Decolonizing the Pedagogy of Development Studies in Selected Universities in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Advincula-Lopez, Leslie, Magno, Nota F, Punay, Maria Victoria F
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Development Studies; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Sociology
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/dev-stud-faculty-pubs/268; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/dev-stud-faculty-pubs/article/1268/viewcontent/Decolonizing_the_Pedagogy_of_Development_Studies_in_Selected_Universities_in_the_Philippines_be6612aafd.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

It has been forty-two (42) years since the first cohort of Development Studies majors graduated from the University of the Philippines Manila Campus. Today, two (2) other universities in Metro Manila are offering undergraduate courses on Development Studies. Kapoor (2023) discusses criticisms of Development Studies and refers to arguments that the discipline is (neo)colonial and carries the baggage of imperial plunder. In the same article, she also refers to observations that the discipline has persistently sanitized colonialism and suffers from “imperialist amnesia.” Since this program aims to mold and train development professionals in the Philippines, we engage in this reflexive inquiry on whether Development Studies programs in the country have been successful in confronting the colonial legacy of the discipline. We inquire how Development Studies programs have taken up the challenge of decolonizing the discipline in terms of their respective pedagogical approach. To this end, we ask: to what extent have Development Studies programs in the Philippines integrated non-Western and indigenous knowledge systems? Whose voices count in the pedagogy of Development Studies?