Education and Decolonial Futures in the Philippines
Subtitle
Perspectives for Educators and Practitioners
This book is a unique and provocative study that weaves personal and historical narratives, diverse theoretical frameworks, and futures thinking. Using critical bricolage methodology and the Indigenous method of pakikipagkuwentuhan (storytelling), Rodriguez-Fransen amplifies the voices of Filipina educators as they interrogate and re-conceptualize colonial mentality as a systemic rather than an individual problem, and bridges the gap between educational theory and practice by creating new teaching and research tools, for scholars and practitioners in various sectors around the world: the Decolonial Portals and Decolonial Design Futures frameworks. This book takes readers on a journey through time, highlighting the interconnectedness and fluidity of past, present, and future stories of our world; it encourages all of us to recognize colonial mentality as a global problem, and calls for transdisciplinary, cross-sector, and cross-country collaborations in order to decolonize education and our futures.
Bio
Bea Rodriguez-Fransen is a scholar-practitioner originally from Malabon, Philippines. In addition to co-founding and directing ASU Next Lab, Dr. Rodriguez-Fransen teaches "Prototyping Futures" at The Design School. A Senior Global Futures Scholar, Design Justice Network member, and TED-ED Innovative Educator, she has served diverse communities in the Philippines, the United States, and Africa. Her 2024 TED Talk, "Unlocking Indigenous knowledge: A new path for education," highlights practical ways educators and practitioners can decolonize education. She enjoys kettlebell lifting and spending time with her family, including her husband, son, and three rescue pets (two dogs and one cat).
Praise for this book
Bea Rodriguez-Fransen astutely documents and analyzes the roots and legacies of colonial mentality and offers oppositional strategies through narrative bricolage and decolonial design futures. Drawing from Indigenous onto-epistemologies and methodologies, she provides new conceptual tools and approaches to unshackle and liberate the mindsets, behaviors, and attitudes of racialized, postcolonial, and diasporic subjects. Education and Decolonial Futures in the Philippines is a must-read for all of us committed to reimagining and pursuing global justice and transformation.
Roland Sintos Coloma, PhD Professor, Teacher Education, Wayne State University
A powerful text - well worth reading, as it deconstructs and reconstructs the future. I truly enjoyed the interweaving of the personal with analytic.
Sohail Inayatullah, PhD UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies. IIUM. Professor, Tamkang University. Editor, the Journal of Futures Studies
