Cultivating anti-coloniality: A framework for building critical educational psychology

Abstract

Anti-coloniality is a critical way of analyzing the world. An anti-colonial attitude towards disciplinary knowledge seeks to challenge colonial legacies, promote diversity and inclusion, and contribute to more equitable and just forms of knowledge production. Such an attitude is essential for moving away from the predominantly Eurocentric roots of educational psychology and embracing a more inclusive, just, equity-focused, and culturally grounded understanding of the literature on human development, reasoning, perceptions, cognitions, emotions and motivations. The article emphasizes the importance of promoting epistemic justice by giving consideration to divergent perspectives when examining existing knowledge or creating new knowledge in educational psychology. In this context, in an effort to promote disciplinary theories and constructs that are informed by an anti-colonial attitude, the works of educational psychologists using such critical asset-based rather than deficit-based perspectives are highlighted. As argued, anti-coloniality will facilitate the building of critical educational psychology that advocates for a relativistic and interpretative understanding of theories to promote epistemic justice and equity in education and support disciplinary rigor through iterative theory building that is culturally and contextually grounded.