Indigenizing English Language Teaching Through Land-Based Education

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Language Teaching and Learning for Indigenous, Immigrant, and Second-Generation Students (Table 9)

Abstract

Resistance to colonization and multiple forms of coloniality is increasing worldwide in various spheres of society, and the field of English language teaching, hereinafter ELT, is not alien to these efforts. Coloniality in language and education policies has historically influenced Indigenous students' education (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006: McCarty & Coronel-Molina, 2017). This still holds true on Indigenous lands in Colombia where ethno-education policies purport to sustain Indigenous students' languages, cultures, and epistemologies, while education is mainly tailored to privilege western schooling practices as well as colonial ideologies around languages such as Spanish and English. Recent research has explored the tensions and impact stemming from these seemingly contradicting policies (De Mejia, 2005: Guerrero, 2009:2018). Similarly, studies conducted in higher education suggest that Indigenous students' cultural and linguistic identities are often undermined by these colonial ideologies perpetuated through education (Alvarez-Valencia & Miranda, 2022; Cuasialpud-Canchala, 2010; Arismendi, 2016; and Usma et al., 2018). Yet, less is known about the possibilities that open up in the resistance to this coloniality when English teaching is approached through Indigenous perspectives, that is, when ELT is Indigenized. Therefore, this proposal centers on the Indigenization of ELT in an Indigenous territory by drawing on Land-based education. Designed as a Community-Based Design Research CBDR (Bang et al., 2015) this study proposes to explore the possibilities Land-based education affords to English and Wayuunaiki teachers, Indigenous students and community members of the Wayuu people to attain an ecology of knowledges and languages, as they collaborate to center Indigenous perspectives in the English curriculum.

Author

• Claudia Patricia Gutiérrez, University of Washington
  Presenting Author