What is Decolonial Pedagogy?
In this short video, FCIP Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy Specialist Justin D. Wright provides a brief introduction to Decolonial Pedagogy.
Decolonization/Decolonial Pedagogy can best be defined as a framework which seeks to challenge, critique, and even in some cases dismantle, the underlying models of Eurocentrism and Colonialism derived forms of prejudice, inequality, and invalidation which are interwoven into the framework of the Western education system (the dominant educational system in the world today). This does not mean the pedagogical framework calls for an outright abolition of the traditional Western Education system per say, but rather a confrontation of the aspects within in it which ultimately serve to reinforce the cultural worldviews of a society that engaged heavily in colonialism, the development and expansion of racism (in the modern sense), and repression and invalidation of non-European peoples and their own cultural worldviews at a time when modern Western higher education was taking shape. One of the most effective ways this can be done is acknowledging and validating the cultural worldviews of non-Western peoples or those not traditionally eminent in Western society and incorporating them into the higher education framework within the terms of the people who hold these cultural beliefs and worldviews. Finally, it’s worth noting that to confront colonialist traces in any system merits confronting the systemic inequalities that permeate throughout a country’s history. Such efforts will surely lead to uncomfortable confrontations, yet it’s important to remember that these efforts are meant first and foremost to target systems, not any specific individuals or groups unless the latter is an explicit requirement for the former.
Decolonization/Decolonial Pedagogy can best be defined as a framework which seeks to challenge, critique, and even in some cases dismantle, the underlying models of Eurocentrism and Colonialism derived forms of prejudice, inequality, and invalidation which are interwoven into the framework of the Western education system (the dominant educational system in the world today). This does not mean the pedagogical framework calls for an outright abolition of the traditional Western Education system per say, but rather a confrontation of the aspects within in it which ultimately serve to reinforce the cultural worldviews of a society that engaged heavily in colonialism, the development and expansion of racism (in the modern sense), and repression and invalidation of non-European peoples and their own cultural worldviews at a time when modern Western higher education was taking shape. One of the most effective ways this can be done is acknowledging and validating the cultural worldviews of non-Western peoples or those not traditionally eminent in Western society and incorporating them into the higher education framework within the terms of the people who hold these cultural beliefs and worldviews. Finally, it’s worth noting that to confront colonialist traces in any system merits confronting the systemic inequalities that permeate throughout a country’s history. Such efforts will surely lead to uncomfortable confrontations, yet it’s important to remember that these efforts are meant first and foremost to target systems, not any specific individuals or groups unless the latter is an explicit requirement for the former.