Anti-colonial educational research: From property rights to answerability

Dr. Leigh Patel

In this talk, I argue for a relational stance on learning as a way of reckoning with educational research as part of the settler colonial structure of the United States. Situated in my geopolitical location to the US as a settler colony, I analyze the ways in which educational research is animated by settler colonialism in its unflagging pursuit of property and ownership. Through examples of research, I make visible how the practices of settler colonialism are echoed through material and figurative practices of education and perpetuate colonial relationships. I close with a call for educational research to refuse settler colonial renderings of education and instead be answerable to knowledge about learning and learning as transformation.