Voice from the field: Decolonizing subject for more just epistemology

Abstract

This autobiographical reflection explores the author’s transnational journey of decolonizing social work education, shaped by teaching experiences in Canada and Indonesia. The paper begins with the author’s transformative encounter teaching Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice at McGill University, where engagement with diverse student identities and critical pedagogy catalyzed a deeper interrogation of positionality, power, and privilege. Upon returning to Indonesia, the author applies decolonial insights to reshape curriculum across three undergraduate courses—Introduction to Social Welfare, Social Work Theories, and Multicultural Social Work—within an Islamic university context. Drawing on literature and classroom practices, the paper critiques the dominance of Eurocentric epistemologies and calls for the integration of Indigenous, Islamic, and local cultural knowledges. Through student-centered learning, critical reflection, field-based assignments, and engagement with concepts like gotong royong and Ubuntu, the author demonstrates how decolonial pedagogy can localize theory, disrupt colonial legacies, and foster culturally grounded social work practices. This work contributes to global dialogues on justice-centered epistemologies in social work education by highlighting the challenges and opportunities of advancing curricular decolonization in postcolonial, religiously rooted contexts.