NORRAG Executive Director on “Decolonising Education for Sustainable Futures”

NORRAG Executive Director, Moira V. Faul, recently participated in a webinar titled, “Decolonising Education for Sustainable Futures.” It was the first of three sessions (10, 17, and 24 Feb 2021) devoted to understanding how the future can benefit from current efforts to decolonise education. 

The seminar was hosted by Dr. Leon Tikly, the UNESCO Chair at the University of Bristol, along with the Futures of Education Initiative at UNESCO, and Bristol Conversations in Education. Keith Holmes, guest-author of a NORRAG Highlights last year, joined Dr. Tikly as a co-convener during the discussion. 

Dr. Tikly discussed the critical issues of how a colonial past and colonized present affect how we live and learn; teach and research. And of course, how we measure value. The current economic system teaches us that value is only counted in terms of economic growth. Dr. Veronica Pacini Ketchabaw showed how we can, through education, move from “business as usual” to reimagining and relearning. Catherine Odora Hoppers gave a powerful call to “warriorship”–to question rules and practices that underpin and perpetuate our current system. 

At the end of what she aptly described as a “tour de force in cutting edge thinking,” Moira gave the closing remarks. Decolonizing education is absolutely critical everywhere. Particularly in higher education; even though research, as a culture, can be resistant to these ideas. Now is a good time to be working in these core areas of decolonisation and sustainability. The economic, environmental, and social injustices that we witness stem from the problems caused by the current paradigm. That is what the decolonisation community is questioning, challenging, and acting to unmake and therefore remake the futures of education.

Watch the full webinar recording on the University of Bristol website, and check out their upcoming events.