A Theoretical Review of Decolonial Studies in Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Decolonial and Anticolonial Perspectives on Education Reform

Abstract

This theoretical review provides a detailed examination of how decolonial theory from Latin America (LA) informs contemporary education scholarship, considering specifically the varying ways it is conceptualized and deployed in education research in the anglosphere. The purpose of this review is not to determine the effectiveness of education research and teaching practices but rather to provide a conceptual map for examining the ways decolonial theory shapes emerging education scholarship theoretically, methodologically, and pedagogically. Important to note is that this theoretical review refuses the “gatekeeping, policing, and productive" dimensions of literature reviews and adopts what Lather (1999) poses as “a critically useful interpretation and unpacking of a problematics that situate the work historically and methodologically” (p. 3).

Authors

• Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores, Texas Tech University

• Ana Carolina Diaz Beltran, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley