Learning about decolonising education from the Caribbean

Postcolonial countries have had to go through the long, calculated and systematic process of intentionally moving away from an education that was written to suppress and oppress to one that uplifts and actually works for their citizens. This work is not finished. With an ethnicity awarding gap that has not shifted much in 13 year, and a gap that consistently shows that Black Caribbean students are always the most marginalised in UK Higher education, I thought that it would only be prudent to look at the Caribbean and their efforts in education and draw some parallels, and maybe some lessons. The next few blogs will systematically look at these parallels.

Photo Cred: Joshua Yetman

Postcolonial - having been colonised and then taking the steps to emancipation and independence.

Decolonial - looks at the impact of the influence of colonialism and how to deconstruct it from systems and institutions to ensure that the people who colonialism sought to marginalise to maintain its power, are no longer oppressed.

The above definitions are my own, but convey the fact that postcolonial countries have been "decolonising" for a long time now. The "postcolonial period" as theorised by London (2001) speaks to a period of just over 20 years where a series of Caribbean islands became independent. Below are some of the Islands' independence dates:

Postcolonial education has been a calculated and systematic effort to remove the colonial influence. This took time, planning, and a collective consciousness about where we wanted to be. It took imagination, because we were never exposed to a world where we were considered equal, worthy, or even intelligent.

Postcolonial education often operated on the following principals:

1. Anyone had a right to access education

2. Anyone can learn, and it was the responsibility of the institution to ensure that they did

3. 'Official knowledge' that was received was not always reliable and culturally relevant

4. Assessment of learning should meet the need of the students and not the system

5. Teacher training had to reflect that of the local needs, and realities.

The next few blogs will delve into this deeper taking examples from across postcolonial territories and scholars to learn how we can re-imagine the decolonisation of Higher Education.