Globalisation, Societies and Education

Childism, decoloniality and interculturality as transformative lenses

Childism, Decoloniality, and Interculturality as Transformative Lenses

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.

The special issue brings together diverse contributions that:

• Address global challenges such as systemic exclusion, ecological crises, and cultural erasure
• Critique and reframe dominant understandings of childhood, identity, and justice
• Enable more inclusive and relational approaches to education, policy, and social transformation

By fostering dialogue across these frameworks, the special issue offer new theoretical and practical pathways for addressing urgent questions of equity, inclusion, and sustainability in education and society. The special issue invites contributions addressing the following themes:

1. Childism as a transformative framework
2. Decoloniality and relational justice
3. Interculturality and inclusion
4. Intersections of childism, decoloniality, and interculturality
5. Transformative praxis and methodologies