Coloniality, educational technology and ecologies of knowledge in ELT in the wake of the pandemic

The Covid pandemic has led to what some have called an edtech “shock doctrine” (Klein, 2007). Transnational alliances have formed and are promoting ‘global education’ in schools and universities with the further encroachment of commercial organizations and publishers on resources, curricula and access to education (Williamson & Hogan, 2020). Governments and institutions are investing in surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence and data driven learning, systems which perpetuate the historical injustices that are the result of the colonial ways of knowing and being that shape them (Karumbaiah & Brooks, 2021). This paper outlines some of these worrying trends and considers their possible impact and implications on English language teaching. Drawing mainly from the Italian and European context in which I am situated I will then explore forms of resistance, pedagogic practices and encounters, mediated by technologies, which attempt to counter some of these practices and which seek to raise awareness of and expand our ecologies of knowledges and ways of being.