Introduction

Abstract

This volume explores philosophical, sociological, as well as political perspectives on how Indigenous communities develop concepts that serve as drivers for (the) education that articulates their aspirations. In the light of colonial and postcolonial legacies, many Indigenous communities are confronted with the challenge of revisiting, reviving, and reasserting unique, and sometimes precolonial, perspectives with the purpose to educate and construct knowledge. These perspectives acknowledge the power of words/concepts/definitions and how they can be constructed and used for the purpose of domination (or liberation or reinvention of self and knowledges); the affirmation and promotion of other ideas, knowledges and ways of knowing that are non-hegemonic and may be anti-systemic; the acknowledgement of the validity of a people’s lived experiences and the fact that these experiences vary from group to group and from time to time even within the same society although they are connected to one another (see Okolie, 2003, p. 245).