Decolonizing research in comparative and international education: Promises and perils

Decolonizing research in Comparative and International Education (CIE) is an ongoing project that entails interrogating the legacies of colonialism in the process of knowledge production, and the associated political and material redresses in terms of methodological choices. In this chapter, we contextualise the field of CIE in relation to coloniality and racial capitalism, followed by a discussion of the traditions of intellectual decolonization. We then provide a set of approaches to decolonize research in CIE, through tracing the field's epistemic foundations, attention to histories and specificities of colonialism, dialogues with Indigenous epistemologies, a set of (re)directions in the research process, as well as considerations of translations. Such approaches do not amount to firm prescriptions, but rather act as an invitation for the reader to grapple with the following question: When I say I am decolonizing my research on education in this context, what is colonization and its legacy here, and how do I, recognizing my positionality, engage via resistance or survival? The chapter is concluded by linking the ongoing work of decolonizing research in CIE with the parallel work in/on the university as a space of research, training and knowledge production.