Philip S. Garces III:

DECOLONIZING KNOWLEDGE, DECOLONIZING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: ISSUES CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This short essay is mainly composed of how the authors of some class reading defended or rebutted the western culture or euro centrism, educational dependency and neo-colonialism, the western mathematics, the debate between the traditionalists and the multiculturalists and how is the Philippine or the Filipino Social Sciences is still heavily anchored to the western conduct of social sciences.

Integration
By way of integrating the concept within several class readings, I would like to start from the broadest, I think, but the starting point of all these discourses, the way and how we constructed and perceive social reality. In John Searle’s discourse on social reality, it is highly ontological in the sense that we are inquiring on how social facts exist in our social life. Also, what I think to be the integrating factor in Searle’s article is how he distinguished the objective and the subjective in two realms: epistemology (epistemic) and ontology (ontologically). Basically what he says here is that the objective is in a sense “known to all” or “available to all” and the subjective being dependent to the signifier or to the one seeing or interpreting an event or encountering knowledge.
In connection to Searle’s arguments a question arise like: can we have an objective knowledge like Mathematics? At the initial and superficial investigation, we can say that the mathematics that we have today in our schools is highly objective for its being context-free, nature of being general and universal. The flaws in this argument can only be seen if we ask our selves on how this kind of universal nature of mathematical knowledge is created? If we look more closely, the mathematics that we use today in our schools is mainly western or highly embedded by western cultural values like hard rationality, objectivism and the notion that having knowledge (objective) can give power for its ability to predict and control events. Definitely, this article of Allan Bishop about the western mathematics is a cultural critique of inquiring of: who’s really the knowledge of mathematics? The answer to this is mathematical knowledge of the western people through conventions and agreements on the general mathematical concepts.
Getting in to the more concrete arguments within the practice of education, the article on “Is There a Crisis in American Higher Education?” it questions of the viability of the traditionalist point of practicing or teaching as opposed to the emerging concept of multiculturalism. As biased by John Searle, he argued that there are some traditions in teaching in the US or in the western tradition that needs to be confined within the bounds of western practice like the acknowledgement of western “great men” from Socrates to Wittgenstein and their works and not other “great men” from the East. This is because it is established and perpetually disseminated that the people and the works from the west are far superior to those from the East. As opposition to the traditionalist view, the multiculturalists argued tat that we should acknowledge and take into consideration the aspect of personal circumstances and background which are part of the identity of a person. What the author presented as part of his rebuttal to the multiculturalists, he proposed Liberal Education which means equality to the opportunity within the bound of the educational system but without taking into consideration personal circumstances.
The last part of the integration is focused on the mechanisms of the west in colonizing the academe of the east especially in the Philippines. As was argued by S.F. Alatas, he said that there is a global division of labor within the social sciences that is operating. This means that there are certain aspect in the conduct of the social science that can only be done by the practitioners from the east and some only by the westerners. This is heavily based on the political economy within the social sciences that is powerfully operating. It assume that much of the jobs that can prestige should be relegated to the west because they have the capacity to do this given the resources and their established power relations within other countries.
In the case of the Philippines, Randolf David said that the Phillipine Social Sciences is still heavily anchored to the western practice of the social sciences. Most of our texts, theories, even fundings and research heads mostly came from the west. All of these are part of the educational neocolonialism as proposed by Altbach, meaning, there is still the continuing impact of former western colonial regimes and some advances nations on poor or developing nations in the areas of educational system and intellectual

Issues and recommendations
The biggest issue in the social sciences in the discourse of its being colonized is our great dependency to the western practice of social science. Much of our texts, theories, and others are anchored if not heavily influenced by the West.
To decolonize the social sciences, I propose a gradual rather than the radical drastic mode of freeing the social sciences. What I mean is the continued effort of reforming and modifying the social sciences until it reaches its goal of freeing itself from the (neo)colonial powers. What I think should be the first step to this is we should start at early years of education because this is the stage where we incorporate our knowledge in preparation to the next stages of education and it is also the stage where we are prone to various forms of knowledge. a good and reliable factor to this is the improvement of the quality of teaching by the teachers. We should orient out mentors the proper way to teach the social sciences and other areas of knowledge in such a way that we promote our own social science, culture, history and others rather than the west. We should not have the attitude that since we are a technological institute and we do not focus on the social sciences we just teach social science in a manner of mediocrity just for the sake of saying that we also teach social science here.
In terms of our history and philosophy, we should promote this two very basic and foundational aspect of the academe in such a way that it contains our own perspective and not from the west. Although it now a trend in history to use the “pan-tayong pananaw” or the use of our own perspective, a more focused promotion to this trend should be given. In this way a comparative analysis can be made by students between the difference of having a history written by westerners and history written by Filipinos for Filipinos.
Another recommendations is the establishment and improvement of academic centers focused on indigenous cultures like the Cordillera Studies Center of the University of the Philippines Baguio which focus on the Cordilleran culture. In this way, we are helping in building awareness that there are also indigenous cultures that exist within our country that cannot be said inferior nor superior to the western culture.
In an offensive stance we should assert ourselves the right to develop freely without the aid or influence of the west. We should also assert that we can do things what the westerners said that we cannot do. We all have the intellectual capacities to do comparative and cross-cultural analysis that was said to be the domain and expertise of the west.
What I’ve recommended to decolonize the social sciences especially the Philippine Social Sciences are just small moves that may materialize with other recommendations. These are small steps that I hope may lead to big changes in working with other recommendations.

Jackie Lyn A. Ramos:

Issues in Anthropology

Integration of the Concepts:
>>>>> “Western Mathematics…” (by Alan Bishop) proved that even Mathematics, the subject which often considered as universal and least culturally loaded is subject to imperialism by the Western superpowers. The author greatly encouraged us to be critical in thinking, not just easily persuaded by the thoughts of Western scholars. As the saying goes, “Don’t judge the book by its cover”, we should not look and get mesmerized to the seemingly perfect cover presented to us by the West. Let’s flip all the pages until the end, keenly observe them, and really read between the lines. This is also true in the article Ang Pagkagapos…, its only focus is on the field of Social Sciences. Another reading, Education and Neocolonialism and Academic Dependency…, a new view of ‘colonialism’ was introduced, what we call the “colonization of the mind and culture”. This is worse than physical colonization because majority of the people are not aware it is happening to them. In addition, a new definition of ‘power’ occurs that power is pleasure. People now enjoy the power imposed to them, meaning desire for change may not happen. In Is There a Crisis... is again used by the West to their campaign towards imperialism using the concept of “Liberal Education”. Lastly, the article The Building Blocks of Social Reality answers the question, ‘What is reality or more specifically social reality’? It says that social reality is created by us humans for purposes and seems as readily intelligible to us as those purposes themselves.

Issues in Philippine Anthropology
>>>>> First, is the issue of Ethnicity, what really constitute it? Ethnic identity is defined by self-ascription and, more tenuously, ascription by others.[1] In the material culture, wherein the way people dress, and the mode of thinking that to wear ethnic dresses is synonymous to putting a “costume”, which means that it is no longer possible to distinguish ethnicity by the way of dressing because this, too has changed. Moreover, even the architecture of the house, diet, and language were greatly influenced. These widespread socio-cultural alterations underline the need for the redefinition of what comprises ethnicity itself since classic anthropological parameters no longer work. Another problem is the increasing poverty, narrowing livelihood opportunities, and a declining of natural and cultural resources among the indigenous people. Like in the provinces of the Autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and parts of central and western Mindanao posted the “highest poverty rates and the lowest literacy rates and are way behind in human development indicators.
>>>>> Another issue is the effect of Globalization in the cultural area. Globalization causes the great danger of cultural disruption. The mere introduction of Christianity and Islam has wrought disorder on indigenous cultures and continues to do so. The replacement of the indigenous forms of leadership by the national civil political system has redefined alliances and relationships even in small communities. Globalization will result in an exponential increase in the contact with other forms of cultural influence that will certainly affect local cultures, unless controls to soften impact are set in place. Third issue is on the technologies used in conducting research. For example in archaeology (branch of anthropology), plotting maps and analyzing findings or data were manually done here in the Philippines wherein they are supposed to be technologies used in conducting this activity. Radiocarbon dating, which is an important component of an archaeological endeavor, still needs to be done abroad and most of our archaeological sites are dated by relative dating, which is not exact and has wide ranging period.
>>>>> Lastly, the theories, concepts or ideas found in both elementary and secondary books regarding our prehistoric culture and racial origins. Popular example of this is the “inland push theory which is already debunked by scholars by still is used in teaching in various schools especially on rural areas.

>>>>>Recommendations
>>>>> First, on the issue of Ethnicity, we should really help in the process of information dissemination for other people to be aware of the true conditions of the indigenous people. The government should also make greater efforts on how to improve the lives of the minority; the IPRA must really change in favor of these indigenous groups. Equal opportunity in education must be on the priority list as well as equal opportunity in work. NGO’s has also vital part in addressing the needs of indigenous groups, continuous research on them and putting it into paper will also be a great help because people that will read it can be enlighten to help. Even the Constitution mandates the development of culture. When the tradition is preserved, culture change is repressed. When cultural development is attended to, tradition cannot endure.
>>>>> In the issue of Globalization, urgent programs for protection, conservation and documentation must be put in place to save whatever there is still that can be acted upon. This phenomenon is not that easy to solve because it seems now that it is still inevitable. However, we can we can show our appreciation to the culture of the minorities by helping these minorities understand the true value of their own culture in their lives and promoting it to other people. We also need to stop criticizing our cultural traditions.
>>>>> Moreover, on the issue of lack of technologies needed for research, the government has the main role in addressing this. The budget allocated for research must be really increased for this need to be acted upon. The private sector, especially those who are financially blessed should also help answering this need. In doing so, much research will be done easier and a lot faster, and eventually we will appreciate more our country, our history because we can now have true understanding of our heritage. Having better knowledge of our prehistoric past will give us more wisdom about our ancestors, what were their established patterns of thoughts, feelings, actions, and aspirations. It represents their accumulated achievements before their overexposure to external cultures. Knowing these achievements will give us a new sense of identity with and pride in our heritage. It will also restore our dignity as people.
>>>>> Last but not the least, on the issue of wrong theories/concepts found in books that are still used as a medium for teaching in the elementary and secondary, government must really allocate substantial amount for the eradication of all these books and print an accurate book to help students understand true prehistoric pas at their early age. Today, NGO’s continuous to collect funds to change the books and were conducting seminars addressing this issue. I hope that our government will take its part to help to attain its goal soon.
>>>>> Let us put our biases aside and critically examine the events that have damaged our appreciation of our past culture. This will prepare us to better understand the reason/s why we need to free ourselves from the idea that, as some earlier writers have said, “We have no cultural roots to stand on”, actually, we have.

REFERENCE:
[1] Dr. Jesus Peralta, Tenacy of Identity or Where are the People?, http://www.livinginthephilippines.com/philculture/culture&arts/tenacity_of_identity.html, accessed on July 21, 2007.

Abigail E. Dayawen:

DECOLONIZING KNOWLEDGE, DECOLONIZING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: Issues, Concerns, and Recommendations

A movement in the Social Sciences is currently gaining momentum – a movement for a separate and distinct knowledge base for different cultural milieus – even as the international community approaches increased homogeneity and blurring of cultural divides. This movement can be referred to as Decolonization, both of the Social Sciences and of knowledge in general. In this movement, alternative views are on the rise, supporting the expansion of the present dominantly-Western core knowledge of the Social Sciences, in order to better accommodate the cultural and intellectual diversity of humanity. This movement echoes the clamor of the minority in the Social Sciences – i.e., the intellectual community of the Third World and other non-Western nations, as well as their Western intellectual sympathizers – to be free of such things as the use of education for cultural imperialism (Bishop, 1990); education and neo-colonialism (Altbach, 1971); the need for diversity in higher education (Searle, 1994); pagkagapos ng agham panlipunang Pilipino (David, 197_ ); and academic dependency (Alatas, 2003), among others. The Decolonization movement works under the precept that knowledge in the Social Sciences (and in general) in it present form is utilized as an instrument for neocolonialism and neo-imperialism of the West to the (marginalized) Other (i.e. the Third World and the non-Western). The West, in this assumption, remains to hold other nations as pacified captives through subtle yet potent means. Education is one such means, as elaborated upon by Bishop, Altbach, and Searle. The Social Sciences in particular plays a major role in painting a social scenario as it would be seen through Western lenses; it is, therefore, a tool in perpetrating theories, methods, and explanations of social and cultural phenomena that are, in essence, Western in grounding (as discussed by Alatas and David). The power of the Social Sciences in social research and mobilizing policy-making can subtly be a tool for endorsing The Industrial and The Global as ideals and goals for national development, with the Western industrialized nations as the epitome of such a successful society.

Issues. Here we can see, too, that captive nations become, in most ways, alienated from knowledge: they do not own their knowledge and yet they cultivate it. They furthermore juxtapose it into their own cultural milieu. A lot of this alienated knowledge, for example, can be seen in the discipline of Psychology, particularly in the study of abnormal behavior. Western brand of abnormal Psychology is still largely pro-institutionalization, i.e., treatment of mental and psychological illnesses can only be successful by locking up these people in mental facilities. The deficiency of this treatment becomes more pronounced in the face of the advent of de-institutionalization and social re-integration as potent alternative treatments to replace isolation in mental wards. This practice has long been proven by other non-Western societies who traditionally take care of their mentally-handicapped instead of isolate them. In the Cordilleras, for example, the sapo is a shamanistic practice that aids in speeding up the recovery of someone who has escaped reality. Sadly, few efforts are taken to explore the promise of sapo as an alternative to institutionalization and isolation that the West introduced. Another case in point is the little attention given by the academe to the growing number of researches in Sikolohiyang Pilipino. There are such things as sikolohiya ng pagkalalake (with a female counterpart, I suppose), and these studies are only mentioned in passing – if they are mentioned at all – in Psychology courses presently offered in the university.

Recommendations. Bigger than the ramifications of the neocolonized mind is the task of decolonizing it. Alatas (2003) presented specific steps for breaking down academic dependency, while other writers presented their own recommendations, too. Here, I shall present some concrete steps which I believe would be helpful in decolonizing the Filipino Social Sciences.

Centers of social researches in the Philippines, such as the academe, should encourage and fund studies that focus on exploring indigenous and folk knowledge. The aim here is to remove the stigma of primitivism, backwardness, and inferiority attached to Filipino traditional knowledge and practices. Although methods of research would inevitably remain Western in grounding (the West being the developers of methods we apply in research presently), the results of what we would call the first wave of truly-Filipino exploratory researches would hopefully be able to generate theories and heuristic tools that fit the Filipino culture.

Inoculation could also work in decolonizing the Filipino mind. The teaching and dissemination of information regarding neocolonialism and its subtle forms could and would plant seminal seeds of critical thinking among people. As a saying goes, knowing the enemy is a means of equipping one’s self against the enemy. Awareness is the foremost weapon against the so-called captivity of the mind. The presentation of this course, for example, is an effective means of making people rethink the current situation of theorizing and other knowledge-generating activities that our nation is presently employing.

Aside, the study of World History becomes moot when we apply the Decolonization process in secondary-school Social Studies. World History is not the history of the world; it is the history of the West. Equating the World with the West is not a message we would like our youth to subconsciously imbibe. It would be better to introduce the History of the Philippine’s Indigenous Peoples as an alternative to World History (which is being taught to third year students), since we can not afford the youth to know more about Henry the VIII’s eight wives but be unaware of the struggles of Macli-ing Dulag and his people in the 1980’s to prevent the construction of the Chico Dam that threatened to leave them homeless in their own land. The youth knows about the Scots, the French, the English, the Americans… but little knows of the Tinguian, the Applai, the Gaddang, and the Lumads of the South. This brand of teaching is not education; this is merely schooling. If so, then there is a grain of truth in the saying that many are schooled, but few are educated. In a nation that is still in the process of picking itself up from impoverishment and moral degradation, the last thing we need is a horde of uneducated Filipinos.

***

Other steps could be secured to ensure that the Decolonization movement reaches the Filipino masses. Surely, these must be done if we are to be free of the mentality that only the West has awareness of and concern for things happening in the society. The Filipino is aware, and the Filipino can make sense of her/his world without needing the presence of the West.-