Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

has been written about the destructive
Much
damaging effects of Western education
and
Indigenous students, for example in the
on
of the Canadian residential school
context
or the policies of Thomas Babington
system,
in British India. The effects are
Macaulay
for example, there are lower rates of
ongoing;
success among Indigenous students in
academic
the World” is a 2010 documentary
“Schooling
the assumptions and consequences
about
the Education for All movement, with a
of
on schooling in Ladakh, a region in the
focus
educational programmes (including
International
IB Diploma Programme) have gaps in their
the
in terms of the representation and
curricula
of non-Western ways of knowing and
inclusion
The inclusion of this chapter in TOK
being.
a significant opportunity to consider
offers
education” both as a proces of decentring
“decolonizing
Western knowledges in the curriculum,
well as “education that decolonizes” through
as
way it is set up.
the
education, values associated with
Within
are shaped and reflected by decisions
knowledge
what gets taught and how. Therefore,
about
curriculum becomes an important part of
the
decolonization project. Which forms of
the
have been and are being prioritized
knowledge
valued, and which perspectives are
and
or excluded? Who has the power
misrepresented
make these decisions, and how do those
to
get and maintain that power?
people
terms: Schooling the
Search
thefilm
World
mountainous region of
The
provides an inspiring context for
Ladakh
socio-political themes because of
examining
rapid changes that have occurred in just
the
generation, and where living memories
one
teach us much about ideas of development
can
progress. Some of this can be traced back
and
the application of mainstream, culturally
to
is a prime case study, because in
Education
schools in Ladakh had the highest
the1990s
of exam failure in the world, with more
rate
90% of Ladakhi students failing the
than
Indian board exams. Students were
annual
in one of three languages, none of
taught
were Indigenous, in a system imported
which
a post-independence interpretation
from
British education with casually religious
of
The implications of this for
overtones.
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
A major thrust of much colonial and state policy has
been the attempt to assimilate Indigenous groups
both by force of arms and through more subtle
pressures to conform to the dominant society. . . .
In many countries, governments ran programs of
indoctrination under the guise of education.
First Nations Studies Program, University
of British Columbia
mainstream educational systems today.
Case study
Schooling the world and learning
from Ladakh
unadapted development policies in the 1980s.
northern part of India.
Ladakhi identity and Traditional Knowledge
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