Decolonial Critique

Eurocentric Texts & Pedagogies in Pakistan

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17298456

Keywords:

Eurocentric Literature, curriculum, pedagogies, decoloniality

Abstract

This research aims to seek whether the European texts and pedagogies in Pakistani schools sustain or challenge the Western hegemonic discourse and generate a decolonial discourse. The study is qualitative, and 12 classroom observations were conducted in four O-Level schools of Karachi: DA O Level, TC School, LB O Level, and AH O Level School. Pedagogies of teachers in grade 8 for three novels, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robinson Crusoe, and A Tale of Two Cities, were observed. A brief review of the novels is also included. Furthermore, Walter D. Mignolo (2000,2006,2017,2018) notions are used to analyse the pedagogical practices. The findings reveal that the classroom pedagogies neither challenge the hegemonic discourse nor generate a decolonial discourse rather align students with the Western geographical, socio-political context. To decolonise students' minds, Pakistani English texts must be included in the curricula.

References

Adjei, P. B. (2007). Decolonising knowledge production:the pedagogic relevance of gandhian satyagraha to schooling and education in ghana. Canadian Journal of Education, 1046?1067.

Alexander, M. J. (2005). Pedagogies of Crossing: Meditations on Feminism, Sexual Politics, Memory, and the Sacred. Durham: Duke University Press.

Bashiruddin, A., & Qayyum, R. (2014). Teachers of English in Pakistan : Profile and Education. NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, 12(1), 1-19.

Birkenshaw , C., & Clothier, A.-L. T. (2021). The strange case of querying gove’s cultural capital legacy. pedagogy, culture and Society:, 3(31), 531-547. doi:DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2021.1933144

Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part I (1781-1839). (n.d.). Minute by the Hon'ble T. B. Macaulay, dated the 2nd February 1835. (H. Sharp, Ed.)

D.Mignolo, W. (2007). Delinking. Cultural Studies, 21(2), 449-514. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502380601162647

Gray, A. (1999). Crusonia: Daniel Defoe and the Atlantic Imagination [Canadian Thesis- ph.D]. University of Toronto.

Gregory, E. C. (2006). Teaching & Learning English Literature. London: Sage Publication.

Hulme, P. (1999). From “Robinson Crusoe and Friday. In P. Childs (Ed.), In Post-Colonial Theory and English Literature (pp. 108–19). Edinburg University Press.

Jones, C. (2010). A Tale of Two Cities: A Transnational Approach. Fiction and Film for French Historians, 1.

Koven, S. (2004). Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007). On The Coloniality Of Being: Contributions to the development of the concept. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 240 270. doi:10.1080/09502380601162548

Mignolo, W. (2000). Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton: NJ: Princeton University Press.

Mignolo, W. D., & Tlostanova, M. V. (2006). Theorizing from the Borders: Shifting to Geo- and Body-Politics of knowledge. European Journal of Social Theory, 9(2), 205–221. doi:DOI: 10.1177/1368431006063333

Mignolo, W. D., & Walsh, C. E. (2018 ). On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics & Praxis. Durham and London : Duke University Press.

Mignolo, W. D., & Wannamaker, W. H. (2017). Global Coloniality and the World Disorder. World Public Forum Dialogue Of Civilizations, 1-26.

Newberry. (2014, 3 12). Victorians and the Hidden Self: Cultural Contexts for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Rehman, T. (2005). Passports To Privilege: The English-Medium. Peace and Democracy in South Asia, 1(1), 24-44.

Saba, N., Hina, K., & Rahman, A. (2018). Evaluation of Pakistan National Curriculum for English Language. Pakistan: LAP Lambert Academia Publishing.

Saeed, N. B. (2013). Thesis: Colonial Representation in Robinson Crusoe, Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India. Institutional Repository of BRAC University.

Saleem, M., Iqbal, H. S., & Akbar, R. A. (2020). A Qualitative Study on Issues of English Curriculum Implementation at Higher Secondary Level Schools in Pakistan. Global Regional Review, 623-633.

Spivak, G. (1993). The Burden of English. In C. A. Veer (Ed.), Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicamnet (pp. 134-157). University of Pennsylvania Press.

Stevenson, R. L. (2012). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London: Scholastic.

Thiong'o, N. W. (1995). On the Abolition of the English Department. In G. G. Bill Ashcroft (Ed.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader (pp. 438-442). London: Routledge.

Thornton, S. (2012). Paris and London superimposed: urban seeing and new political space in Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities. Dans Études anglaises, 65(13), 302-314. doi:https://doi.org/10.3917/etan.653.0302

Wai, W. H. (2019). The Imagination of Criminals in Victorian London in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Interlitteraria, 81–94.

Published

2025-09-30

How to Cite

Kaleem, N. (2025). Decolonial Critique: Eurocentric Texts & Pedagogies in Pakistan. Journal of History and Social Sciences, 16(3), 179–180. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17298456

Issue

Section

Articles