Higher education and social transformation: Decolonize the University in the perspective of racial equality Descolonizar la universidad desde la perspectiva de la igualdad racial

Abstract

Higher education as a social practice and, above all, as a field of research, has been gaining more and more space in academic debate in recent decades around the world. Both the emergence and the consolidation of the field come from its role in the conception of public policies, programs and strategies for economic, social and cultural development at global level and, most importantly, from the possibilies it offers for a sustainable social transformation, the construction of worlds and less inequitable relations, more fair and democratic. However, despite its relevance and the recognition of its role in social transformation, higher education / university carries a colonial heritage with its inherent paradigms: coloniality of knowledge, but also of the Being and power. In this context, it contributes to the reproduction or reinforcement of Western (Eurocentric and colonial) cultural, economic, and political hegemony based on heteronormativity, whiteness, and progress as part of the supreme values ​​of modernity. This paper aims to analyze the possibilities of decolonizing university / higher education in the perspective of racial equality.