Guest editorial: Non-modern notions of revolution for educational foundations: Nelson Maldonado-Torres’ decolonial critical thinking

Critical educational foundations are not in crisis, but they are experiencing a metaphysical catastrophe (Maldonado-Torres, 2016). Perhaps, to construct the non-modern notions of revolution for educational foundations, we need to abolish humanities, as Maldonado-Torres argues (2024), and, I would add, abolish educational foundations as well. Faced with this scenario, this special issue aims to contribute to the construction of an alternative, decoloniality, critical thinking, in order to offer theoretical certainties to educators so that they can face the current wave of fascism and not be confused by its rhetorical siren song. In this context, it is key to recall how Abya Yala has produced self-liberating decolonial epistemological efforts since the first European historical invasions. As Quijano (1992, 2000) showed, political independence did not mean epistemic independence so that today immense communities of original-Indigenous peoples, Blacks, Afro-descendants, feminists, LGBTIQA+, mestizos, immigrants, among many others, are showing that they have always had their own, original and independent decolonial critical thinking.In this context, the work of Nelson Maldonado-Torres is key to stating the need for a combative decoloniality to face the current metaphysical catastrophe (Maldonado-Torres, 2016) in educational foundations. As Maldonado-Torres (2016) shows, this is not only about a crisis but a metaphysical catastrophe that re-shapes the very ontological foundations of what can be considered to be human or sub-human. Perhaps the answer to this is to abolish humanities (Maldonado-Torres, 2024), and I would add, even abolish educational foundations, since:This would mean abolishing educational foundations as we know them today to embrace combative decoloniality since, as Maldonado-Torres states:As Maldonado-Torres (2024) states, there are examples of combative decoloniality that illustrate this point. For instance, there are struggles that have been carried out in Abya Yala and Africa. Frantz Fanon connected the Caribbean and Africa through his revolutionary actions, which embodied his beliefs. This is evident in his foundational works, such as Black Skin, White Masks (1952), The Wretched of the Earth (1961) and L'An Cinq de la Révolution Algérienne (1959), which was interestingly translated as A Dying Colonialism, and Toward the African Revolution (1964). Notably, he was also a revolutionary member of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). Amílcar Cabral invited the Brazilian Paulo Freire to create educational programmes to support the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, which was achieved in 1974. In 2015, the Mexican government officially recognised the existence of over three million Afro-Mexicans. In 2014, the normalistas of Ayotzinapa sacrificed their lives to demonstrate that modernity had never reached Abya Yala. Colombia’s first Afro-descendant vice-president, Francia Marquez, began an eight-day visit to three countries on 10 May 2023: South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia – the most significant high-level Colombian visit to Africa in nearly 30 years. Similarly, the Zapatista indigenous communities in Mexico recently celebrated 31 years of challenging the modern/capitalist/racist/patriarchal/heteronormative system on 1 January 2025. After all, creating these cracks in the system will lead to finding alternative ways of existing today without falling into neoliberal functionalist multiculturalism (Walsh, 2017). This scenario requires us to join forces and co-theorise together in order to avoid the paralysing effects of attesting to the current rampant forms of fascism.The goal, as the Zapatistas state, is to co-constrcut a too-Other world (Baronnet, Mora Bayo, & Stahler-Sholk, 2011), which would entail abolishing the educational foundations as we know them today. This would involve developing non-modern concepts and ideas for a new type of educational foundation. Examples include ecocritical perspectives in teacher education, ecodemocratic decision-making via ecocritical pedagogies and training scholar-activist educators alongside diverse species (Lupinacci, Happel-Parkins, & Turner, 2023). Other examples include Black Lives Matter, the ecotistical shift from ego to Eco in education (Edwards-Schuth & Lupinacci, 2021) and the #MeToo movement, as well as the call for justice for the 43 disappeared normalistas-teachers from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, to name but a few.This special issue brings together contributions that serve this purpose. These works present a foundational scenario that aims to shift the geography of reason (Gordon, 2011), informed by the work of the philosopher Nelson Maldonado-Torres. To this end, I have organised this special issue into two sections. The first, titled “Foundations”, re-examines the semantics of the foundations that underpin and also have the potential to abolish current educational foundations. This section features the article “Transdiscipline, decoloniality and education from a genealogical perspective” by Arriaga-Juárez (2026). Arriaga-Juárez argues that, although transdisciplines emerged to challenge the exclusionary practices of modern disciplines rooted in Enlightenment thought, they ultimately became normalised within academic structures, thereby losing their transformative potential. Along these lines, the work “We are: revisiting Freire’s call for communion” by Decker (2026), which highlights how Paulo Freire continues to play a foundational role, albeit from non-modern sites of enunciation, in light of the contributions of Nelson Maldonado-Torres. Similarly, the piece “Dismantling the fallacies of colonial discourse: teaching logic as a tool for developing critical consciousness” by Mora Ramirez (2026), explains how critical teachers can dismantle philosophical fallacies using logic as a philosophical discipline. This transforms the moment into an opportunity to oppose the established order’s hegemonic discourse.The notions of gender and non-modern understandings of revolution, as informed by the philosophical contributions of Nelson Maldonado-Torres, are complemented by these initial works. For instance, in the article “Oppression of women through decolonial and feminist lenses”, Zahedypour (2026) asserts that the concept of oppression is still relevant today because inequalities and the oppression that stem from them have become normalised – yet are now being examined through the lens of decolonial feminisms. Similarly, the article “Reimagining inclusive education: addressing LGBTQ+ challenges in schools through the lens of decolonization” by Ma (2026) highlights that gender issues are central to the dismantling of traditional educational foundations, in order to establish non-modern educational principles in line with the ideas of Nelson Maldonado-Torres.The second section, “Non-modern notions of revolution abolishing educational foundations”, showcases works that illustrate Nelson Maldonado-Torres’ proposals for combative decoloniality in concrete cases, revealing how educational foundations could be reimagined, but not from the canonical intellectual sites of preference (Fregoso Bailón, 2024a, b). For example, Emadi and Fregoso Bailon (2026), “Toward new educational foundations from the metaphysical catastrophe in the Global South”, demonstrates how the metaphysical catastrophe that Nelson Maldonado-Torres warns can be counteracted in the Global South through educational-philosophical action. Similarly, “The layers of coloniality in educational foundations: the coloniality of being and power in Mexican philosophy” by Soto Rangel (2026) shows how Mexican philosophy has a long and profound intellectual tradition capable of dismantling current fascist discourses against Mexicans. Similarly, “The role of ethnography and hip-hop in community-based research: toward a decolonial pedagogy” by Handelsman (2026) illustrates how decolonial pedagogy is constructed every day from concrete communities and through knowledge channels beyond Western canons.Along those lines of thought, the manuscript “The New Mexican School: challenges and readings from decoloniality in Maldonado-Torres”, by Piña Amaya and Fregoso Bailón (2026), reveals how Mexico’s recent educational project incorporates a decolonial agenda from its epistemic foundations, integrating Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. This is an innovative proposal from Mexico to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, “Colonial legacies and the history and present of the Mexican migrant high school students in rural Idaho schools through Maldonado–Torres’ metaphysical catastrophe” by Gallegos Buitron (2026) documents the experiences of two students through the philosophical lens of decolonial thinking provided by Nelson Maldonado-Torres, revealing how colonial legacies persist in the everyday lives of Mexican migrants in Idaho. From this translational perspective, “The spiritual countryside. Notes about decoloniality in rural education” by Vargas Alfonso (2026) reveals how marginalisation becomes the Indioligization of land, thereby complicating the notions of rurality and education in Colombia and Abya Yala.In this way, this collection of works seeks to shed light on non-modern notions of revolution in the context of the work of the philosopher Nelson Maldonado-Torres. It continues his proposal to abolish the current humanities, including educational foundations, in order to create what the Zapatistas call “crystals” rather than “mirrors”. This is because crystals allow us to see what is/what can be on the other side. This does not mean that these are the only or the best alternatives in educational foundations. Other notable initiatives include the national radio show/podcast BustED Pencils; Decolonize This Place in New York City; the normalista social movement of teachers in Mexico and Blackhouse Kollective-Soweto in South Africa, to name a few. Non-modern notions of revolution are emerging everywhere.These works are, of course, not the definitive truth about how the abolition of the humanities is giving rise to non-modern notions of revolution in educational foundations, but they do offer contributions from the Global South. I would like to thank Johnny Lupinacci and Brandon Edwards-Schuth for supporting this project at SOJO Journal and my editorial assistant for this special issue, Andrea Sánchez de Loza, for her hard work. Thank you so much.