) the Self-awareness guide, which supports reflexivity on positionality, epistemic assumptions, interpersonal dynamics, and recognition within collaborative practice. Drawing on concepts of coloniality and decoloniality, the study employed a participatory qualitative design combining walking brainstorming and storytelling to generate collective reflections from participants engaged in North-South collaborations. Through inductive content analysis, the findings revealed how institutional arrangements and relational dynamics jointly reproduce or challenge coloniality in research practice. This study advances a conceptual-methodological contribution by linking decolonial theory with participatory methodological innovation and practical reflexive instruments. We argue that these tools may support more equitable, reflexive, transparent, and epistemically plural forms of collaboration while contributing to broader efforts to dismantle coloniality within research, scientific practice, and knowledge production.