Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
FrancoAngeli Journals

Articles/Articoli

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): Educating for Complexity: Intersectionality, Decolonial Approaches to Teaching, and Practices of Care in Education

Decolonising Teaching, Transforming Schooling: Rethinking Practices, Institutions, and Policies Beyond Learnification

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/ess1-2026oa22583
Submitted
aprile 15, 2026
Published
2026-07-28

Abstract

The paper places the critique of learnification in dialogue with a decolonial perspective, treating the school as a place of knowledge production. The reduction of education to learning recasts schooling in individualised and performative terms, obscuring the purposes of teaching and the criteria of knowledge legitimation. A decolonial approach sharpens this critique by exposing the regimes of validity that organise content, language and recognition. Therefore, decolonising teaching means questioning how schools select and authorise knowledge, and transforming classroom practices, institutional arrangements and educational policies so as to make epistemic hierarchies visible and open to critique.

References

  1. Absolon K. (2019). Decolonizing education and educators’ decolonizing. Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, 7(1): 9-28. Doi: 10.48336/IJUFBE8541.
  2. Anzaldúa G.E. (2015). Light in the Dark. Durham: Duke University Press.
  3. Apple M.W. (2003). The state and the politics of knowledge. New York: Routledge.
  4. Attinà M. (2024). Venticinque anni dall’Autonomia Scolastica, cinquanta anni dai Decreti Delegati: premesse rispettate, promesse tradite, esiti attesi per ripensare la scuola oggi. Cultura pedagogica e scenari educativi, 2(1): 10-16. Doi: 10.7347/spgs-01-2024-02.
  5. Awaachia’ookaate’ (Jason D. Cummins, Apsáalooke) and Chang E. (2020). Safe zones, dangerous leadership: Decolonial leadership in settler-colonial school contexts. Journal of School Leadership, 30(6): 519-540. Doi: 10.1177/1052684620951723.
  6. bell hooks (1998). Elogio del margine. Razza, sesso e mercato culturale. Milano: Feltrinelli.
  7. bell hooks (2020). Insegnare a trasgredire. L’educazione come pratica della libertà. Milano: Meltemi.
  8. bell hooks (2022). Insegnare comunità. Una pedagogia della speranza. Milano: Meltemi.
  9. bell hooks (2024). Pedagogia impegnata e decoloniale. Brescia: Scholé.
  10. Benadusi L. e Giancola O. (2022). Equità e merito nella scuola. Teorie, indagini empiriche, politiche. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  11. Bianchi L. e D’Antone A. (2024). Intersezionalità o transindividualità? Potere, tokenismo e conflitto in una prospettiva di pedagogia critica. Educational Reflective Practices, 14(1): 208-222. Doi: 10.3280/erp1-2024oa18301.
  12. Biesta G.J. (2004). Education, accountability, and the ethical demand: Can the democratic potential of accountability be regained?. Educational Theory, 54(3): 233-250. Doi: 10.1111/j.0013-2004.2004.00017.x.
  13. Biesta G.J. (2006). Beyond Learning. Democratic Education for a Human Future. London: Paradigm.
  14. Biesta G.J. (2010). Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy. New York: Routledge.
  15. Biesta G.J. (2023a). Oltre l’apprendimento. Un’educazione democratica per umanità future. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  16. Biesta G.J. (2023b). Il mondo al centro dell’educazione. Una visione per il presente. Roma: Tab.
  17. Boarelli M. (2019). Contro l’ideologia del merito. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
  18. Borghi R. (2020). Decolonialità e privilegio. Pratiche femministe e critica al sistema-mondo. Milano: Meltemi.
  19. Brunila K. (2019). The power of critical feminist pedagogy in challenging “learnification” and the neoliberal ethos. In: Magaraggia S., Mauerer G. and Schmidbaur M., editors, Feminist Perspectives on Teaching Masculinities (pp. 19-28). New York: Routledge.
  20. Burgio G. (2022). Pedagogia postcoloniale. Prospettive radicali per l’intercultura. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  21. Charles M. (2019). Effective teaching and learning: Decolonizing the curriculum. Journal of Black Studies, 50(8): 731-766. Doi: 10.1177/0021934719885631.
  22. Corbi E. e Oliverio S. (2013). La deriva della ‘learnification’ e l’appello della paideía. Oltre l’apprendimento ‘matematico’ e costruttivista. Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica, 8(1): 183-199.
  23. de Sousa Santos B. (2018). The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South. Durham: Duke University Press.
  24. Delahunty T. (2024). ‘Datafied dividuals and learnified potentials’: The coloniality of datafication in an era of learnification. Educational Philosophy and Theory: 1-13. Doi: 10.1080/00131857.2024.2435333.
  25. Delahunty T. (2025). The convergence of late neoliberalism and post-pandemic scientific optimism in the configuration of scientistic learnification. Educational Review, 77(7): 2327-2349. Doi: 10.1080/00131911.2024.2307509.
  26. Duggan L. (2012). The twilight of equality?: Neoliberalism, cultural politics, and the attack on democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.
  27. Dusi P. (2024). Imparare ad abitare zone scomode: decolonizzare la conoscenza e i sistemi scolastici andando oltre il deficit thinking. Pedagogia e Vita, 82(2): 15-32.
  28. Eriksen K.G. and Svendsen S.H.B. (2020). Decolonial options in education: Interrupting coloniality and inviting alternative conversations. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 4(1): 1-9. Doi: 10.7577/njcie.3859.
  29. Erickson F. (2020). Culture and the production of school inequality. In: Papa R., editor, Handbook on promoting social justice in education (pp. 567-582). Cham: Springer.
  30. Ferrero V. (2023). La scuola è aperta a tutti? Una riflessione pedagogica su equità in educazione, disuguaglianze e autonomia scolastica. Civitas Educationis. Education, Politics and Culture, 12(1): 239-262.
  31. Gitlin A., Burbank M.D. and Kauchak D. (2005). The struggle for legitimate knowledge: Teachers’ thinking on research. In: Bodone F., editor, What Difference Does Research Make and for Whom (pp. 111-128). New York: Peter Lang.
  32. Goudarzi S., Badaan V. and Knowles E.D. (2022). Neoliberalism and the ideological construction of equity beliefs. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(5): 1431-1451. Doi: 10.1177/17456916211053311.
  33. Gozzelino G. (2023). Intercultura e valorizzazione delle diversità per contrastare le disuguaglianze. In: Milani L. e Matera F., a cura di, Accoglienza tra intercultura, cittadinanza e Global education (pp. 59-70). Bari: Progedit.
  34. Gozzelino G. e Mohamed F. (2024). Dall’impero alla classroom: decostruire il razzismo a scuola tra analisi storica e pratica decoloniale. MeTis. Mondi educativi. Temi, indagini, suggestioni, 14(2): 279-294. Doi: 10.30557/MT00316.
  35. Granata A. (2026). Pedagogia delle diversità. Coltivare la democrazia in classe. Roma: Carocci.
  36. Gregory M.R. and Laverty M.J. (2017). Pragmatism and the unlearning of learnification. Childhood & Philosophy, 13(28): 521-536. Doi: 10.12957/childphilo.2017. 29925.
  37. Grosfoguel R. (2007). The epistemic decolonial turn: Beyond political-economy paradigms. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3): 211-223. Doi: 10.1080/09502380601162514.
  38. Grosfoguel R. (2011). Decolonizing Post-Colonial Studies and Paradigms of Political-Economy: Transmodernity, Decolonial Thinking, and Global Coloniality. Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1(1). Doi: 10.5070/T411000004.
  39. Grosfoguel R. (2012). Decolonizing Western Universalisms: Decolonial Pluri-versalism from Aimé Césaire to the Zapatistas. Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 1(3): 88-103. Doi: 10.5070/T413012884.
  40. Hassnain H. (2023). Decolonizing evaluation: Truth, power, and the global evaluation knowledge base. Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 19(44): 142-155. Doi: 10.56645/jmde.v19i44.803.
  41. Holden T. (2023). Standardized Testing: A Call for Repositioning and Revitalizing by Decolonizing Assessment. Antistasis, 13(2): 46-52.
  42. INVALSI (2025). Rapporto INVALSI 2025. Roma: INVALSI.
  43. Khalifa M.A., Khalil D., Marsh T.E. and Halloran C. (2019). Toward an indigenous, decolonizing school leadership: A literature review. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(4): 571-614. Doi: 10.1177/0013161X18809348.
  44. Lopez A.E. (2021). Decolonizing educational leadership: Exploring alternative approaches to leading schools. Cham: Springer.
  45. Maldonado-Torres N., Bañales X., Lee-Oliver L., Niyogi S., Ponce A. and Radebe Z. (2023). Decolonial pedagogy against the coloniality of justice. Educational Theory, 73(4): 530-550. Doi: 10.1111/edth.12596.
  46. McNeal R. and Elbow P. (2017). Decolonizing the classroom: An essay in two parts. Writing on the Edge, 28(1): 19-32.
  47. Mignolo W.D. e Walsh C.E. (2024). Decolonialità. Concetti, analisi, prassi. Roma: Castelvecchi.
  48. OECD (2023). Equity and Inclusion in Education: Finding Strength through Diversity. Paris: OECD.
  49. ONU (2015). Trasformare il nostro mondo: l’Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile. New York: ONU.
  50. Peruzzo F. (2023). Chi è dentro e chi è fuori? Usare l’approccio decoloniale per ripensare le politiche pubbliche di inclusione e dispersione scolastica. Meridiana: rivista di storia e scienze sociali, 107(2): 57-88.
  51. Säfström C.A. and Månsson N. (2022). The marketisation of education and the democratic deficit. European Educational Research Journal, 21(1): 124-137. Doi: 10.1177/14749041211011293.
  52. Sleeter C.E. (2010). Decolonizing curriculum. Curriculum Inquiry, 40(2): 193-204. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-873X.2010.00477.x.
  53. Steele C. (2018). Decolonizing the Classroom. The Radical Teacher, 110: 55-57. Doi: 10.5195/rt.2018.441.
  54. Triventi M. (2020). Are children of immigrants graded less generously by their teachers than natives, and why? Evidence from student population data in Italy. International Migration Review, 54(3): 765-795. Doi: 10.1177/0197918319878104.
  55. Vázquez R. (2015). Decolonial practices of learning. In: Friedman J., Haverkate V., Oomen B., Park E. and Sklad M., editors, Going glocal in higher education: The theory, teaching and measurement of global citizenship (pp. 94-102). Middelburg: UCR.
  56. Wang C.P. (2025). Social Justice and Educational Equity in the 21st Century: Trends and Changes Influenced by Neoliberalism. Bulletin of Educational Research, 71(4): 81-122. Doi: 10.6910/BER.202512_71(4).0003.
  57. Zajda J., Biraimah K. and Gaudelli W., editors, (2008). Education and social inequality in the global culture. Dordrecht: Springer.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...