Critical Summary

“In a hyperdigitized, globalized twenty-first century context, it is ironic that, even as East-and-West, the global North-and-South get ever closer, evermore obviously interdependent, it seems to get harder and harder actually to cross borders and engage differences of culture, history, race, religion, and nation.”

Asher 1

I knew from the get-go that this article would make for an excellent critical summary. I feel like the effects of colonization are not fully understood as it could be.

Nina Asher’s article “Writing Home/Decolinizing Text(s)” draws in on aspects of feminist theory, as well as how Western society has adapted to living in a post-colonial world. Both of these aspects reflect harshly in the education system, so it is worth picking at. Asher makes the case that colonization is, in some forms, a masculine trait. I think it relates to toxic masculinity rather than masculinity overall (since some masculinities are healthy and well-adopted by males and females) but that is just my personal opinion. Asher writes her article in story-form as well, so it will be an easy and interesting read. I would rather read a story than a list of statistics, though the latter is often helpful.

The only problem I have with the article is that it was written in 2009. Obviously, attitudes towards colonialism has changed. More people have acknowledged it recently, and social justice is being more exercised. It would be interesting to compare Asher’s article with a more recent one to see how they compare and whether Asher’s ideas still hold true and to what degree. The article she writes has to do with southern U.S.A. I think it would be helpful to compare it to Canada, and see what might be different of similar between the two educational systems. In her article, she claims she worked with students who didn’t really know what the Vietnam War was. I knew from grade 8. Though we didn’t learn it in depth, we watched a documentary about in in our class. We understood how that impacted the ’70 anti-war activism, and how we (as a society) remain generally anti-war because of that. Perhaps the curriculum in the U.S.A is slightly more problematic than Canada’s, and might require more room for growth.

While writing a critical summary, I will have to limit my own opinion. I might find this difficult since I am well-aware of the effects of colonialism and how it shapes the curriculum before I even read the article. Nonetheless, I am still excited to summarize/synthesize the information in a way that makes sense. This is a topic I am invested and interested in, so this will be an exciting assignment.

Nina Asher (2009) Writing home/decolonizing text(s), Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30:1, 1-13, DOI: 10.1080/01596300802643033