Beyond Education Summit Organized for the Fifth Time This Year with the Theme of “Decolonization in Education”

The Beyond Education Summit, initiated by NÛN Foundation for Education and Culture, was organized for the fifth time on November 1, 2025. The selected theme for this year's summit, “Decolonization in Education,” was explored through various aspects by renowned experts. Attended by nearly 700 individuals from across Türkiye, the event emphasized the necessity of rebuilding an original and native educational vision free from colonial stereotypes.

The opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Esra Albayrak, Chair of the NÛN Foundation for Education and Culture. She drew attention to how current education systems are questioning their roots due to their defining role in the construction of knowledge, identity, and the future. Dr. Albayrak emphasized that knowledge always bears the traces of a geography, a power structure, and a world view, underlining the guiding influence of education. Addressing the separation and the Western-centric claims of supremacy created in education by the colonial legacy, she emphasized that education should be used for finding the truth, establishing commonality between humans, and liberating the mind.

The summit hosted key speakers to assess colonial structures in education from the global to the local levels. Dr. Munir Fasheh, a Palestinian educator and thinker, gave a talk entitled “Decolonizing Education: Relocating Wisdom at the Center of Life”, in which he spoke against the Western-centric understanding of knowledge and conveyed the message of local wisdom and learning within life. Following him, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Gündüz deeply examined the topic, “The Curriculum in Our Minds: Whose Story Are We Learning?” explained the curriculum’s role in decolonizing activities and the critical value of local narratives, preventing them. Former Minister of National Education, Prof. Dr. Ziya Selçuk, pointed out in his speech “Decolonizing Digital Connections” that the digital world is the area where mental domination spreads fastest and most invisibly today.

In the next session, which questioned mainstream understandings of knowledge, Prof. Dr. Recep Şentürk presented “Multiplex Education: Rethinking Education Beyond Traditional and Progressive Approaches.” Discussing the impacts of colonial education, he pointed to how classical education's multi-dimensional vision was reduced in the modern system: “What did colonial education do to us? In one word, colonial education transformed our multilayered understanding of existence, knowledge, truth, and humanity into a single-layered one.”

Dr. Nihal Fırat Özdemir presented “Rethinking the History of Science from a Decolonized Perspective.” According to her, one of the main battlegrounds for decolonization is the history of science, which is used in creating a colonial hierarchy that often places the roots of science within the West. One of the leading figures in Turkish education internationally, Mahmut M. Özdil, underlined the international footprint of the deep-rooted educational experience of Türkiye during his address, “From Anatolia to Different Geographies: Maarif Stories.”

During the last session of the summit, historian and thinker Prof. Dr. Halil Berktay analyzed the effects of modernization experiences on our education systems, during his speech on “The Problems of Institutionalization, Content, and Method in Teaching within Delayed/Catch-Up Modernization Channels.” Dr. İpek Coşkun Armağan, General Coordinator of Institute Social, founded by NÛN Foundation for Education and Culture, emphasized in her speech, “Decolonization of the Mind: Redrawing the Map of Thought,” that without reconstructing our own way of thinking using our own concepts, no true decolonization can be achieved. The author, Halil İbrahim İzgi, underlined that honoring our own stories is an essential prerequisite for raising self-confident generations: “If You Are Looking for a Hero, Look at Your Own Story.” Finally, Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Pembecioğlu drew attention to how the minds of children in the digital age are being invisibly coded by algorithms in her speech “Who is Coding Our Children?”

Following the speeches, 12 parallel workshops attracted great interest from participants. The workshops, moderated by Assoc. Prof. Turgay Öntaş, Dr. Abdullah Uğur, Dr. Sümeyra Uzun, and Assoc. Prof. Zeynep Yıldız centered on the theme of “Decolonization” in a wide array of fields ranging from educational sciences to art, mathematics, and psychology.

“Beyond Education Awards” Presented

The “Beyond Education Institution, Work, and Digital Content Awards” were given for the first time this year to highlight pioneering works that embody a vision of decolonization in a national and international manner. The Digital Content Award was given to Klasik Düşünce Okulu (Classical Thought School) due to its work in connecting thought to its roots against the superficial information flow of the digital age. The Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam received the Best Institution Award for systematically bringing forth the scientific heritage of Islamic civilization. The Best Work Award went to Anas Al-Sheikh-Ali for his book “Bias in Popular Culture,” which bravely tackles power hierarchies within cultural production and representation. One of the most meaningful moments of the summit was the Honorary Award presented to the late historian of science, Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin, in recognition of his monumental efforts to bring Islamic scientific heritage to light and challenge the dominance of single-sided narratives in the history of science.

Teacher Awards Find Their Owners

The Beyond Education Teacher Awards, which are given to support innovative projects by teachers across Türkiye, were also presented for the second time this year. The first prize was won by Abdulsamet Ağdaş with his project entitled “Conceptual Analysis Workshop” in the Decolonization in Educational Theories and Pedagogical Approaches category. Ahmet Göktuğ Kılıç and Merve Bakır won the second prize for the project, “Mind Workshop: Digital Aesthetics.” Mustafa Ali Kaya won the third prize for his project, “The Legacy of the Golden Age.”