ABOUT THIS EPISODE
On 29 January 2026, 47 student colleagues from universities in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria came together at Malmö University for an EASSW-funded full-day workshop exploring how decolonising ideas can move from listening and reflection into dialogue and action.
The workshop formed part of Malmö University’s international course Social Work: Social Policies and Welfare Studies. Participants collectively engaged with the Decolonising Social Work Practicum podcast series through listening, reflection, embodied activities and small-group dialogue.
This episode brings together voices from that day. Participants reflect on whose knowledge and voices are heard, what happens when majority and less-heard perspectives meet, the discomfort and uncertainty involved in questioning familiar ways of thinking, and how learning might be carried forward into action.
The Malmö dialogue subsequently informed the development of Unmuting Practice (UNMUTE), Henglien Lisa Chen’s synthesis of the co-created learning into a dialogic approach to decolonising practice education.
UNMUTE brings together six interconnected elements: Uncover, Name, Make space, Unlearn, Turn and Enact. Rather than being a fixed sequence, the elements can be entered and revisited in different ways as context, relationships, knowledge and action change.
The UNMUTE working paper is now available open access on our website: Decolonising Social Work Practicum.
