“Merit”, “Success” and the Epistemic Logics of Whiteness in Racialised Education Systems

Keval, Harshad

Abstract

Keval explores the shifting landscape of what ‘success’ comes to mean within the field of ‘mertitocracy’ in educational systems. Focusing on the epistemic, racialised and colonial constructions of knowledge and the hierarchical legitimacies afforded to particular types of racial bodies within these systems, Keval uses the notion of a ‘racial-parallax’ and ‘Epistemologies of Ignorance’ to excavate the multiple ways in which racism, Whiteness and merit occupy central but often invisibilised positions of power. Through a decoloniality lens, the ontology of racialised being and racialised knowing also offers ways in which these embodied positionalities of alterity offer liberatory routes.

Citation

Keval, H. (2021). “Merit”, “Success” and the Epistemic Logics of Whiteness in Racialised Education Systems. In D. S. Thomas, & J. Arday (Eds.), Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education: Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy (127-137). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65668-3_10

• Online Publication Date: Jun 19, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-06
• Deposit Date: Feb 27, 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 127-137
• Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Race, Inequality and Social Justice in Education
• Series ISSN: 2524-6348
• Book Title: Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education: Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy
• ISBN: 978-3-030-65667-6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65668-3_10
• Keywords: Merit, Success, Race, Decoloniality