Decolonial Emancipation on the Postsocialist Peripheries and the Future of Critical Pedagogy

Abstract

The main argument of this paper is that a good quality education on the contemporary European peripheries not only should include a progressive, emancipatory dimension on the micro level, but it is highly recommended that it should imply a decolonial dimension on the macro, geopolitical level as well. Therefore, contemporary educational philosophies and policies on the global level should as a matter of principle include a chance for decolonial emancipation. In reality, however, by solely educational means it is hardly possible to guarantee this achievement. To provide pupils and students with a critical understanding of the global market and how to position themselves on it, contemporary progressive education should be designed upon the principles of decolonial emancipation. To explain what decolonial emancipation means and further elaborate on this in the framework of educational science, firstly the replacement of the dominance of the emancipatory approach with the empowerment of a decolonial conceptual apparatus in educational discourses on the global level will be examined. Secondly, a revival of emancipatory postulates paralleled with the attempt to connect the disciplinary efforts of postcolonial and postsocialist scholarships, better known as the decolonial option, will be elaborated, including the examples of both theoretical and methodological application in contemporary educational research and policies.