For the longest time, I thought that I would be a scholar, spending my days doing research and writing research papers. I was and still am curious about education systems and policy. Since I was interested in education (as a field of study), I pursued graduate studies in comparative education, where I got very interested in how basic formal education in colonially-created societies is experienced, and how it could be (re)imagined. Why did I think think it needed to be re-imagined? Because it is Eurocentric.^[1] And I wanted to be part of the solution and contribute to changing that. So, I got convinced of the idea that “you can change things from within”, which meant getting even more of this kind of education (Ph.D) so that I can be allowed into spaces where I can effect real change. In other words, I was trying to get even more colonial education just so I could be able to decolonize education in my part of the world (Uganda). Messed up, I know.

This meant that I had to contend with some problems, most of which sit at the intersection of colonialism and the Euro-American idea of civilization; white supremacy; capitalism; empire and its political economy; indigenous knowledge and intellectual traditions; the politics of knowledge production; and development/progress and the international aid industrial complex in Africa. And then something happened. The deeper I dug in, the more I got disenchanted with the whole idea of academia, and formal, western education. “Choose your battles wisely”, they say. These battles are worth fighting, and some people, mostly educators, are finding their own ways of fighting them, but I was not sure that writing a Ph.D. dissertation, in a language foreign to those that I intended to write about (English), that no one will ever read and publishing research papers was the best way of fighting them. Also, why would I continue to operate in a system that perpetuates the same issues that I wanted to subvert - this seemed like a recipe for depression. Unless if I just wanted a Ph.D. and didn’t care about anything else. What I actually needed was a great mind shift (some have called this the decolonization of the mind). I also wondered if perhaps things like documentary films could be more effective (something I hope to do in the future).

So, after handing in the master’s thesis and moving to Canada, I explored the PhD option, met a very nice person who was willing to supervise it (this was especially important to support my application), but ultimately decided to cut short my academic plans, give the real world a try, try to function in it without running back to the familiar environs of academia, and get some real-world education. This also coincided with the birth of my son, which I would later learn was itself one kind of real-world education, way more than I asked for. I now have a regular day job like most “normal” people, and still trying to figure out my place in the world.

Notes

1. What I mean is that education and knowledge production systems privilege Western ways and traditions over their own. For a conventional definition, Merriam-Webster defines Eurocentrism as "reflecting a tendency to interpret the world in terms of European or Anglo-American values and experiences".