Escaping the Plantationocene: plotting the future of education

Purpose This article critically analyses the ways in which contemporary international educational development perpetuates plantation systems. It proposes ways to plot an escape from the plantation's extractive education monoculture and move towards multi-epistemological flourishing. Design/methodology/approach Using a plantation framework, this study examines four interconnected dimensions of the plantation in education: plantation logics (racialisation and crisis narratives), plantation politics (surveillance and standardisation), plantation economies (financialisation, extraction and labour exploitation) and plantation futures (resistance and alternatives). The analysis draws on ethnographic research of the Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP), extending these insights to broader educational policies and projects, including Education for All, international assessments and educational technology. Findings This article finds that international educational policies and practices reproduce plantation systems through the enclosure and standardisation of educational landscapes, turning people into commodities for capital extraction and ultimately leading to unsustainable education monocultures. Originality/value By examining the environmental crisis, racial capitalism and contemporary educational development and governance through the plantation framework, the article offers new insights into the violence of universalised educational interventions while highlighting spaces of resistance and repair through the concept of the plot.