Curriculum as cultural practice: Postcolonial imaginations

Abstract

Initiatives that deconstruct and challenge the dominance of Western cultural knowledge in curriculum are gaining momentum, and though some of the most potent challenges come from the field of postcolonial theory, the implications of these challenges for theorizing curriculum have not been fully explored. Curriculum as Cultural Practice aims to revitalize current discourses of curriculum research and reform from a postcolonial perspective. Yatta Kanu brings together an impressive list of scholars to interrogate the dominance of Western European knowledge, cultural production, representation, and dissemination in education, and to promote critical, democratic, and ethical practices in curriculum design. Contributors examine current curriculum from a variety of different perspectives including subalternity, indigenous knowledges and spirituality, critical ontology, biolinguistic diversity, postnationalism, transnationalism, globalization, and the West African concept of Sankofa. Each of these unique perspectives frame the postcolonial condition and reflect changing educational relations, practices, and institutional arrangements.