Introduction: Imagining the Postcolonial

Culturally Responsive Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

“…The theoretical call for reclaiming an indigenous epistemology (Rizvi, Lingard, & Lavia, 2006;Lavia & Mahlomaholo, 2012;Urrieta, 2004) seems less of a priority in the CNMI than ensuring that students and community members are connected to their history and culture. As other respondents noted, it is the "lovehate relationship" that citizens of the CNMI have with the mainland that reveals the ongoing quest for beneficially resolving a colonial past and present, as well as mainland mandates coinciding with the preservation of local cultural values and practices.…”

“It is definitely not the priority”: A postcolonial inquiry of social studies education in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

“…The feelings of inferiority (Urrieta, 2004, p. 436) contributes to this tension when respondents suggest an ingrained colonial perception and residue that “white people are smart or smarter than you. Whatever they say, that's right,” which calls out for opportunities to “trouble, confront, contest, dismantle, and reconstruct old and new enclaves of colonialism” (Lavia & Mahlomaholo, 2012, p. 6).…”

“…Colonization is not only physical, as there are psychological renderings of colonization and “unresolved feelings of inferiority” (Urrieta, 2004, p. 436). Education is where the legacies of colonialism and globalization intersect (Lavia & Mahlomaholo, 2012) and a decolonizing approach to curriculum and instruction seeks to “uncover, deconstruct, and interrogate the insidiousness of colonial discourses in the perpetuation of relationships of domination and subjugation” (Camicia & Bayon, 2012, p. 74).…”

“…The ultimate goal of conducting research within a postcolonial paradigm in education is to highlight those in societies with historical oppression to “apprehend their practice in a historical context and being to change it” (Bristol, 2012, p. 23) as well as “trouble, confront, contest, dismantle, and reconstruct old and new enclaves of colonialism” (Lavia & Mahlomaholo, 2012, p. 6). Postcolonialism is therefore pragmatic as it seeks socially just policies and practices through the excavation of relationships that exist among education and culture within a global context (Bristol, 2012; Camicia & Bayon, 2012).…”