From a Social Constructivist to a Decolonizing Critical Sociocultural Approach

Abstract

This article discusses decolonial critical sociocultural approaches to human learning and invites readers to imagine their place in ongoing research and activism inspired by this approach. The article begins by discussing how academic psychology and education have historically centered a White middle-class stance and have not fully recognized and engaged scholarship by people of color. An objective of this article is to more fully account for the BIPOC perspectives in social constructivist perspectives on learning. Part 1 of the article traces the roots of a decolonial critical sociocultural approach in social constructivist, sociocultural, and critical approaches to learning. Part 2 of the article presents ways in which contemporary researchers, often in partnership with community members, expose inequities and press for change, informed by a critical sociocultural perspective. Four levers for change are presented including the following: building just and equitable learning ecologies, recognizing multiple resources and pathways to reach multiple goals, leading with relationships while acknowledging and dismantling systems of power, and undertaking infrastructure work in the pursuit of more just and equitable learning. The article discusses how focusing on these levers helps to achieve equity and justice in education and to support the pursuit of educational reform toward liberation, rather than toward reproducing and perpetuating historic systems of power, privilege, and oppression.