Childhood and Postcolonization

Gaile S. Cannella is Professor of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University.Radhika Viruru is Clinical Assistant Professor in the department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University.

"Childhood and Postcolonization is a new call to reconceptualize knowledge, policy, theory, and action about childhood/family/education. By focusing on childhood and postcolonial critiques, Cannella and Viruru bring new methodologies of critique to the truth of universal childhood and the privileging of developmental and educational discourses from the 'west' that are badly needed. The opening up of new possibilities for thinking and action through their sophisticated, yet clear presentations and discussions is a new major contribution to the field of critical cultural studies of childhood." -- Marianne Bloch, University of Wisconsin-Madison"This book offers a powerful framing of issues of colonialism, long embedded but infrequently confronted, in early childhood research and advocacy. The authors resist offering postcolonial formulas or 'new truths' and instead open space for critical dialogue on the legacies of colonialism in our field. Raising a number of compelling questions and written in an accessible style, this book confronts issues of power and privilege in the study of childhood and our practice of child advocacy." -- Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University

• Introduction: Childhood and the Postcolonial (Who we are and why we address these issues) I. The Construction of Colonizing Power Chapter 1: Postcolonial Theories and the Magnitude of Modernist Colonialism Chapter 2: Technologies of Power, Colonizing Structures and Discourse II. The Colonization of Those Who are Younger Chapter 3: Childhood as Adult Occupied Territory Chapter 4: Education, Teaching Methodologies, and Materialism Chapter 5: Disciplining Bodies of the Other III. Imperialism Continued Chapter 6: Good Intentions: Saving Other Peoples Children Chapter 7: Invisible Colonialism: Education, Economics, Technology, & Family IV. Generating Possibilities for Decolonization and Resistance Chapter 8: Human Agency, Power, and Difference Chapter 9: Hearing from Outside: Reconceptualizing Education and Research Chapter 10: Reinventing Public Policy and Human Services