Decolonizing nursing education: Beyond Indigenous perspectives through a global and intersectional lens

Abstract

Nursing education is historically rooted in Eurocentric paradigms that marginalize Indigenous, racialized, and Global South knowledge systems. Calls for decolonization are expanding beyond settler-colonial contexts. This paper aims to advance the discourse on decolonizing nursing education by proposing a global, intersectional, and justice-oriented framework that moves beyond Indigenous inclusion to critically examine colonial legacies across geographies, knowledge systems, and institutional structures. The central message is that decolonization must be structural, not symbolic, transforming nursing curricula, pedagogy, and institutional practices by centering epistemologies from the Global South, racialized communities, and diasporic knowledge systems. This paper addresses a critical gap in nursing education literature by proposing a theoretical framework that interrogates colonial legacies beyond settler-colonial contexts. It positions decolonization as a transnational, intersectional, and structural imperative, grounded in epistemologies from the Global South, diasporic communities, and racialized populations. Using a conceptual and theoretical analysis, the paper synthesizes literature from critical race theory, intersectionality, Indigenous scholarship, and Global South perspectives. Case examples and tables illustrate praxis. Decolonization must address structural racism, White institutional norms, hidden curricula, and symbolic inclusion. Transformative strategies include critical health literacy, faculty development, community partnerships, and transnational collaboration. Decolonizing nursing requires shifting power in knowledge production, embedding justice in curricula and policy, and fostering relational accountability. Nursing must be reimagined as a political and ethical space of healing and liberation.