ABSTRACT. This article offers an analysis of entangled discourses across the multiple facets of changemaker education in Western-derived governance models, using website materials from two change-oriented educational consortiums (the United World College movement and the UNIC European University) as case studies and concept exemplars. Taking inspiration from the theoretical and methodological foundations of Foucauldian discourse analysis, the article explores the phenomenon of discursive drift in institutions, defined herein as the movement of shared words, phrases and images across the various discourses in play within institutional language systems. The analysis is oriented within an understanding of coloniality as an originary discourse in changemaker education, with an axiomatic understanding that education, if it is to serve as a catalyst for social and ecological justice, must inherently be grounded in decolonial values to meet the mandates of the stated changemaking visions. While considerable research has attended to various discursive threads in global citizenship education, peace and human rights education and sustainability education worldwide, this analysis offers additional insight into locations of contradiction within institutions, suggesting opportunities for mission-vision concordance and continued development towards a decolonial framework for justice-aligned educational praxis.

Keywords: changemaker education; change resistance; discourse analysis; discursive drift; sustainable development goals; decoloniality

How to cite: Russial, M. (2025). Discursive drift in changemaker education: Patterns of change resistance. Knowledge Cultures, 13(2), 15–46. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc13220252

Received March 30, 2025 • Received in revised form May 25, 2025
Accepted August 1, 2025 • Available online September 1, 2025