Over several months, I have been thinking about the terminology we use in education to enable social equity and engagement recognising different circumstances from which we all come together, acknowledging our differences and similarities. This brings me to touch on #decolonising and how that word has changed for me when we discuss it in a #geopolitical and #socio-economic context and the curriculum.
Historically, #colonisation originated when the British and Europeans established control and dominated other territories across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Colonisation involved the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems, education, and languages, suppressing or undermining traditional cultural norms. They were portrayed as inferior to the West, which portrayed itself as superior with a mission to ‘civilise’ the natives through education and religion.
Through the reinforcement of inferiority, colonial knowledge was used as a tool to control and exploit the colonised people to maintain a new social order, perpetuating social and economic inequalities as a means of cultural subjugation.
As once colonised nations, post-independence, they have taken the place of their colonisers, using their old master's tools, we see this violence being reenacted through the lens of superiority and inferiority. Whether through colourism, religion, or internal land disputes, repeating the violence, the displacement and the erasure of knowledge structures which pose a threat to the new colonial order. Watching events taking place across our screens and seeing this play out in the Middle East with little to no action taken by nations, shows the violence with which colonisation occurs. Equally, decolonising comes with a cost, with indigenous populations trying to hold onto their homes, livelihoods, and dignity to live in safety and peace.
For me, as a first-generation British Pakistani, decolonising the curriculum was about making space for the voices which were not acknowledged alongside Western academics, the history of knowledge and how it has transmuted across time and geographical space, and for the originators of science and philosophy to be given their rightful places in the canon of academia. What are seen as cultural norms in the West are adopted by us to ‘fit in’ at the cost of leaving our identities, who we are, our cultural heritage and languages outside the door, be it at school or the workplace.
What I see is how certain world views are adopted which hold #cultural and #financial capital aligned with power, privilege, and the perception of ‘eliteness’ to be socially mobile by many of us immigrants. There is little to no resistance to being critical of Western knowledge systems upon which education systems are founded, as it serves them well. It is for all of us who abide at the fringes, are critical, see the tensions, see the legacy of terminology imbibed with violence and trauma, the conversations continue.
