Epilogue. Decoloniality Struggles: Implications for (Teacher) Education

In this final chapter of the book, we argue that decolonial work in initial teacher education (ITE) needs to address three challenges, namely: (1) the incommensurability of speaking and listening positions; (2) countermoves by the colonial apparatus to maintain the current status quo / global colonial matrix of power (CMP); and (3) recognising the threshold of disciplinary knowledge, and the deconstruction and reconstruction of disciplinary knowledges. To address these three challenges, we take up Lesley Le Grange’s (Curricul J 34:8–21, 2023) point about the importance of constructing curriculum as a complicated conversation. We propose, however, that the term conversation suggests equal and ongoing speaking and listening positions. But colonialisms and colonial legacies have been built on unequal power/knowledge hierarchies which have constructed binaries between Western (Northern) and Other (Southern) knowledges. The former is constructed as hierarchically superior, the latter inferior. Such knowledge hierarchies persist in most university curriculum, and specifically in ITE curriculum. Finally, we consider the im/possibilities of curriculum as a difficult conversation, and the countermoves used by colonial institutions, including universities, to maintain existing power/knowledge hierarchies and work practices.