The bachelor students in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Norway, comes from and navigates in a multicultural society within and outside of their university´s campus. In their education they are introduced to some decolonial and antiracist theories, mostly through academic texts. The students participating in this study are all bachelor students in ECEC in their final year, but their age, gender and background differ.

A study on shared reading in a group of junior doctors, indicated that there could be positive outcomes of shared reading such as an opportunity to think slower, share thoughts and experience texts as a group (Wistrand et al, 2025). It also indicated a possibility of using shared reading as an approach to seek other perspectives (Wistrand et al, 2025). It is these perspectives this paper attempts to search for. The research question of the paper is “How can literature work as a decolonial approach to teacher education?”.

The framework of this study is critical and decolonial theories (Bruney, 2012; Freire, 2014; Zembylas, 2025), with a core question of how to create a culturally sustaining pedagogy (Alim, Paris & Wong, 2020; Paris & Alim, 2014). Different perspectives that can be provided through literature such as fiction, biography and poetry, might also work as an approach to decolonize the teacher education. The question of who’s voices, perspectives and narratives are given space in teacher education, is also a question of how to create a more sustainable and decolonial education. The selection of literature will focus on a literature reflecting the multicultural Norway with the voices of racialized or marginalized people. In a preliminary work done in the fall of 2025 different forms of literature was introduced to bachelor students in Early Childhood Education and Care. Literature including fiction, biography and poetry, presenting perspectives of Sámi, immigrant, disability, asylum seekers, adoption and LHBTQ+, was introduced to the students in the subject of specialization in diversity in ECEC.

In a society of acceleration (Rosa, 2024) the need of pedagogies that goes slower are increasing (Clark, 2022). This paper attempt to search for teaching methods contributing to reflexion and slower thinking. It is a question of what we are educating for (Biesta, 2015), and this paper calls for a decolonial and cultural sustainable teacher education. For the students to read together, listen to each other and to discuss other perspectives of the society they are a part of, might contribute to a teacher education which can provide spaces for these reflective practices. The perspectives presented in the literature might challenge the values and beliefs of the students and affect the way they see their profession and education.

This study’s intervention to teaching in higher education aspires to be critically reflexive and materially engaged (Zembylas, 2025). There is also some racialized students in the program, who’s voices need to be heard, and knowledge need to be included in the education. The shared reading groups might be a space for listening to and develop different kinds of knowledges, also those knowledges that challenge a Eurosentric epistemology (Mabvira, 2024; Zembylas, 2025).

A preliminary work was done in the fall of 2025, when different kinds of literature was introduced to the students with text excerpts the students read in groups and presented to class through drawings and other forms of aesthetic work. This study will build on the preliminary work were valuable experiences with different kinds of literature and written forms of Norwegian was made. The ongoing data collection will be analyzed through tematic analyses (Tjora, 2024). The main method of this study is shared reading (Wistrand et al, 2025), where the students will not receive texts before the groups sessions but will read together in a shared reading lead by the researcher, followed by a conversation about the text that is read. This part has an affective approach were the students’ experiences with the text and their affection of it is centred. The shared reading sessions will be followed with a phenomenological semi structured group interview, with a retrospective focus on the experiences of the students as well as a future-oriented focus on their professional development and learning of other perspectives. Thambinathan & Kinsella (2021) discuss that decolonial methods is in many ways about using a decolonial lens in the research. This decolonial lens shall be throughout this paper, from the selection of texts, through the conversations and interviews, to the final paper.

There is a variety in the students experiences of reading (Malmström, Eriksson & Stöhr, 2025), but this study attempts to support the students in their reading and creating a space of a non-performance reading. It is expected that the students will experience a way of teaching and reading that is not familiar to them, that they will refect upon the perspectives they read and that they will share knowledge and experiences with each other (Wistrand, 2025). It is expected that this approach will demand a slower and more refexive way of teaching (Wistrand, 2025), but also contribute to learning experiences and possible changes in the students developing of professionalism. The study is expected to provides approaches to teaching in higher education, contributing to a culturally sustaining pedagogy and a decolonial practice valuing different kinds of literature as well as different ways of knowing and experiencing knowledge.

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