Drawing on the concept of ‘educational diplomacy’ tavis d. jules shows how soft power is being used as a diplomatic tool in the Middle East to deal with the post-revolutionary fallout in Tunisia. Using a comparative-historical approach jules illustrates how soft financial gifts and lending by industrialized countries, multilateral agencies, and other aid donors for educational programs are being used a preventative measures against Jihadism. The book explores how educational aid is used to influence local policies and politics and reveals the multifaceted nature of educational aid in Tunisia and neighboring countries by exploring the ways in which it affects national educational reforms. It examines why countries give assistance in education and what they expect in return, asking: How is education aid promoted? How is educational aid done? and How does educational aid work? The book concludes by suggesting new ways in which the educational economy could reshape aid in a time of crisis. Finally, the book brings together international development theories and the field of comparative and international education to better understand how educational aid functions.

CORRIGENDUM: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the chapter Chevy Eugene, tavis d. jules, 2026. “Alternative Worlds are Possible: Educational Decolonization and Open Reparative Futures”, Decolonial Epistemologies in Comparative and International Education: Anticipating the Cultural Turn?, tavis d. jules, Florin D. Salajan, Anna Becker, Benjamin Scherrer, https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920260000052020, incorrectly listed one of the co-authors as “Chevy Eugune”; the correct author information is as follows: Chevy Eugene. This has been amended in both the published version and metadata. The authors sincerely apologize for this mistake.

This article examines how CARICOM countries can transition from Afro-pessimism to Afrofuturism through epistemic educational justice rooted in the idea of reparative justice. It starts by arguing that Afro-pessimism, which states that the experiences of slavery, colonialism, and genocide have caused profound alienation and social death among Black people, still influences Caribbean human experiences today. We explain how these experiences have fostered an environment where race is weaponized, and racial capital thrives in the Caribbean. We then connect this to the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement and its influence on the Caribbean, illustrating how the legacy of economic slavery has led to a technocratic approach to education reforms. In contrast, we present Afrofuturism, which challenges dominant narratives of the past, present, and future shaped by racism and colonialism. We demonstrate that Afrofuturism, which envisions new, empowering futures for Black individuals and communities through themes such as space and time travel, alternate realities, and technology—alongside elements of African cosmology, mythology, and spirituality—can provide alternative pluriversal foundations through epistemic educational justice grounded in reparatory justice.

This conceptual paper explores what I term epistemic educational futures, utilizing a reparatory framework. It argues that this is possible because deglobalization and the polycrisis have created new geocentric spaces in which we can rethink the role of education in addressing epistemic injustice. Historically, education has served as a tool of dominant epistemes, but it is now time to redefine it to focus on eradicating coloniality. While most reparations studies from the US have advocated the material redistribution of resources to address epistemic violence caused by historical economic disadvantages, this paper calls for a realignment of education toward reparatory justice. It asserts that epistemic education futures should acknowledge histories of racism, exploitation, and epistemic violence that have disproportionately affected different social categories. Focusing on Black knowledge history as an example, the analysis presented in this article represents a forward-looking paradigm shift in educating the next generation. Building in part on Afrofuturist scholarship, the article concludes that the concept of “reparative futurism,” in which the future perpetuates the inequities of the present if not disrupted, offers significant potential for shaping how we think about epistemic educational futures.

Drawing connections between Indigenous boarding schools in North America and the expansion of colonial schooling worldwide, this chapter conceptualizes methods of re-engagement with the topic of reparations for communities who have been subjected to the consequences of colonial schooling. Models of colonial schooling instill education practices aimed at enforcing the assimilation of populations into dominant cultures while reinforcing globalized racializing hierarchies. The epistemic violence central to the conceptualization of the colonial school is a key component of this colonial technology and is reproduced within modern education systems throughout the Global South. Moving toward the interconnected articulation of reparative material and epistemic justice in education for American Indian and African American communities in the United States and post-colonial communities worldwide, the chapter aims to create openings in comparative and international education for addressing the colonial residues within modern education on local and global levels, recentering the foundational terms by which schools function and the solidarities necessary for repair.

Using a comparative regionalism lens, this article examines in comparative perspective the region-building in higher education in Europe/EU and the Caribbean/CARICOM through the use of socio-cultural rhetorical constructs formalised in policy actions at regional levels. The test-cases for this comparison consist of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the Caribbean Educational Policy Space (CEPS), as educational regions, each rooted in their respective shared historical, cultural, and linguistic heritage. We advance the notion of a syncretic transcultural regionalism in education, defined as a socio-cultural region- and identity-building enterprise in higher education, converging on shared cultural values, social ideals, linguistic heritage, and intertwined histories, driven by normative behaviours and binding policy instruments. Our analysis shows that the narrative approach and the use of socio-cultural value constructs reveal marked differences in the manner in which the two entities arrive at their particular forms of syncretic transcultural regionalism over time.

Higher education in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been influenced by neoliberal globalisation, but deglobalization is shifting the focus toward regionalism. This paper examines the effects on labour mobility as CARICOM adopts a mature form of regionalism through increased cooperation. We propose a conceptual framework of neoliberal regionalism in this era, emphasising how human resource development has driven labour mobility under regional multistakeholderism. As CARICOM moves toward stronger regional governance, multistakeholderism has become central, promoting partnerships to recover from globalisation's impacts. We conclude that this loosely defined accountability has enabled mature regionalism, guided by neoliberal principles and human resource development.

This paper focuses on the role of peacebuilding in Pakistan's conflict-affected region of Balochistan, particularly within the higher education sector. The research serves as an extended case study of the University of Balochistan. It investigates how the institution's peacebuilding agency has historically evolved in response to ethnic conflict and the neoliberal reforms initiated by the state. This study is based on an analysis of policy documents, as well as individual and focus group interviews with various educational stakeholders. The peacebuilding agency of the institution is conceptualized according to the 4Rs, which aims to address the structural causes of conflict and theorize education in relation to its role in contributing to those causes. The analytical framework encompasses the cultural, political, economic, and social dimensions of conflict, proposing a comprehensive strategy for achieving sustainable peace. Thus, the university's peacebuilding agency is evaluated by its capacity to foster representation, redistribution, recognition, and reconciliation within its institutional framework and the wider society. The research identifies three distinct phases in the development of the university's peacebuilding agency: the era of bureaucratic-authoritarianism (1970-1988), the era of reactionary-politicization (1988-2000), and the era of securitized-neoliberalism (2000-present).

We present methods to examine the relationships between climate change and education while rethinking educational approaches that do not rely on endless economic growth, extraction, and accumulation through dispossession. At this historical moment, which is focused on transitions toward a greener future, it is essential to consider how the roles of those most affected by climate change are often overlooked in narratives about “climate solutions.” The paper highlights what is absent from and erased within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and prevalent approaches to climate change education. It does so by focusing on a longer historical arc, as well as Black and Indigenous knowledge systems and cosmologies, alongside ongoing and historical injustices. Utilizing the framework of a decolonial educational ecology, we reimagine climate change in education within interconnected global contexts, emphasizing historically marginalized knowledge systems, confronting power imbalances, and creating alternative pathways toward more sustainable, just futures that transcend universal Western epistemic frameworks.