The challenge of western-influenced notions of knowledge and research training: lessons for decolonizing the research process and researcher education

In this paper, based on fieldwork experiences in Ethiopia, we have taken an African and Indigenous perspective to highlight and critically reflect on how Western notions of knowledge and research training for social work sometimes fail to engage meaningfully with local realities and disregard cultural and religious practices. This paper argues, from an Ethiopian and African perspective, for culturally appropriate research training. It proposes this can be achieved by making researcher training curricula more inclusive, by reassessing funding flows, and for research supervisors to foster critical reflexivity in their students, reminding them that cultural histories and geographies of research participants are central to the research process.

Automated summary

Based on fieldwork experiences in Ethiopia, this paper takes an African and Indigenous perspective to critically reflect on how Western notions of knowledge and research training for social work fail to engage meaningfully with local realities and disregard cultural and religious practices. It argues for culturally appropriate research training, suggesting that this can be achieved by making researcher training curricula more inclusive, reassessing funding flows, and fostering critical reflexivity in research supervisors and students.