Childism, decoloniality and interculturality as transformative lenses
Category: Publication
Keywords: globalisation, society, interculturality, education, childism
Childism, decoloniality, and interculturality each serve as transformative lenses, offering critical insights into systemic inequalities and enabling the rethinking of power, agency, and relationality. Childism – akin to feminism, but from the position of children and childhood – offers underexplored theoretical possibilities for decoloniality and interculturality by examining age as a dimension of oppression and oppressive structures. The myth of an ‘ideal and universal childhood’ that progresses through neat developmental stages as well as the ‘figure of the child’ as an inferior state of being human are significant enablers of continued marginalisation of not only individuals below the age of 18 years defined as children as per international law, but also populations described Eurocentrically as child-like e.g., formerly colonised and indigenous peoples. While theoretical developments in adult-centric oppressive logics are significant for expanding the scope of decolonial and intercultural studies, these synergies have not yet received sufficient scholarly attention. The special issue aims to explore how these critical frameworks intersect to challenge entrenched paradigms, reimagine inclusive practices, and inspire new possibilities in educational research, practise, and policy. We invite contributions that explore connections between childism, decoloniality, and interculturality. Together, these lenses hold the potential to disrupt Eurocentric adultist norms underlying colonial legacies and assumptions that continue to shape societal structures.
Initiator(s):
Journal Globalisation
,
Societies and Education
Deadline: 02.01.2026
Language(s): English
Publication-Type: Article / Journal
Post created by: interculture.de e.V.