Cultural Complexity, Post-Colonialism and Educational Change: Challenges for Comparative Educators

Abstract

This paper is based on the presidential address given by the author at the 12th Congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in Havana, October 2004. The study explores various elements in the struggle for a postcolonial refashioning of cultural identity through education. Drawing on experiences in Australia and the Caribbean, the author illustrates how educational systems undergoing decolonisation reflect socio-cultural tensions of race and power. She discusses the complexities for comparative educations in engaging with suppressed knowledge, recognising the yearnings of the marginalised, challenging the conditions that lead to poverty, and refashioning education for social justice in an era when the achievement of justice seems increasingly difficult. She argues that comparative educators can benefit from using postcolonial thinking to understand cultural complexity and promote life-affirming practices in educational change.