Higher education institutions have been complicit with the ongoing coloniality project that reinforces and perpetuates inequities, dismisses interests, knowledges, alternative discourses, and world views different from Western European thought (Bell, 2018; Dastile & Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013; Harms-Smith & Rasool, 2020). Education is rooted in…

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial-capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States,…

Prior to the United States' (U.S.) illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom government in 1893 and illegal annexation in 1898, literacy rates and educational attainment in the Hawaiian Kingdom were amongst the highest in the world. In contrast to the educational history of the 19th century, the usurpation of the Hawaiian educational system…

We hear calls to globalize, internationalize, decolonize, and diversify higher education from all corners of the world. What changes do they actually seek? Who is behind them and whose interests do they serve? How much are curricula actually changing? In this article, we explore these questions from outside Europe and the United States by…

The decline of public education and the concomitant loss of the commons are increasingly recognized as significant and interwoven issues. Like other prevailing societal problems, such as the tenacity of institutionalized racism, classism, and patriarchy, these conditions are rooted in the ways growing numbers of people have come to think and act…

Purpose: This paper argues that to preserve black lives, teacher educators and teacher candidates need to develop a decolonial lens. A decolonial lens can provide clarity in understanding how the centering of Western epistemic perspectives perpetuate hierarchies and processes of racialization and invisibilized structures of domination that…

Social work education in the Global North is rooted in an underlying discourse of power that defines the 'knower' parameters and, therefore, legitimises who can 'teach'. For this paper, the spatial orientation of whiteness in the classroom in a time of coloniality and intersectionality is the unit of analysis. This whiteness is made visible by not…

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to posit a possible reason why non-Indigenous educators are seen to be 'cautious' in their pedagogic engagement with First Nations perspectives in curriculum, why interventions and programmess around reconciliation and truth-telling have limited traction in affecting change in school culture, and why the…

Processes of Indigenization under way in Canada aim to bring more Indigenous students and faculty to mainstream colleges and universities. These Indigenization initiatives are critical components that work toward reconciling systemic and societal inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous within higher education. Despite these important…

Academia has been dominated by European/settler ways of knowing while denying the existence and validity of Indigenous epistemologies, science, and philosophies. Post-secondary structures were not built to be inclusive spaces, they were built without Indigenous voices or considerations and often housed individuals and departments who have…

Universities in the English-speaking world may trace their origins to England, where the first universities of Oxford and Cambridge were established. These universities were, for centuries, the models for universities to come both in terms of structure and philosophy; and they also became a tool of British colonial policy. With the progression of…

The enduring colonial-like relations among Northern and Southern spaces continue to influence knowledge production and dissemination. Critical scholarship on epistemic diversity in higher education has argued that knowledge circulation is often unilateral considering how global partnerships among universities and higher education models are still…

In this article I shall reflect on the issue of humanising pedagogy, taking a view that dehumanisation, in general, comes from two kinds of oppression. I shall argue that, apart from oppression of the political type, tertiary education is also a victim of another type of oppression which contributes to its dehumanisation, viz. the oppression…

The inherent coloniality of ELT, as both driver and product of Anglophone political power, poses particular challenges for ELT teachers and learners looking to engage with decolonizing agendas. With only scant evidence of these agendas translating into ELT practice, I explored decolonial options, counter-hegemonic actions, with my undergraduate…

This case examines the pressing need for systemic equity and social justice in educational structures in the society of the United States (US). The case critiques the inadequate responses to racial justice and highlights the challenges faced in enacting meaningful educational reform amidst declining patriotism and cultural schisms. Introducing…