Critical Pedagogy, decoloniality and linguistic education in Brazil and Mexico

Epistemological and methodological issues drawn from an-other paradigm

Abstract

In this article, I turn to the epistemologies and analytical frameworks that I mobilize in order to understand the dynamics of the processes that involve subjects and their language practices in the complex scenario of contemporary linguistic education. I call into question the way knowledge has been produced and experienced in the context of Modernity/Coloniality, (Maldonado Torres, 2007; Gómez Quintero, 2010; Grosfoguel, 2006 and Castro Gómez, 2007) and I discuss, from a decolonial and critical perspective (Argüello Parra, 2015), how to face the logic of Western and rational epistemologies, especially through the theoretical framework of ‘an-other thinking” (Mignolo, 2003, p. 20), as a form of counter-hegemonic thinking, in the global coloniality context. Lastly, with the aim of contributing not only to the establishment of debates around other epistemic possibilities, but also to the search of more historic and ethical research in Brazilian and Mexican contexts, I present investigations and concrete actions, defined by this locus of enunciation, with emphasis on the subjects’ singularities and their language practices that take place in wide interactional and social spaces.