‘Captive’ Subjects? Highly Educated Cambodians and Higher Education Policymaking in ‘Postcolonial’ Cambodia
Abstract
Research on postcolonial studies shows that colonial conditions, even without the presence of colonial administrations to enforce them, continue to persist to the present day and remain influential in shaping the world view of people in so-called ‘postcolonial’ societies, defining their culture, intersubjective relationships, and knowledge consumption and production. Meanwhile, globalized neoliberalism is influential in enabling Western hegemonic values, ideas, and discourse to universalize (i.e., colonize) the global community. In the context of higher education policies and practices, neoliberalism has paved the way for a Eurocentric version of modernity to shape the ‘modernization’ of higher education institutions across the globe. This coloniality of being, power and knowledge not only creates “epistemological mimicry and intellectual dependency” but also shapes “people’s consciousness and identity” (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013, p. 38). This talk presents the findings of a study that focuses on highly educated Cambodians who are caught up in this complex dynamic. Graduates with master’s or doctoral degrees from overseas universities, these Cambodians were or have been working in positions that enabled them to contribute to Cambodia’s higher education reforms and policies in the past two decades. Drawing on the conceptual lens of mechanisms of responsibilization (namely, the appeal to freedom, learned helplessness, and psychological reactance), this presentation discusses the subjectivities of these Cambodians as they contribute to higher education reforms in Cambodia as a ‘postcolonial’ society in which colonial residue underlays and is perpetuated by neoliberalism.
Speaker
Dr. Vicheth Sen teaches in the Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada. He was a CKS Dissertation Research Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow in 2016 and 2022, respectively. Between 2002-2012, he was a lecturer at the English Department and the Master of Education program, Royal University of Phnom Penh; from 2010-2012 he was a research associate and program coordinator at the Education Unit, Cambodia Development Resource Institute. His research interests include neoliberalism, education policy, equity, and social justice; transformative learning, community, and sustainability; and coloniality and epistemic injustice. His work has appeared in various journals, including Studies in Higher Education, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, Journal of Educational Administration and History, Tourism Recreation Research, and Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. His recent publications include a manuscript (co-authored with Wendy Poole and Gerald Fallon) entitled Neoliberalism and Public Education Finance Policy in Canada (Routledge, 2022).
Moderator
Jessica Garber is a PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Boston University and was a 2020 CKS Dissertation Research Fellow. Her current dissertation project explores the affective attachment university students at institutions in Phnom Penh have to education and how their attachment to education has impacted their lives beyond school. Prior to her doctorate, Jessica earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado-Denver and was a secondary math educator. She also holds a second master’s degree in anthropology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University where her thesis focused on parental perceptions of private primary and secondary schools in Phnom Penh.
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