Aspiring to a postcolonial engagement with the Other: An investigation into postgraduate students' 'colonial signatures' from their intercultural experiences during a university-led South Indian study visit to Keralan higher education institutions

Abstract

This paper considers how a study visit to Indian higher education institutions and schools provoked UK university students to perceive the 'Other' differently and subsequently reappraise the 'Self'. Using ethnography, and postcolonial theory, the students' reflections were analysed to consider their intercultural learning, key to which were critical moments I call the 'Colonial Signature'. The Colonial Signature is the signifier of language, symbols, products or other images that are significant to us as a consequence of knowledge, experience and values. The signatures provided a two-way connection for the students between India and 'home' and acted as a conduit, or inhibiter, to deepening learning. Diverse narratives of intercultural learning emerged that highlighted how the experiences that formed the Signatures became opportunities for reflexive reconsiderations of Self and Other. The students were challenged to problematise their worldviews and, where agency emerged, to change aspects of their lives in varied and rich ways.