Skip to main content

Human Rights, Postcolonialism, and Education

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory
  • 275 Accesses

Introduction

It should be a complex task to connect the notion of human rights to postcolonialism both historically and in the present. To position education as both an enabler and explainer of human rights in the postcolonial raises further questions about how to understand these couplings. Indeed, there exists a Western bias in the construction and understanding of human rights, education, and even postcolonial discourses. Moreover, assumptions of fixed meanings often override the multiplicities of meaning, origin, and operationalization of the concepts. Thus, while the birth of human rights discourse is geographically multifarious, its historicization has been dominated by a Western imaginary and epistemology.

The problematic occidentalization, to borrow a Saidian line (Said 1978), of human rights in their praxical notations from the past millennia and half and into current political and cultural settlements is an issue that needs to be investigated. The first section of this entry...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abdi, A. A. (2008a). Europe and African thought systems and philosophies of education: ‘Reculturing’ the trans-temporal discourses. Cultural Studies, 22(2), 309–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abdi, A. A. (2008b). Citizenship and its discontents: Educating for political and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. In M. Peters, A. Britton, & H. Blee (Eds.), Global citizenship education: Philosophy, theory and pedagogy. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Lughod, J. (1995). Before European hegemony: The world system A.D. 1250–1350. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2006). The post-colonial studies reader. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (2000 [1970]). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, D., & Quayson, A. (Eds.). (2002). Relocating postcolonialism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (1998). Is science multicultural? Postcolonialisms, feminisms and epistemologies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoogvelt, A. (2001). Globalization and the postcolonial world: The new political economy of development. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loomba, A. (2005). Colonialism/postcolonialism. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay, T. (2006). A minute on Indian education. In B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, & H. Tiffin (Eds.), The post-colonial studies reader (pp. 374–375). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyerere, J. (1968). Freedom and socialism. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodney, W. (1982). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. (1993). Culture and imperialism. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, B. (2007). Cognitive justice in a globalized world: Prudent knowledges for a decent life. Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, B. (2014). Epistemologies of the south: Justice against epistemicide. Boulder: Paradigm Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vattimo, G. (2011). Farewell to truth. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • wa Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • wa Thiong’o, N. (2009). Re-membering Africa. Nairobi: East Africa educational Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watt, M. (2011). Muhammad at medina. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedel, J. (2009). Shadow elite: How the World’s new power brokers undermine democracy, government and the free market. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali A. Abdi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Abdi, A.A. (2016). Human Rights, Postcolonialism, and Education. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_183-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_183-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-532-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Human Rights, Postcolonialism, and Education
    Published:
    30 September 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_183-2

  2. Original

    Human Rights, Postcolonialism, and Education
    Published:
    05 August 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_183-1