Indigenous Epistemologies and Community Learning in Indonesia and Beyond

Combining theoretical frameworks with empirical case studies, this volume explores decolonial education practices rooted in Indigenous knowledge and community-driven learning in Indonesia, showcasing how local communities construct, sustain, and transmit knowledge in culturally embedded ways. Providing a much-needed Southeast Asian perspective to debate around decolonising education, the book reframes decolonisation not as a theoretical critique of colonial legacies, but as an active, generative, grassroots practice. The book gathers professors, senior academics, college lecturers, teachers, and NGO researchers to highlight how learning is co-created, shared, and sustained within community contexts. By focusing on lived experiences across diverse Indonesian and Southeast Asian contexts, this work challenges dominant, Western-centric education models and demonstrates the transformative potential of community-led, epistemically plural approaches. The book also encompasses Finnish, Japanese and Filipino perspectives and expertise, providing analysis of indigenous knowledge, epistemologies, language and ways of knowing relevant for an international audience. Fundamentally interdisciplinary in approach, the book’s focus on epistemic justice, pluriversal thinking, and community-led development ensures relevance across multiple disciplines. The book will be relevant to a range of disciplines as well as scholars and postgraduates working directly in decolonising education, Southeast Asian studies, pedagogy, and the study of indigenous peoples.