Liberal Humanism, Decolonising the Curriculum and the Im-portance of Epistemic Boundaries

Boundaries are how we construct meaning for concepts, language and social institutions, including the educational space of schools and content of the curriculum. Decolonial curriculum approaches have their own boundaries based on political identities and social hierarchies, while challenging the contemporary boundaries that give meaning to the school curriculum, academic knowledge and Western culture. In this theoretical paper, I examine how the liberal humanist tradition in education fosters boundaries between educational spaces and the public realm of politics; between academic knowledge and everyday knowledge; between the past and the present; between knowledge and knowers; and between curriculum and pedagogy. Such boundaries are neither set in stone nor always obvious, but they are the responsibility of professionals to maintain. It is only through these epistemic boundaries that we create an educational space for young people to explore the meaning of truth, beauty and social justice through powerful disciplinary knowledge, as they mature and grow as individuals.

Curriculum · Discipline · Humanism · Politics · Realm · Social constructionism · Decolonial Thought and Epistemologies · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies · Global Educational Policies and Reforms