Decolonising education for sustainable futures: Towards a conceptual framework

• In Event: Decolonising Education for Sustainable Futures: Implications for Theory and Practice

Proposal

Decolonising education for sustainable futures: Towards a conceptual framework
The paper will share content from the first section of the book. It introduces the key concepts of decolonisation and sustainable futures and critically explores the relationship between each. The paper commences by providing a brief genealogy of the idea of sustainable futures which is increasingly being used by a range of international organisations ranging from UNESCO to the World Bank to environmental NGOs. It is argued that the term is contested and operates a floating signifier, suturing together sometimes disparate interests around differing understandings of what a sustainable future entails, alternative models of development for achieving sustainable futures and which interests are served. The paper identifies three broad constructions of sustainable futures linked to more economistic, rights based and environmentalist conceptions of and orientation towards the future. The paper provides a critical analysis of each and drawing on recent scholarship within the capability approach argues for a way of conceiving sustainable futures based on an idea of planetary justice. In this conception, sustainable futures must support the capabilities of existing and future generations and of natural systems to flourish.
Having argued for a vision of sustainable futures, the paper then outlines an understanding of decolonisation as an epistemic intervention aimed at decentering the Eurocentric/ Westerncentric ways in which dominant ideas about sustainable development and sustainable futures are currently conceived. It is argued that a decolonising approach is essential for realising a vision of sustainable futures based on the idea of planetary justice. It is suggested that tackling the ‘wicked problems’ involved in realising sustainable futures requires bringing different ways of knowing the natural and social worlds into critical conversation with each other. This also involves reversing the effects of the colonial matrix of power (Quijanio, 2000) of epsitemicide (de Sousa Santos, 2012) and of linguisticide that have marginalised non-Western knowledge systems, languages, voices and lived experiences of historically marginalised groups.
The third part of the paper argues for a central role for education and training both in perpetuating the coloniality of knowledge but also in potentially playing a role in decolonising sustainable futures. Three, inter-related dimensions of the role of education are considered in this respect, namely, decolonising the curriculum, decolonising research and democratising education. The paper concludes by providing a link between these dimensions and the other two presentations in the panel.
The discussion will be interspersed with video content from contributors to this section that assist in setting out a vision of decolonising education for sustainable futures including contributions from the Common World Collective and Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers.

Author

• Leon P Tikly, University of Bristol