Rescue from Coloniality? The Power of Dreaming

Abstract

In this essay, the authors reflect on the context and promise of Codesign and Theories of Change (TOC). Throughout my (MK) academic career, the Codesign work undertaken by the Family Leadership Design Collaborative (FLDC) has been one of the most inspirational, humanizing, and anti-colonial academic projects in which they have engaged or witnessed. The conveners, two women of Indigenous/Italian and Asian American descent, honored and humanized the knowledges and voices of all those who contributed to the Codesign – parents, community leaders and advocates, researchers, school leaders, and students. This is unusual in Western educational spaces that sit on colonial histories. The activities in the Codesign were designed to foster thinking and research outside of traditional educational structures and histories. This type of Codesign is also unusual in that it represents a break from the school-centric past in which people in the US typically confine themselves to dreaming within the educational histories and technologies.