Educational Institutions and Epistemic Freedom: The Experiences of Second-generation Zimbabwean Immigrants in England

Guided by a decolonial lens and Fricker’s [2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press] capability for epistemic contribution, this paper explores how English educational institutions enable second-generation immigrants to pursue opportunities to be and do what they value. It is informed by narratives on the educational experiences of 10 s-generation Zimbabwean immigrants. The young people had mixed learning experiences where some could freely participate and contribute to knowledge creation while others’ epistemic capacities were stifled because of their race or reference to “knowledges” informed by their migrant background. The paper illustrates the existence of the epistemological South in the geographical North [Santos 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. 1st ed. New York: Routledge] where subjective factors inform boundaries that determine one’s freedom to contribute to knowledge creation. It highlights the need for educational institutions to be more inclusive and pursue diverse ways of knowing and understanding through the curriculum, and teachers’ and lecturers’ equal recognition of all students as epistemic contributors. Given their role as creators and disseminators of knowledge, educational institutions ought to enable knowledge acquisition, sharing, and questioning in epistemologically hospitable environments that do not foreground a specific kind of knowledge or some students over others. This would foster more open-minded and critical graduates, better able to understand their oppressions and contribute to transforming society.