Show Summary Details

Page of

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Education. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 03 November 2024

Indigenous Education and Decolonizationlocked

Indigenous Education and Decolonizationlocked

  • Yvonne Poitras Pratt, Yvonne Poitras PrattUniversity of Calgary
  • Dustin W. Louie, Dustin W. LouieUniversity of British Columbia
  • Aubrey Jean HansonAubrey Jean HansonWerklund School of Education, University of Calgary
  • , and Jacqueline OttmannJacqueline OttmannUniversity of Saskatchewan

Summary

The need to decolonize and Indigenize education stems from shared experiences of colonialism across the globe. In a world divided by ongoing conflict, and fueled by issues of power and control, the need to closely examine the ways that education has served hegemonic interests will help to inform future educational initiatives as well as serve as a form of reparation for those Indigenous peoples who have endured the dire consequences of colonialism. Present-day efforts to reclaim, restore, and revitalize threatened traditions are supported by international bodies such as the United Nations, in tandem with a range of approaches at national levels.

Decolonizing education entails identifying how colonization has impacted education and working to unsettle colonial structures, systems, and dynamics in educational contexts. We use the term education in these descriptions broadly to name the sociocultural task of understanding ways of knowing and being (epistemological and ontological systems) and the ongoing formation and transmission of knowledges: for instance, we mean both formal education as structured through Western schooling and other forms of education such as those traditionally practiced within Indigenous families and communities. Decolonizing education fits within larger understandings of decolonization and Indigenization at socio-political levels. However, these undertakings address in particular the colonization of the mind, of knowledge, language, and culture, and the impacts of colonization at personal and collective levels of physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and intellectual experience. In this time of transition, the work of decolonizing schooling necessarily precedes that of Indigenizing education for most educators and learners; yet, in keeping with Indigenous knowledge traditions, education must remain in a state of flux as we come to know this work collectively.

Subjects

  • Education, Change, and Development
  • Education, Cultures, and Ethnicities
  • Education and Society

You do not currently have access to this article

Login

Please login to access the full content.

Subscribe

Access to the full content requires a subscription