Decolonizing Epistemologies and Worldviews in Education

Michael Kariwo is Instructor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, Canada.Chouaib El Bouhali is Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta, Canada.

“Decolonizing Epistemologies and Worldviews in Education is a welcome addition to the epistemological debates on knowledge diversity. Knowledge production is fundamentally political and embedded in ideological and sociocultural factors that weigh in on what counts as knowledge, how it is produced and disseminated within specific political trajectories. The editors and contributors to this book disrupt the totalizing hegemonic western discourse of what constitutes school knowledge and education by incorporating a decolonial and/or indigenization worldviews in their arguments. This is an essential book for academics and scholars who want to engage in disruptive pedagogy in their classroom but have been afraid to try or are unsure how and where to start."Edward Shizha, PhD, Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University"Decolonizing Epistemologies and Worldviews in Education: New Ways of Knowing in Education and Policy is a welcome addition to the field of education. This edited volume presents varied research themes and methodologies across 14 chapters to bring clarity to the tension between knowledge systems and world views that impact education policy. Of importance in larger debates on racism and equity the book is timely and gives a strong base for scholars wishing to understand and enact a process of decolonizing curriculum, especially in postsecondary education. The authors give full attention to the varied understandings of decoloniality and coloniality as they begin to counter ways of thinking that are based on capitalism and Western modernity. Recognition is given to the varied ways in which the value placed on knowledge from the global North works to devalue and destroy ways of being and knowledge systems of the global South. The chapters provide for the process of decolonization to become a space of possibilities through use of embodied pedagogy; Ubuntu philosophy and recognition of 'learning as lifelong and life wide.'” Jennifer Kelly, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta

• Part 1: Theory 1. Totalizing Worldview or Multicentric Totalization? Can conceptual reification of misapplication of onto-epistemology be avoided in education? 2. Colonizing English language in education systems as the primary language of instruction and current state of English academic literacy in education systems 3. Pedagogical advantages of embracing Indigenous embodied knowledge from Turtle Island for decolonizing educational systems and enhancing cultural engagement 4. Examining “the White Man’s Burden” Part 2: Practice 5. Changing our point of departure: The scaffolded explanation’s colonial roots and how we can rethink this practice 6. Empowering graduate students: A decolonizing mentoring model for scholar-practitioners in a doctoral program in educational leadership 7. Assessing and identifying culturally and linguistically diverse students for special education programs: A culturally responsive, relevant and sustaining approach 8. Social justice education: Critical practice that can lead to curriculum transformation 9. Decolonizing education policy and teacher education programs: From systemic absence to equitable presence of Internationally Educated Teachers Part 3: Case Studies 10. Rethinking literacy learning and teaching on the prairie: A rural perspective 11. Decolonisation of indigenous languages to mediate the resilience of students in African higher education institutions 12. Decolonizing knowledges: Valuing diverse languages, environmental knowledges, knowledge and consciousness: The Francophonie – A case of immigrant writers in the 20th century 13. Convince the prince: Towards a credible and integrative step in decolonization and curriculum development 14. Towards the decolonized dissertation: The experience of an Anglophone Caribbean student