Tackling Coloniality and Re-Storying Edtech
Channel: Ecoversities
Date: 2023-05-03

From recentering knowledge systems of indigenous peoples in Canada, to ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ student protests in South Africa, and ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ campaigns in the United Kingdom, ‘decolonising’ can mean a variety of things. This is especially true when accounting for people’s different experiences of colonialism and continuing neo-colonial influences in our day and age. We are at a crucial moment where “digitalisation” of education is becoming almost inevitable, loaded with a colonial history similar to, albeit more complex, than the modern schooling moment.

In this workshop, we aim to unpack the coloniality embedded in our experiences with educational technologies’ offerings. We define Edtech as more than just a product or a service. It is a process comprehensive of underlying values, mindsets, philosophies, ways of knowing, relating and emoting and prescribed pathways for nations. We intend to offer a framework that supports you to critically analyse the actors and systems which educational technologies are embedded in, asking questions such as “by whom?”, “for whom?”, “who benefits?” and “what are the hidden agendas?”. Further, we would like to hold a space for re-storying digital technologies, collectively inquiring into: how can we hack such technologies to serve our aims of decolonisation?

*Taskeen Adams*
Dr. Taskeen is a Co-Director with Open Development & Education and a Senior Research Lead at EdTech Hub. She specialises in topics such as tech-supported teacher professional development, virtual learning environments and open education. She completed her PhD on ‘Addressing Injustices through MOOCs: A study among peri-urban, marginalised South African youth’ at the University of Cambridge. Her research highlighted that historical injustices, cultural imposition, and economic dependence continue to play a pivotal role in education. Her MPhil thesis focused on the ‘Sustainable Implementation of the One Laptop per Child project in Rwanda’. Alongside her academic pursuits, she pioneered Khwela (a regional online course platform) and Solar Powered Learning in South Africa as well as Mobile Education for Smart Technology in India. Prior to her career shift to EdTech, she worked as an electrical engineer, specialising in measurement and control. Publications available here.

*Nariman Moustafa*
Co-conspirator at the Ecoversities Alliance, I come from Cairo, Egypt with a long lineage of teachers including the Nile, the desert, my grandmother, and the 2011 Tahrir Square revolution. I work at the nexus of education, community organising and research using agile and adaptive methods. More formally, I am a researcher with the Edtech hub and a senior analyst with open development and education. I am in my element when facilitating participatory, arts-based, processes for emergence, assembly and re-imagining. I found several experiences of alternative education in Egypt including Mesahat for kids and Tagawor for adults. I also design and convene temporary autonomous zones around the world for practicing adaptable, intentional communal living.

This session was recorded at the Re-Imagining Education Conference 3.0, hosted by the Ecoversities Alliance and partnering organizations and communities from around the world. It is an annual online conference to radically re-imagine the future of education. In 2023 it was held from April 27th to 30th.

Learn more about the conference -  https://re-imagining.education
Learn more about the Ecoversities Alliance - https://ecoversities.org