Ex-colonialism: Toward collaborative change in curriculum studies

Abstract

This article seeks to bring Australian-settler scholar Simone Bignall’s writing on ex-colonialism (exit-from-colonialism) into conversation with the field of curriculum studies. Specifically, ex-colonialism is discussed in relation to theories of social change in education and other frameworks for thinking about Indigenous and non-Indigenous curricular relations. Ex-colonialism posits a resolute exit from colonialism that doesn’t seek the recognition of the state and demands a complete overhaul of settler-colonial social structures. Coming from an intercultural position that includes a Eurocentric critique of Eurocentrism and mirroring an Indigenous politics of refusal from a settler-theorized position, ex-colonialism offers settlers some agency in enacting radical anti-colonial change. Structurally, the paper unfolds as follows. First, I present ex-colonialism in brief as an intercultural framework for working toward collaborative, anti-colonial change. I then characterize four other, more popular terms in curriculum studies that can be considered representative of larger Indigenous projects of social change: reconciliation, decolonization, Indigenization, and resurgence. Next, I compare each term to the project of social change proposed through ex-colonialism. I then highlight the history of BIPOC replacement in curriculum studies and public education, linking it to the consumptive nature of neoliberal capitalism. In response, I draw on ex-colonialism’s careful attention to the ethics of relation in order, ultimately, to suggest the micropolitical possibility of an otherwise to what has existed and what exists now in public schooling and curriculum.