Considering refusal in the study of international education and development

Drawing on the concept of refusal, this paper offers a cautionary story of international development within the context of black Africa. Entering through the author's father's stories of development and weaving together different forms of 'data,' the paper utilises critical storying to illuminate how international education and development remains stuck in colonising, antiblack, and racialising imaginaries. Through intellectual practices of refusal, the paper aims to disrupt iterations of black Africa as defined by the international education and development apparatus. In particular, the concept of refusal in method and pedagogical praxis emerges as a critical tool to rupture the white gaze blanketing the field.