Childhood and Postcolonization is a new call to reconceptualize knowledge, policy, theory, and action about childhood/family/education. By focusing on childhood and postcolonial critiques, Cannella and Viruru bring new methodologies of critique to the truth of universal childhood and the privileging of developmental and educational discourses from the 'west' that are badly needed. The opening up of new possibilities for thinking and action through their sophisticated, yet clear presentations and discussions is a new major contribution to the field of critical cultural studies of childhood.
–Marianne Bloch, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This book offers a powerful framing of issues of colonialism, long embedded but infrequently confronted, in early childhood research and advocacy. The authors resist offering postcolonial formulas or 'new truths' and instead open space for critical dialogue on the legacies of colonialism in our field. Raising a number of compelling questions and written in an accessible style, this book confronts issues of power and privilege in the study of childhood and our practice of child advocacy.
–Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University
Book Description
To care and educate our young children we must understand and listen to them. Childhood and (Post) Colonialization opens the door to the effects of intellectual, educational, and economic colonization of young children throughout the world. Using a postcolonial lens on current educational practices, the authors hope to lift those practices out of reproducing traditional power structures and push our thinking beyond the adult/child dichotomy into new possibilities for the lives that are created with children. Not just a theoretical discussion of the "child", the actual lives of children are brought to bear on developing a new framework for thinking about the care and education of young children.
About the Author
Gaile S. Cannella and Radhika Viruru are professors of Educational Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University. Gaile S. Cannella is also the author of Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution.
