III. Recommended Readings

Below are publications related to decolonization and international development studies. Click on the title to access the article.

Tavernaro-Haidarian, L. (2019). Decolonization and Development: Reimagining Key Concepts in Education. 103(1), 19-33.

 This article discusses how the concepts of development and decolonization are typically understood and how they can be reimagined through the realism provided by the African moral philosophy of ubuntu. Ubuntu foregrounds deeply relational and immaterial notions of power, and through its lens development can be thought of in terms of ‘mutual empowerment’ and decolonization as a process of ‘constructive resilience’. The author elaborates on these definitions and draws on a practical example from an educational project in Limpopo, South Africa, to show how this can be operationalized and translated into the genesis of materials and methods that facilitate participatory citizenship.

Sondarjee, M., & Andrews, N. (2022). Decolonizing International Relations and Development Studies: What’s in a Buzzword? International Journal, 77(4), 551-571. https://doi-org.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/10.1177/00207020231166588

 In this article, the authors argue that we should avoid depoliticizing the expression “decolonizing” by using it as a buzzword, noting that it should only be used if it is closely related to the political meaning ascribed to it by Global South and Indigenous activists and scholars. The authors argue that decoloniality is a political project of human emancipation through collective struggles, entailing at least the following: 1) abolishing racial hierarchies within the hetero-patriarchal and capitalist world order, 2) dismantling the geopolitics of knowledge production, and 3) rehumanizing our relationships with Others and nature. The article emphasizes that Western scholars should refrain from using the word too freely.

Parker, P. S., Smith, S. H. Dennison, J. (2017). Decolonising the Classroom: Creating and Sustaining Revolutionary Spaces inside the Academy. Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 20 (3) p. 233 – 247

In this article, the authors discuss their experience designing and teaching a graduate course on decolonizing methodologies that aimed to both question mainstream methodologies in the social sciences and humanities and to make the classroom itself a decolonized space. The authors discuss the participative process used to plan and structure the decolonizing methodologies course and trace three commitments that are crucial for decolonizing the classroom: (a) practicing openness to students’ experiences; (b) interrogating research norms as sites of colonizing practices; (c) creating spaces that foster the co-production of knowledge.

Unterhalter, E., & Kadiwal, L. (2022). Education, Decolonisation and International Development at the Institute of Education (London): a historical analysis. London Review of Education, 20(1), 18.

In this article, the authors review the process of building relationships around education and international development at IOE (Institute of Education), UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society (University College London, UK). The analysis exmaines how hierarchies linked to colonialism were inscribed in initial structures, and unevenly and disparately contested by students, staff and a range of interlocutors around the world over one hundred years. The article considers how efforts to decolonise education have raised questions and actions associated with reimagining practice and reflects on the lessons learned from efforts to promote decolonial, socially just alternatives.