Abstract
[Extracted from the introduction in lieu of abstract]Traditionally, the Oxford dictionary summarises ‘Decolonisation’ as follows: “[The] withdrawal from its colonies of a colonial power: the acquisition of political or economic independence by such colonies.” This definition does not apply so much here, but it does have some resonance in the sense that when talking about decolonisation in an educational framework, it does not just mean the removal of physical forces from a geographical area but indicates to a decolonisation of the mind from colonial ideas, or what Anibal Quijano would call ‘coloniality’. Unlike concepts of colonisation which are normally described as a policy or practice of domination, subjugation, and exploitation of peoples politically and economically - as well as physically - ‘coloniality’ is much deeper. Colonialism, the progress of modernity and this attempt to ‘civilise the world’, removed cultures and imposed their own in its place, displacing modes of living and thinking. Colonialism was not just physical; it was also the domination of cultures, languages, and knowledges of conquered land. This idea that colonialism undermined, debilitated, and one can go as far as to say killed, indigenous forms of culture and knowledge is what Boaventura de Sousa Santos would phrase ‘epistemicide’.
| Date of Award | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Jonathan Durrant (Supervisor), Christopher Hill (Supervisor) & Catherine Camps (Supervisor) |