Teaching Community Psychology from an Entanglement Framework

I describe changes made to a 120-person 10-week long community psychology course to align it with an entanglement perspective. An entanglement approach, which is connected to decolonial practices, includes seeing how all things are inextricably and relationally interconnected. Entanglement has implications for consciousness, knowledge production, and processes for liberation. First, I describe the decolonial roots I draw from, focusing on socio-historical intersectional consciousness, epistemic justice, and emergent processes. Then I provide contextual information about the university (an Hispanic Serving Research Institution) and class, and then re-chart the routes I have taken in my class to engage in an entanglement perspective. In the routes section, which centers parasympathetic nervous system exercises, lectures that show the throughline of coloniality, and photovoice, I interweave student comments about the class. Many students have had little exposure to a class structured to engage in decoloniality or anticoloniality. Subsequently, some students indicate profound mistrust of me, whereas others demonstrate deep gratitude.