Coloniality in the German Higher Education System: Implications for Policy and Institutional Practice

Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2021, Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 142–153 https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v9i3.4139 Article Coloniality in the German Higher Education System: Implications for Policy and Institutional Practice Lisa Unangst 1,* and Ana M. Martínez Alemán 2 1 Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent, Ghent University, Belgium; E‐Mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, USA; E‐Mail: ana.martinez‐[email protected] * Corresponding author Submitted: 3 February 2021 | Accepted: 16 April 2021 | Published: 21 July 2021 Abstract This article focuses on the public German higher education sector as a site upon and through which coloniality is enacted. This status quo indicates exclusionary effects and merits interrogation. We briefly discuss the history of German colonial‐ ism to understand how coloniality pervades higher educational structures in the German context today. Two proposals addressing coloniality in German higher education are made: the development of structures centering diverse faculty and the support of ethnic and identity studies. Keywords colonialism; coloniality; diversity; Germany; higher education; identity Issue This article is part of the issue “Inclusive Universities in a Globalized World” edited by Liudvika Leišytė (TU Dortmund, Germany), Rosemary Deem (Royal Holloway, UK) and Charikleia Tzanakou (Oxford Brookes University, UK). © 2021 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu‐ tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction lematic by Italy’s colonial history, thereby “foreclosing any discussions of race and white privilege in public Coloniality has been described by Grosfoguel (2007, space.” This reflects a relationship between colonial‐ p. 219) as “the continuity of colonial forms of dom‐ ity’s structures and institutionalized, nationally specific ination after the end of colonial administrations, racism (Friedrich, 2011), as well as European taboos [which] produced colonial cultures and structures in the around race‐based discourses (Grigolo et al., 2011). modern/colonial capitalist/patriarchal world‐system.” As Erel et al. (2016, p. 1341) have noted, “recognition That is to say, coloniality is an ongoing and pervasive of racism as a structuring feature of European societies system of hierarchy that persists worldwide, and whose is needed to address how Europe’s migration regimes antecedent is the physical occupation of colonialism. articulate and are articulated by racialization and colo‐ Mechanisms of coloniality impact educational structures. niality” (see also Gutiérrez Rodríguez et al., 2010; Lentin, Clifford and Montgomery (2017, p. 1149) illustrate that 2014; Mignolo, 2012; Möschel, 2011). These discourses “coloniality still pervades many countries and education extend to the tertiary education sector as well. Gutiérrez systems, and institutional inertia and investment in the Rodríguez (2016) has addressed this point in her work status quo fuel resistance to change.” on the German setting, writing that racial stratification Coloniality lingers not only in sites of colonization, has evolved to reinforce racism and coloniality. She but in colonizing contexts as well (Asher, 2009; Collective writes that: People’s Knowledge Editorial, 2016). As Migliarini (2018, p. 439) has written of the Italian case, terms and Subtle institutional practices [favor] the access of the concepts related to race and racism are made prob‐ White national affluent population….Further, as we Social Inclusion, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 142–153 142 will see in regard to the implementation of migra‐ programs in ethnic and identity studies to help subvert tion control policies in universities, while not explic‐ racist curricular discourses is essential. In other words, itly operating within a racial matrix, the logic of establishing race and ethnic studies courses and pro‐ differentiation that they establish reproduces social grams can disrupt the racist coloniality of the curriculum, hierarchies reflecting and reinforcing processes of as well as improve access to faculty positions for racially racialization. (Gutiérrez Rodríguez, 2016, p. 169) minoritized scholars. This article focuses on the largely public German ter‐ 2. Framing the Interrogation of Coloniality in German tiary education sector as a site upon and through Higher Education which coloniality is enacted, a status quo indicating exclusionary effects and one which merits interrogation. Our consideration of coloniality in German higher edu‐ As Pusser and Marginson (2013, p. 552) have written, cation is framed by the work of Edward Said and Homi distinct, nationally specific ideologies frame “creation Bhabha. Decolonial theorists including Quijano, among myths, sagas, and beliefs about national culture that others, also offer important insights into the practice and motivate postsecondary policies and assure legitimacy” contestation of coloniality; both postcolonial and decolo‐ (see also Meyer & Rowan, 1977). In the German set‐ nial perspectives “challenge… the insularity of histori‐ ting, this also refers to the myth of white German racial cal narratives and historiographical traditions emanating and ethnic superiority, which in the context of colonial from Europe” (Bhambra, 2014, p. 115). Despite their rele‐ fantasy can be traced to at least the 18th century as vance, neither postcolonial nor decolonial scholars have discussed by Susanne Zantop (1997). Indeed, mecha‐ been applied extensively to analyses of German edu‐ nisms for higher education access and student support cation, let alone German tertiary education. For exam‐ in Germany are frequently couched in language empha‐ ple, in March 2021, a search in the Web of Science sizing excellence and meritocracy, which are discursive database for topics “Edward Said AND German*” pro‐ proxies for racial and ethnic hierarchy (Hüther & Krücken, duced 27 results, none of which were relevant to higher 2018; Klein, 2016). This argumentation is also familiar in education. Similarly, a search for “Bhabha AND German*” other national contexts (Chong, 2014; Morgan, 2006; Pilz resulted in 36 matches and a search for “Quijano AND & Alexander, 2011; Warikoo, 2016; Yao et al., 2018). German*” produced one match only, none of which were In short, we conceive of German public higher edu‐ focused on higher education. This paucity of education cation institutions (HEIs) as social institutions of the scholarship contrasts with the work of activists, histori‐ state—funded by the nation, the federal states and the ans, and German Studies scholars, who have addressed public—in which the discourse of racial and ethnic supe‐ racist/racialized discourse and its connection to educa‐ riority (racism) and its discursive expression through tional practice in Germany. For instance, Peggy Piesche’s curricula and meritocracy circulate to limit educational (2015, p. 224) discussion of Audre Lorde’s engage‐ access and opportunity for disenfranchised racial and ment with “Black antiracist interventions in Germany ethnic minorities including, but not limited to, migrant that were from the start premised on transnational‐ groups. The discourse of racism produces the principle ism” and the benchmark publication Showing our Colors: of meritocracy and supplies the application of merito‐ Afro‐German Women Speak Out (Opitz et al., 1992). cratic systems with discursive power. Consequently, the Edward Said famously made clear the constructed principle of meritocracy becomes discursive itself, and duality of the Orient/Occident. Said (1978, p. 13) its systems or mechanisms—e.g., faculty hiring practices, asserted that the “Orient” is but a Western idea in curricular restrictions—distribute power and reify racist which “tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary regimes. Here, discourse is understood as encompass‐ that have given it reality and presence in and for the ing systems and structures that, in the case of higher West.” While his work did not focus on Germany or education, frame knowledge exchange and creation. This Germans per se, Said noted an equivalency of that coun‐ draws from Bohman’s (1999) depiction of research as try with other colonial powers, writing that that “what social process (see also Martínez Alemán, 2014). German Orientalism had in common with Anglo, French We outline how a postcolonial or decolonial lens and later American Orientalism was a kind of intellectual might be productively applied to the German higher edu‐ authority over the Orient within Western culture” (Said, cation context and focus on two specific areas. We begin 1978, p. 27). by briefly discussing how coloniality and tertiary edu‐ Homi Bhabha (1994, pp. 19, 21) has written that cation have been considered transnationally, then sum‐ “exclusionary imperialist ideologies of self and other” marize relevant German colonial history, thereby elu‐ create existential and real‐life marginalization, but also cidating how and why Germany is a colonial context. produce an opportunity for “cultural and historical A summary of the German higher education system fol‐ hybridity.” Further, Bhabha “conceives of Otherness as lows, before we turn to discussion of the barriers to inclu‐ not only a construction of individuals and groups but sion faced by minoritized faculty in German research a dialogue, a constant navigation of self and other. universities and Fachhochschulen (universities

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