Digital Colonialism and Linguistic Hegemony in Post-Pandemic Higher Education: A Study on Bangladeshi University Classrooms

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of higher education globally. Yet in post-colonial societies like Bangladesh, this shift has paradoxically reinforced new forms of epistemic dependency and linguistic hierarchy. This paper, grounded in the Feminist Linguistic Coloniality (FLC) framework, critically examines how globally dominant ed-tech platforms—Zoom, Google Classroom, Moodle—impose Western pedagogical norms and privilege English-medium instruction, thereby marginalizing Bengali as an academic language. Employing a mixed-method research design, the study surveyed 150 undergraduate and postgraduate students and conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 faculty members from three public universities in Bangladesh. Findings indicate that English-only digital interfaces create significant accessibility barriers for students from rural and low-income backgrounds, disproportionately affecting women and indigenous minority groups. The study reveals a persistent devaluation of Bengali academic discourse, reinforcing colonial-era hierarchies. Drawing on FLC's concepts of 'Digital Linguistic Coloniality' and 'AI-Driven Epistemic Injustice,' this paper argues that the uncritical adoption of Western ed-tech tools constitutes a form of 'digital colonialism' that undermines authentic educational practices. This study is situated in the context of Bangladesh, a post-colonial South Asian nation, where the author is a national and a PhD candidate at Yangzhou University, China.