Education: How and to what extent do strategies for decolonizing curriculum and pedagogy inform the inclusion of other knowledge systems or ways of knowing?

My family has always believed that the purpose of education is the advancement of civilization and human progress is dependent on learning and sharing ideas. The acknowledgement of how connected we are as a humanity is a fundamental aspect of education. Having received the first 18 years of my education in Turkey and now studying in Canada, I have observed the basic cultural assumptions in many ‘Westernized’ academic institutions, which were adopted colonial patterns of knowledge production.  These assumptions still influence what kind of knowledge is deemed valuable and underlie approaches to educational engagement. I want to help ensure that the current and future higher education institutions recognize and integrate different knowledge systems in their research and teaching.