Possibilities and Complexities of Decolonising Higher Education: Critical Perspectives on Praxis

The chapters in this book highlight the possibilities and complexities of putting decolonial theory to work in higher education in Northern and Southern contexts across the globe. This book looks at decolonial work as praxis involving transformation at a range of levels from theoretical development, national policy, institutional policy and culture, academic discipline, programme, course, classroom, student and the self. Our authors argue that praxis in their contexts includes working at institutional level to undo the historical power of ‘coloniality’ in universities in the metropoles, introducing Indigenous knowledges into curricula and undoing the effects of ‘coloniality’ in embodiment, temporality and whiteness. We, as editors, argue for the need for transformation of the self as well as structures, and highlight qualities such as reflexivity on our own entanglements with coloniality, and why they occur, in this undoing. The approach offered in this book emphasises the connection between significant personal change as a pre-condition and an epistemological process to connect critical decolonial theory and our teaching practice. The book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Teaching in Higher Education.

Aneta Hayes is Senior Lecturer in Education at Keele University, UK and Executive Editor for Teaching in Higher Education. Her research interests include critical studies of internationalisation (including decolonisation), teaching excellence and global education developments, including glocalised perspectives.

Kathy Luckett is Emeritus Professor in the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town and Executive Editor for Teaching in Higher Education. Her research interests include the sociology of knowledge and curriculum studies in the Humanities, focusing on Africana, decolonial and postcolonial studies; and access, equity and multilingualism in higher education.

Greg William Misiaszek is Associate Professor at Beijing Normal University’s (BNU) Faculty of Education and an Associate Director of the Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA. His work focuses on critical, Freirean environmental pedagogies (e.g., ecopedagogy) through theories of globalizations, citizenships, decoloniality, race, gender, Southern/Indigenous issues, linguistics, and postdigitalism, among other critical lenses.