Critical Education Theory(How) can teaching reflect on and overcome colonial structures and content?Titles, Theses, Doctorates

7 April 2026, by Lennart Wichmann

Photo: privat

Sidney Oliveira is a doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Education, in the division of “Theory and History of Education.”

How do teachers incorporate postcolonial perspectives into their lessons, and what obstacles do they encounter in doing so? Sidney Oliveira, a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hamburg, is investigating this question. In this interview, he discusses the various levels at which colonialism operates and why research methods must also be critically examined in light of this.

Your dissertation focuses on postcolonialism and the Eurocentric knowledge system in our schools. What does that mean specifically?

It turns out that the curricula are shaped by a very white canon. People who are not white or non-European, for example, rarely have a place in the educational plans. And when they do appear, the question of “how” arises: Are they portrayed in a racist manner, or does a process of “othering” take place—that is, the portrayal of certain groups as foreign or different?

Schools reproduce colonial structures on many levels. This starts with school names, for instance, when figures like Immanuel Kant or Alexander von Humboldt are glorified, even though they have a colonial history. One must also examine who is permitted to impart knowledge. In Hamburg, nearly half of all students have a so-called “migration background”—a term that must be approached critically, as it does not mean the same thing as “race,” but rather represents a statistical stopgap to make diversity quantifiable at all. This diversity, however, is not reflected in the teaching staff. The school reproduces an order in which racialized people are mostly employed as kitchen staff, facility managers, or in cleaning services; they are largely excluded from positions of knowledge transmission.

What exactly are you investigating in your work?

I am exploring the question of what a postcolonial teaching methodology might look like in schools—though the current state of research shows that there is hardly any official engagement with the topic and that there is a need in schools to implement such an approach.

However, I assume that there are teachers who have engaged with this topic privately or during their studies and therefore already act accordingly in their classrooms—in terms of content, media, goals, and methods. This is referred to as “subjective didactic theories.” I examine what these teachers change in their teaching based on their normative convictions and how they attempt to integrate postcolonial approaches within the context of school power structures.

What methodology did you use?

I surveyed teachers across Germany from many departments: German, foreign languages, STEM subjects, social sciences, arts, as well as Philosophy and Religion. The respondents teach at the secondary level, that is, from fifth grade through the Abitur (German secondary school leaving certificate).

To this end, I conducted qualitative structured interviews, asked the teachers about their teaching practices, and analyzed the data. Determining the methodology was not straightforward, as qualitative research itself has a colonial history and requires critical reflection. Specifically, this means that I examine the interview material not only in light of the postcolonial theory I apply, but also take into account myself as a researching subject and as a Black person. So I look at how these three aspects come together synergistically with the empirical material and what results emerge from this.

You describe the school as part of a colonial logic. Can you illustrate this with a specific example?

Yes, this is good to demonstrate using the theory of “Racial Capitalism.” It states that in capitalism, economic structures and racism are mutually reinforcing, since the entire logic of exploitation emerged with colonialism, and the idea of perpetual overproduction and today’s global market are also based on it.

My research shows that schools reproduce this logic, even in supposedly critical lessons. Schools, for example, rely heavily on materials: Where does the paper for worksheets come from? Or the batteries for the smartboards? The entire material fabric of the school is woven into this logic.

The work aims to illustrate the tensions teachers find themselves in. On the one hand, they aspire to teach in a postcolonial manner, but on the other hand, they are part of an institution with guidelines and inherent rules. This creates contradictions, because even if socially conscious teachers do not simply reproduce what the curriculum expects, they cannot completely detach themselves from it because, for example, they must prepare students for final examinations. This tension interests me.

What is an important insight from your work for teachers who want to change their teaching?

I wanted to distance myself from proposing solutions in my research because that would oversimplify the problem. But one result of my work is a model that illustrates the dynamics outlined in the example above. It is intended to help teachers first and foremost bring emotions such as frustration, anger, or grief to the surface and make sense of them. Furthermore, it aims to make it clear to them that they, as individuals, are not the sole cause of the problem, because the entire power and knowledge structure of the school reproduces these conditions.

I have also noticed that teachers who are themselves affected by racism often have a more reliable intuition for dealing with certain situations than the white teachers surveyed. Those affected frequently say: “I was a student myself and know how that feels, which is why I don’t want to reproduce certain things.” But even they don’t have a magic formula. This is where my work aims to help by identifying spaces and approaches for discourse.

(This content has been translated automatically.)