Decolonial education and geography: Beyond the 2017 Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers annual conference

Stanek, Marcin B.

Abstract

This review is inspired by the recent resurgence of grassroots movements aimed at the decolonisation of education. The departure point of the paper are the numerous, recent academic responses to campaigns such as Rhodes Must Fall, Why is My Curriculum White?, Why Isn't My Professor Black?, and #LiberateMyDegree. Following from there, the narrative is divided into two sections. The first part reviews theoretical approaches to decolonial education, especially those rooted in the modernity/coloniality/decoloniality paradigm. The second part analyses the ways in which geographers have applied these ideas to our discipline. The review pays particular attention to the 2017 Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers annual conference, curated under the “Decolonising geographical knowledges” theme. I argue that as geographers, we have to continue reflecting on the meaning of decolonial praxis, especially in relation to geographical education, beyond the recent conference. To these ends, the review concludes with seven specific questions for geographers to consider in the near future.

Citation

Stanek, M. B. (2019). Decolonial education and geography: Beyond the 2017 Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers annual conference. Geography Compass, 13(12), Article e12472. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12472

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 19, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 16, 2019
• Journal: Geography Compass
• Electronic ISSN: 1749-8198
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: e12472
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12472
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1317961