What is this Guide?

This introductory piece is a mini-adaptation of Western Libraries’ Open Educational Resource, “Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions”, where its creation invited both students and faculty to critically and inclusively engage in what, and whose, knowledge counts. Through Knowledge Justice, we are acknowledging the principle that each person has the equal capacity to be knowledgeable, yet it is a right that is often defined to individuals based on the social identities they hold.

It also means that we are recognizing that some knowledge systems, particularly those of Indigenous peoples, have been purposefully ignored, eliminated, or silenced in the dominant face of Eurowestern systems.^[1]

This framework breaks down our responsibility as researchers, students, teachers, and fellow beings in this world, and the obligations we have to one another to not cause undue hardship or harm from our work. We should be engaging in meaningful dialogue across multiple and diverse perspectives, which means looking inward and acknowledging our own approaches with humility and understanding the limitations of our understanding.^[2]

See how the authors of Western Libraries Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions in how they practice Knowledge Justice in their professions in the video below.

Below are crucial ideas that you must continuously refer to while you engage with any of the work in this book and your academic or professional career. This is only a concise and curated version of Western Libraries’ Open Education Resource, so it is very much encouraged to check out this OER and its corresponding workbook as you visit these tutorials!

Personal and Social Identity

To begin your journey into research skills using knowledge justice, ask yourself this:

• How do I view my own ideas?
• Do I see myself as an expert?
• Is my lived experience a valid and important source of knowledge?
• Where do I fit in the academic world, or within my professional practice?

These above questions frequently reside in the undercurrents when you attend a library workshop or consult with a member of Western Libraries Teaching and Learning Team.

This means that when you are even processing the motions of understanding your assignment or disciplinary undertakings, you are practicing critical reflection, which is crucial to developing a knowledge justice-lens to your work. That reflection extends to being aware of your personal and social identity,^[3] alongside your research approaches and how you fit in this academic environment.

These both shape and influence how you interact with the world, with other people, what you decide to value (and what you are missing), and how you learn. All things that you bring to the ecosystem of Western University!

Positionality, Systems of Oppression, and Intersectionality  

Positionality refers to how the differences in social position, power, and privilege shape our identities, worldviews, and interactions with others. Positionality influences what we value as knowledge, where we seek information, and how we engage in knowledge production. It will also influence how we are perceived by others as knowledge holders, and ultimately what choices (or lack of) we may have to disseminate knowledge.^[4] This is prominent in systems of oppression, which continue to hold both overt and covert barriers and unequal treatment when talking about knowledge.^[5]

What does this mean for you to grapple with your positionality in the world? See how the authors of Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions learned to define the impact of positionality in their disciplines.

Intersectionality is a term coined by American Civil Rights Advocate Kimberly Crenshaw on the interconnection of different social identities and how they create overlapping experiences of discrimination or oppression.^[6]

This means that the potential overlap social positions you hold creates a unique way of looking at the world (and how it may look or define You) and may present murky waters in the research world where there is very little to no space for intersectionality. Being human is a complex endeavour, and what harm has it caused to be boxed into limited positions or roles, or to be curious about overlapping topics and questions in the world?

See Kimberly Crenshaw’s unpacking Intersectionality in a short Ted Talk video here!

Epistemic Injustice

Epistemic Injustice is the ways in which Canadian (in our context, or even dominant Euro-Western more broadly) society privileges certain knowledge and perspectives, while other worldviews are overlooked or dismissed.^[7] We can see this in who is allowed to publish, what ways of knowing are celebrated (and whose underwent epistemicide), what is suppressed or kept in isolation, and a reason why we may not even understand our own information needs.^[8]

More Activities

If you want more activities and reflection exercises to help you process all of these concepts, you can find both the fillable PDF and Word document for a variety of exercises in Knowledge Justice in the Helping Professions workbook!