DECOLONIZATION IN  EDUCATION

Decolonization is a response to a imperialism and colonialism (including underlying assumptions, motivations, values);

Teaching and learning approaches that both acknowledge and deconstruct structures of power associated with colonization in an effort to create space for, and give legitimacy to, Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing;

Decolonization is the process of undoing colonizing practices. Within the educational context, this means confronting and challenging the colonizing practices that have influenced education in the past, and which are still present today;

In the past, schools have been used for colonial purposes of forced assimilation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) reports remind us that residential schools were specifically designed to colonize the mind, the heart, and the spirit;

Nowadays, colonialism is more subtle, and is often perpetuated through curriculum, power relations, and institutional structures. Requires long-term changes to all structures in society, for example education and health care, and not only more changes to formal political power; and

Decolonization is not only an Indigenous concern. It has deep implications for settler societies as well as all minority groups, including those who differ from the dominant settler group through race, religious, sexual identity, sexual orientation, gender, belief system, etc.