Prologue. Decoloniality as a Pedagogical Imperative in (Teacher) Education

As educators, it is crucial for us to understand the complex ways that colonialism(s) have shaped educational institutions and practices. It is important also for us to understand the work that has been undertaken by scholars and practitioners to resist, challenge and change the legacies of colonialism(s) as well as contest the emergence of new modes of colonial control. The prologue chapter delves into some of the key debates and intellectual trajectories that have shaped the fields of decoloniality studies, including earlier work on postcolonialism. The trajectories of debate emanate from different geographic places, such as Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East; and are rooted within different intellectual traditions such as psychoanalytic studies; Black British cultural studies; critical Indigenous studies; critical race theories; postcolonial feminisms; Orientalisms; Islamophobia; and Black studies of slavery. Despite this vast and rich disciplinary terrain, we identified several key concerns within the literature: (1) L/land, Lore, and Country and Relationality of Epistemology-Ontology-Axiology; (2) Racisms/Sexisms against the resurgence of white western supremacy; and (3) Modes of activism and activist research alliances to challenge colonialisms, such as contingent collaborations, solidarity movements and partisan universalisms. The three parts within the book take a deeper dive into these topics and we provide a summary of papers for each section: (1) defining decoloniality and strategies for decoloniality in teacher education (TE) programs; (2) Australian Indigenous scholarship; and (3) possibilities and implications of incorporating Indigenous knowledges in ITE, when work is well-resourced and supported by national policy agendas.