Vanessa Andreotti
| Vanessa Andreotti | |
|---|---|
| Keywords | complexity; uncertainty; futures |
| Known for | Decolonial pedagogy; futures-oriented education |
| Fields | Education; Decolonial theory |
| Main interests | Decolonial futures; pedagogies for complexity and uncertainty |
| Notable works | Hospicing Modernity |
| Era | 21st century |
| Occupation | Educator and theorist |
| Wikidata | Q112488291 |
Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti is a Brazilian-born scholar of education whose work challenges conventional assumptions in global education. Educated in Brazil and the United Kingdom, she has held professorial posts in Europe, New Zealand and Canada. Her writing spans topics such as “global citizenship” education, colonial legacies in schooling, and the ethics of sustainability. In recent years she has become known for urging educators to “hospice modernity” – that is, to allow outdated systems of power to die off – and for developing pedagogies for complexity and uncertainty that help learners face a turbulent world. A former Canada Research Chair and now Dean of Education at the University of Victoria, Andreotti combines academic analysis with creative and collaborative teaching methods.
Early Life and Education
Andreotti was born in Brazil to a mixed-heritage family (of German and Guarani Indigenous descent) and grew up on traditional Indigenous territory. After completing her Bachelor of Education at the University of Paraná in Brazil, she taught school for several years. In the late 1990s she moved to the United Kingdom to pursue graduate studies. She earned a Master’s degree in education from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Nottingham. Her doctoral work already reflected a critical lens on development and globalization, building on her experience in Brazilian schools and international education projects.
Her career has since spanned the globe. From 2010 to 2013 Andreotti was Professor and head of the Global Education department at the University of Oulu in Finland. She later held posts in New Zealand (University of Canterbury) and Ireland, before moving to Canada. In Canada she became a full professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and was appointed Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change. In 2023 she was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. Throughout her career Andreotti has blended academic roles with community engagement, often partnering with Indigenous groups and grassroots organizations in Brazil and elsewhere.
Major Works and Ideas
Vanessa Andreotti’s scholarship focuses on how education reproduces or challenges deep-rooted assumptions inherited from colonial and modern European worldviews. Early in her career she wrote about global citizenship education – the concept that students should learn to act as “citizens of the world” – but from a critical standpoint. In her widely-cited article “Soft vs. Critical Global Citizenship,” she argued that some versions of global citizenship education simply promote goodwill and charitable actions (a “soft” approach) without questioning underlying power imbalances. Instead, Andreotti advocated a critical approach that examines historical and structural inequalities of race, wealth and knowledge. In this view, educating for global citizenship means learning to recognize how ideas such as “progress,” “development,” or “human rights” have sometimes masked ongoing injustices. She draws on postcolonial theory to argue that mainstream education often assumes Western ways of knowing are universal – a problem she calls the “coloniality” of knowledge – and urges educators to introduce multiple perspectives, including Indigenous knowledge, into the curriculum.
Her work is perhaps best exemplified by her recent book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism (2021). In this book she uses the metaphor of a hospice – a place where a dying person is cared for with compassion – to describe how societies might consciously let old, harmful structures of modernity wither away. “Modernity,” in her usage, refers to the European modern mindset of endless progress, technological domination over nature, and a hierarchal human society. Andreotti argues that aspects of this worldview (such as infinite economic growth on a finite planet, or rigid beliefs in a single truth) have led to unsustainable and unjust conditions. Instead of stubbornly trying to preserve these systems, she contends we should assist them in ending, while caring for people trapped within them and nurturing new possibilities. The book calls on readers to practice “self-unmaking” – questioning one’s own worldview and privileges – and to learn to accept uncertainty. It has earned praise for combining rigorous critique with practical guidance for activists facing crises, and for drawing on radical educators like Paulo Freire while speaking directly to today’s challenges.
Alongside Hospicing Modernity, Andreotti’s body of work includes several influential books and articles. She authored Actionable Postcolonial Theory in Education (2011), which showed how teachers can “put to work” postcolonial ideas in classrooms. She co-edited Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education (2012), a collection showing why citizenship education must reckon with colonial history. Other notable writings include Renegotiating Epistemic Privilege (2018), on challenging the assumption that Western knowledge is supreme, and articles like The Task of Education as We Confront the Potential for Social and Ecological Collapse (2021), which invites educators to rethink schooling in the face of climate and social crises. She has also co-authored many papers on social justice in education, including a sequence of “social cartographies” – visual and conceptual maps that help people grapple with complex global issues – in Development Education Review (2018).
Central to Andreotti’s ideas is the notion of “decolonial futures.” This refers to imagining and working toward futures not constrained by colonial legacies. It is both an academic framework and a movement she helped found: the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) collective, an arts/research collective of educators and Indigenous collaborators. Through GTDF and related initiatives (such as the Last Warning campaign on climate justice), Andreotti explores new ways of knowing and creating knowledge together, often outside traditional university settings. Her vision for decolonial futures includes embracing multiple ways of learning (rational, emotional, spiritual) and walking “otherwise” by practice, rather than merely preaching reforms.
Method
Andreotti’s approach to research and teaching is collaborative, experimental and often creative. She frequently works with interdisciplinary teams and with community partners (especially Indigenous communities) to co-create projects. In her own terms, she describes herself as a scientartist – combining academic scholarship with artful, embodied practice. For example, many of her projects involve arts, theater, ceremony and storytelling alongside more conventional scholarship. This reflects her belief that intellectual ideas are lived and felt as much as thought.
A signature method in her work is the use of social cartography. This does not mean literally drawing maps, but rather using maps and diagrams as metaphors for understanding how different ideas and power structures connect. In several publications Andreotti and colleagues have introduced “cartographies” named the HeadsUP, the House, the Tree and EarthCARE, each representing patterns in popular narratives about the world or strategies for learning. Educators using these cartographies might have students explore, for instance, the different layers of a global crisis (ecological, economic, emotional, relational) instead of boiling it down to one issue. The aim is not to prescribe solutions, but to open people’s eyes to hidden assumptions and interconnections. These pedagogical tools encourage learners to sit with uncertainty, to question easy answers, and to cultivate “reflexivity” (an awareness of one’s own biases and privileges).
Another key element of her method is relational accountability. Before taking on projects, Andreotti often consults with mentors or Elders (she mentions doing so with Indigenous Elders) to ensure her work is respectful and responsible. Her writing also stresses “unlearning” – becoming critically aware of habitual ways of thinking – as an active, sometimes communal process. Rather than rely solely on logical argument, Andreotti’s work invites art and ritual; for example, in workshops she might engage people in movement exercises or ask them to listen deeply to natural sounds. Such methods are intended to disrupt the routine of Western schooling and open up other ways of knowing. In sum, her research and teaching combine conventional scholarship with anti-colonial pedagogy and experimental practices designed to foster depth and change in learners’ perspectives.
Influence
Over the past two decades Andreotti has become a leading figure in critical global education and decolonial studies. She has held prestigious positions (such as a Canada Research Chair and presidency of international education associations), and her ideas have been widely cited and disseminated. In 2019 she was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, recognizing her significant contributions. She is also on academic boards and editorial teams for journals in education and development.
Her influence extends beyond academia. As an invited speaker, Andreotti has addressed educators and policy-makers around the world – from UNESCO forums to teacher conferences. She has designed university courses (for instance, a noted course called “Facing Human Wrongs” on climate and social crisis), and leads workshops for teachers and community groups. Through the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, she has helped mentor younger scholars and artists, often with a focus on Indigenous and Global South perspectives. She also collaborates with activism networks – for example, she works with Brazilian Indigenous groups (Teia das 5 Curas) on ecological justice issues.
Colleagues and students often describe her as a visionary or trailblazer for reorienting education. Some compare her impact to the late educator Paulo Freire (author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed), since both emphasize education as a tool for social transformation. Others note that broad topics she raises – like climate crisis, racial justice, and decolonization – have become central in many teacher-training programs, in part due to her scholarship. Indeed, terms she popularized (such as “decolonial pedagogy” or “the modern/colonial imaginary”) now appear in textbooks and journals.
Her interdisciplinary work has also influenced research on equity. For example, she and collaborators have probed how university curricula often “erase” non-Western voices, and their concept of “hospicing” rather than “sustaining” destructive systems has sparked discussion in sustainability and ethics debates. In teacher education, many programs now cite her analysis of “soft vs. critical” approaches to global learning. Through these channels, Andreotti’s ideas have contributed to shifting the conversation: increasingly, educators ask not just what to teach students (e.g. about sustainability) but how our own biases shape even those lessons.
Critiques
As with any radical thinker, Andreotti’s ideas have drawn both praise and some criticism. Supporters argue she brings needed honesty and depth to global education, while critics sometimes ask whether her approach might be overly negative or abstract. For instance, some mainstream educators worry that focusing on the “death” of modern systems could feel disheartening to students, or could undermine efforts to work within those systems for change. Others question whether repeatedly criticizing progress narratives might leave little room for hope or practical action. Andreotti responds that only by fully facing the depth of problems can people find truly new paths forward, but debate continues about how best to translate her complex ideas into classroom practice.
Another line of critique comes from the standpoint of educational pragmatism. Some policymakers and practitioners value clear competencies and measurable outcomes (such as in citizenship or sustainability education). They may see Andreotti’s call to “unlearn fundamental certainties” as vague or hard to operationalize. Her emphasis on “feeling complicity” or on abstract concepts like “epistemic privilege” can be challenging language for some, and indeed, readers sometimes find her academic writing dense. A few have suggested that her approach risks academic elitism – focusing on theorizing rather than building on concrete grassroots solutions. Andreotti has addressed such concerns by continuing to engage directly with teachers and community activists, and by co-authoring more practice-oriented articles.
Overall, though, critiques of her work tend to be about emphasis and style rather than factual errors. Even critics of decolonial education acknowledge that her calls for pluralism and for grappling with injustice are important. In interviews she often frames debate as useful – she invites educators to discuss whether to “hospice” systems or reform them, and how to balance confronting suffering with nurturing resilience. In practice, many find that educators inspired by her work adapt her ideas in varied ways: some build new curricula with Indigenous knowledge at the center, others use her cartographies to spark discussion, and still others combine her critique with more solution-oriented projects.
Legacy and Continuing Work
Though still relatively early in her career for an academic leader, Andreotti is already shaping a legacy. Her influence will likely grow through the students she mentors and the programs she leads. As Dean of the University of Victoria’s Education faculty (2023–2028 term), she is in a position to embed decolonial and justice-oriented principles into teacher education at a large scale. The course designs and research initiatives she leads are expected to continue producing resources for educators worldwide. In Canada and beyond, she is mentoring a new generation of teachers and scholars who carry forward themes of Indigenous engagement, climate ethics, and global justice in education.
Her writings, especially Hospicing Modernity and her articles on climate and education, have already sparked conference panels, book clubs, and online discussions. It is likely that, as the world grapples with worsening ecological and social crises, more people will find her message of facing harsh realities crucial. Her concept of “decolonial futures” in particular resonates with many young activists and academics seeking alternatives to business-as-usual thinking. Whether through journal articles, spoken essays, or artful workshops, Andreotti continues to experiment with new forms of scholarship. In this sense, her legacy is not just in what she has published so far, but in creating communal spaces (like the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective) where future educators and scholars can invent educational practices and policies “otherwise” – beyond the old frameworks.
Selected Works
- Andreotti, V. (2011). Actionable Postcolonial Theory in Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Andreotti, V. & de Souza, L. M. T. (Eds.) (2012). Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education. London: Routledge.
- Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Ahenakew, C., & Hunt, D. (2015). “Mapping interpretations of decolonization in higher education.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1), 21–40.
- Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Sutherland, A., Suša, R., Amsler, S., & Pashby, K. (2018). “Mobilising different conversations about global justice in education: Toward alternative futures in uncertain times.” Development Education Review, 26, 78–99.
- Andreotti, V. (2021). Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
- Andreotti, V., & Stein, S. (2022). “From ‘education for sustainable development’ to ‘education for the end of the world as we know it’.” Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(3), 274–287.
- Andreotti, V. (2021). “The task of education as we confront the potential for social and ecological collapse.” Ethics and Education, 16(2), 143–158.
Each of these works reflects different phases of Andreotti’s evolving project – from her early work on postcolonial theory to her current focus on crises and futures – and together they have become part of curricula in education programs around the world.