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Decolonial Perspectives on Global Higher Education: Disassembling Data Infrastructures, Reassembling the Field
- Source :
-
Oxford Review of Education . 2022 48(4):474-491. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- The expansion of university systems across the planet over the last fifty years has led to the emergence of a new policy assemblage -- 'global higher education' that depends on the collection, curation and representation of quantitative data. In this paper I explore the use of data by higher education policy actors to sustain 'epistemic coloniality'. Building on a rich genealogy of anticolonial, postcolonial and feminist scholarship, I show how decolonial theory can be used to critique dominant global higher education imaginaries and the data infrastructures they depend on. Tracing the history of these infrastructures, I begin with OECD's creation of decontextualised educational 'indicators'. I go on to track the policy impact of global university league tables owned by commercial organisations. They assemble and commensurate institutional data into rankings that become taken-for-granted 'global' policy knowledge. I end by exploring the policy challenge of building alternative socio-technical infrastructures, and finding new ways to value higher education.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0305-4985 and 1465-3915
- Volume :
- 48
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Oxford Review of Education
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ1357480
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2022.2072285