Post-Colonialism in Comparative and International Education: Interrogating Power, Epistemologies, and Educational Practice

Post-colonialism denotes a temporal and emancipatory critique of colonialism. In this chapter, we first provide an overview of the key aspects of post-colonialism—power and knowledge production, hybridity, positionality, and historical analysis—by reviewing the ideas of key thinkers, such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak. The applicability of post-colonialism in Comparative and International Education is reviewed in the reflexive interrogation of the field’s knowledge base, as well as its utility in relation to post-socialism. We also show how post-colonialism can render a critique of global citizenship education and augment the advancement of indigenous research and epistemologies. Through two case studies in global citizenship education and equity in Malaysian education, we demonstrate the application of post-colonialism in the analysis of education in national and international contexts. This chapter concludes with a call for the reader to enjoin in an exercise of hyper self-reflexivity in adopting post-colonialism within CIE.