Multimodal teaching materials as a decolonial strategy

Abstract

This article investigates how the creation of multimodal teaching materials can contribute to the valorization of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian knowledges in elementary education, drawing on the frameworks of multiliteracies (New London Group, 2000; Rojo, 2012) and decolonial perspectives (Mignolo, 2017; Walsh, 2010). Based on a qualitative case study involving pre-service teachers, the analysis discusses how such materials, by integrating multiple languages and epistemologies, challenge the Eurocentric logic of school curricula. The findings reveal that multimodal production, by displacing stereotypes crystallized in cultural and educational representations, such as those symbolized by the characters Jeremias and Papa-Capim, establishes insurgent pedagogical practices committed to cognitive justice and the reconstruction of a plural school. In this sense, the development of multimodal teaching materials is not merely a pedagogical resource, but a political act of resistance and re-existence, capable of confronting epistemicide and fostering more inclusive and decolonial educational horizons.