Introduction

Abstract

I am so pleased and excited to introduce toComparative Education Review readers this special section on educational governance of marginalized communities in Southwest Asia and North Africa. I would like to begin by thanking the editors ofCER for including this special section and for their perseverance despite the challenge of finding reviewers for this unique set of essays. The section contributes to the decolonial project of comparative educational research by giving voice to the experiences and agency of members of LGBTQ, refugee, and disabled youth communities located in Southwest Asia and North Africa. These three essays complement one another in their commitment to engaging critically and questioning hegemonic discourses, their production of new knowledge from and about marginalized communities in Southwest Asia and North Africa, and their vision for an egalitarian educational future. The article by Abu-Assab and Nasser-Eddin analyzes the decontextualized hegemonic narratives around gender and sexuality that are imposed onArabicspeaking societies. Drawing on their advocacy work, the authors critique the appropriation of intersectional and decolonial discourses by dominant modes of knowledge production that flow from the Global North to the Global South. Abu-Assab and Nasser-Eddin argue for a decolonized educational praxis that is relevant to gender and sexualities—one that alsohistoricizes social phenomena; contextualizes, politicizes, and redefines intersectionality; and decanonizes and decentralizes education and knowledge production. Building on concepts of Ottoman orientalism and decolonial pedagogy, Nimer and Arpacik problematize the ethnoreligious nationalist discursive practices that guide Turkey’s education system. Nimer and Arpacik trace how Turkey’s approach to Syrian refugees is largely determined by its imperial legacy and its strong nationalism, as well as the recent rise of neo-Ottomanism— characterized by the Islamization project and strengthened economic relations with Arab countries. Their research also points to the European Union’s entanglement in Turkey’s integration refugee project, with funding channeled