The CARE Model: Reimagining Education through an Emancipatory Framework that Disrupts Coloniality in School Systems

Abstract

The rise in neoliberalism, alongside globalization, has created a power imbalance in all aspects of society, including education. For instance, Ontario schools’ participation in the EQAO, fundraising practices, academic streaming, and carrying out of disciplinary measures, pits schools against each other, placing some schools in a cycle of prosperity, while others in a vicious cycle of oppression. These oppressive practices espoused by neoliberalism are intricately tied to colonialism and have far-reaching implications on how educators and leaders think, teach, and implement policies concerning poor, and racialized students. The purpose of this report, therefore, is to present a workable model for educational leaders to decolonize school systems and disrupt coloniality from school systems. Drawing on the insights from fifty-one sources, which include both scholarly and grey bodies of work, the author conceptualizes and propose the Challenge, Align, Revive, Embrace (CARE) model to reimagine education that is void of colonial remnants. The strategies and concerns around the implementation of the CARE model for education leaders are also discussed, followed by a call to action for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to empirically validate the model across diverse contexts.

Key words: neoliberalism, post-neoliberalism, colonialism, decolonization, anti-oppressive, EQAO, deficit thinking, culturally sustainable pedagogies, policy-to-practice continuum, authentic partnerships