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Critical Spirituality: Decolonizing the Self

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Decolonizing the Spirit in Education and Beyond

Part of the book series: Spirituality, Religion, and Education ((SPRE))

Abstract

Rooted in my own experiences and extending to phenomenological interviews with Latin American Canadian youth in Toronto, this chapter examines how dominant cultural narratives shape the heterogeneous ways in which we perceive ourselves and others. Findings show that such narratives engender a sense of in-betweenness that both inhibit and empower us to create meaning. The chapter juxtaposes these findings to feminist pedagogies of “third space” and explores the decolonization of the self through the spirit. It proposes critical spirituality as a transformational “punctum” that embraces the process of becoming over being. The self is an individual state of being that can be bounded by colonial histories, discourses, and realities while the spirit is a collective process of becoming that transcends ideologies, materiality, and time.

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Correspondence to Josue Tario .

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Tario, J. (2019). Critical Spirituality: Decolonizing the Self. In: Wane, N., Todorova, M., Todd, K. (eds) Decolonizing the Spirit in Education and Beyond . Spirituality, Religion, and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25320-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25320-2_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25319-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25320-2

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