Neocolonial Research

Neocolonial research is a term applied to the form of education research designated by the U.S. federal government as the dominant form of research on educational programs and practices to be funded by the federal government. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), enacted in 2002, specifically states in more than 100 of 200 references on educational research that such research be “scientifically based.” In NCLB, scientifically based research is defined as that work involving objective and rigorous procedures resulting in valid and reliable data applicable to educational activities and programs. The meaning of the term neo-colonial stems from political theory and was first used by the Ghanan scholar, Kwame Nkrumah, in 1965, to describe the continuing imperialism exerted by the former colonial powers on ...