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, 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.
Raul Olmo Fregoso Bailón (Tue,) studied this question.