COLONIAL LEGACY AND THE EMERGENCE OF EDUCATIONAL DUALISM: A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF SCHOOL–MADRASSA DICHOTOMY IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study examines the colonial legacy and the emergence of educational dualism between school and madrassa systems in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, through a qualitative interpretivist framework. Grounded in social constructionism and informed by postcolonial theory, the research explores how epistemological and pedagogical divergences are constructed, sustained, and reproduced within two parallel education systems. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 46 participants, including madrassa scholars and school, college, and university teachers, along with document analysis of curricula. The data were analyzed using thematic, content, and discourse analysis techniques to identify patterns of meaning, ideology, and institutional practice. Findings reveal a deep epistemological divide between revelation-based and secular-empirical knowledge systems, reinforced by distinct pedagogical practices and historically rooted in colonial restructuring of education. The study further highlights how institutional separation and dominant discourses of legitimacy sustain this dualism, contributing to cognitive, social, and educational fragmentation. The research concludes that the school–madrassa divide is not merely structural but fundamentally epistemic and postcolonial in nature, requiring integrative and context-sensitive reform approaches.