Decolonizing the Mind: Invoking the Vernacular Experience in a Postcolonial Language Classroom

Background

This chapter will attempt to understand the teaching-learning practices, programs, courses, and pedagogies of an English department that recently co-opted Cultural Studies as a means of decolonization in a private university in India to understand how cultural diversity, learner diversity, teacher experiences, and learner interests became considered factors in language learning pedagogies and selection of learning content. The research will employ mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative techniques of course content analysis, student interviews to gauge the impact of the learning on the decolonization process, teacher reflections to understand approaches to task design and the intended outcome, and the strategies and perception changes in material production and task development when the learning shifted to the online mode as a result of the pandemic disruption.