NORRAG Blog Series: Decolonising Development, Education and Data

The current scholarship on decolonising education engages largely with issues of representation in curriculum. In this series we would like to expand the focus and engage in a productive and focused dialogue on how to fix contemporary coloniality in development and education. What are the entrenched colonial legacies in development and education? How can they be challenged? How can we rethink dominant narratives, reframe policy approaches, and reimagine alternative futures in order to transform education. How is coloniality implicated in the project of datafication, specifically in the contexts of education policy and international development? 

We welcome perspectives that address practical challenges in transforming education systems, from curriculum reforms to alternative funding mechanisms, and resisting extractive economic models that perpetuate inequality. We seek to shift the conversation away from ranking and comparative analytical methods to a more human-centered design approach that considers student needs and marginalized voices. We are looking for practical examples of collective action and interdisciplinary approaches that promote epistemic justice and systemic change that translate critical reimaginings into concrete policy and practice.  

Call for contributions

This blog series welcomes contribution that show how education can become a transformative force for equitable, inclusive, and sustainable global development. NORRAG welcomes contributions from a wide range of experts, including those from education policy, practice and research. In particular, we welcome contributions from experts from the Global South whose perspectives must be centred in these discussions. 

Contributions may respond to—or challenge—our thematic priorities:

• Rethinking the ‘problem’ of development: envisaging a common world.
• Reframing the process of development: collective recuperation, reparation, rectificatory justice.
• Reimagining possibilities for development and education.
• Decolonising international assessment and development data.
• More inclusive approaches to education targets and assessments that consider cultural sensitivity and equity while involving local communities. 
• The epistemologies and practices of conceptualising the producing, sharing and storing of education data.

Please refer to the general guidelines for NORRAG blog submissions to contribute.

Find below the most recent posts in the Decolonising Development, Education and Data Blog Series