School of Education Seminar Series
(co-Sponsored by SOE Comparative & International Education research network)

Emeritus Professor Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney

“Decolonizing knowledge and rethinking education”

In the last ten years there has been growing interest, across the social sciences, in the problem of global inequalities and coloniality in knowledge formation and circulation.  This problem is being made more acute by the tightening grip of neoliberal management on university systems.  In this talk I will explore the general problems posed by the global economy of knowledge, and contemporary debates about them; then discuss how this impacts on the study of education. Since education systems are themselves knowledge institutions, this is not a matter of academic concern only.  Practical and policy questions immediately arise.  Among them: the place of indigenous and Southern knowledges in school curricula, the politics of international testing regimes, the impact of global markets in higher education, and the agendas of teacher education in a deeply unequal world.

Date:             Wednesday 4 March 2015
Time:            1:00-2:30 pm
Venue:          Room 111 – Education Building (Lecture Theatre 2)

*The seminar will be followed by an afternoon tea session sponsored by School of Education.