Postcolonialism and education: negotiating a contested terrain

This paper sets the context for those that follow in this special issue of Pedagogy, Culture & Society. In so doing, it provides a brief overview of postcolonialism as theory, politics and practice. It considers postcolonialism’s ambivalent reception amongst differing constituencies, a sign both of desire and danger, as Stuart Hall has put it. Criticisms of postcolonialism have come from both the left and the right and from indigenous scholars as well. In traversing the nature of postcolonialism, the paper considers the work, albeit briefly, of a number of major ‘foundational’ thinkers, namely Fanon, Said, Bhabha and Spivak. The need for a more liberatory rather than conciliatory postcolonialism is argued for, as is the need to integrate postcolonialism with an understanding of contemporary globalization. Postcolonial insights can help overcome the ahistoricity of much globalization theorizing and also its reification. Against this backdrop, the paper then provides a summative account of all of the contributions in this special issue, all of which demonstrate how new cultural practices and policy imperatives in education are linked to colonial and postcolonial formations.