Date of Graduation
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Psychological Science
Advisor/Mentor
Eidelman, Scott
Committee Member
Bridges, Ana
Second Committee Member
Beike, Denise
Keywords
critical knowledge; decolonial studies; decolonization; epistemologies of ignorance; political psychology; social psychology
Abstract
Epistemologies of ignorance and critical knowledge dialectically shape how individuals psychologically and politically orient themselves within oppressive social systems. Across three studies, I investigated the psychological mechanisms through which critical-historical knowledge about Indigenous peoples relates to and causally shifts support for (or opposition to) decolonization among America’s foremost settler population, White Americans. Study 1 utilized an Indigenous history test to assess the relationship between critical knowledge and support for decolonization (i.e., decolonial policies and practices; DCPPs), finding that critical-historical knowledge is positively associated with DCPP support and that this relationship is mediated by collective responsibility. Studies 2 and 3 built on these findings by demonstrating that reading a critical essay about Indigenous history increases DCPP support, as well as moral outrage and collective responsibility, which path analyses revealed as mediators. Moreover, these effects largely held in comparison to different control conditions for Studies 2 and 3, where participants read an essay about U.S. transportation in Study 2 and a non-critical, textbook-style essay about Indigenous history in Study 3, suggesting that effects were not just due to presentation of any historical facts and frames but specifically critical ones. Taken together, my research demonstrates that by highlighting suppressed historical facts and perspectives about Indigenous histories, critical pedagogies effectively reshape political attitudes around settler colonialism and, by contrast, expose the ostensibly neutral role of traditional pedagogies as inherently political.
Citation
Jabr, M. (2026). Coloniality Disrupted: Critical Knowledge Interventions Shift Decolonial Attitudes Among White Americans Via Collective Responsibility & Moral Outrage. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/6273
