Thirtieth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Decolonial studies have recently been a strong reference in many and diverse areas of research and education in Brazil. However, with regard to pre-service language teacher education programs, the notion of coloniality seems to be rarely discussed and, therefore, is still obscure for future teachers. For them it is difficult to perceive, in their personal histories as language learners and in the area of their future professional practice, any effects of colonialism that might still persist today and affect their identities, their concepts of language and teaching, and their worldviews. Thus, an elective course was offered in order to provide students with opportunities to explore this area of study and the notion of coloniality, to investigate and to unravel its supposed effects. The course was based on theoretical readings, lectures, class observation, reports of personal experiences, reflections and discussions that could contribute to the achievement of the proposed objectives. We discuss discoveries and relations made by the participants between their positions as language learners and future Brazilian teachers of English and the notions of coloniality they studied. The participants reported on feeling as if they had “removed a veil” from their eyes to perceive the colonial ways in which they have been interpreting their identities and positions in the local and global contexts of English language teaching. This has revealed the need to intervene in pre-service language teacher education made in Brazil to problematize inequities in the field of English teaching and learning and its consequences.