Resisting Colonial Curricula in Kichwa and English Teacher Preparation Programs in a Plurinational Context in Ecuador

• In Event: Critical American Language Praxis: Teaching, Navigating, and Resisting Global English

Abstract

Keeping the analytical focus on issues of indigenous language teachers in contexts dominated by colonial languages, this paper explores how language teachers in a plurinational context, like Ecuador, resist colonial curricula in teacher preparation programs. It explores a fundamental question: Should language teachers be prepared to resist the hegmeonic power of English - or the hegemonic power of colonialism? To begin, offers a conceptual overview of intercultural bilingual education in Ecuador, which is a program model that is meant to center Indigenous ontologies and curricula and disrupt hispanicized curricula. In this context, though, many Kichwa language teachers in Ecuador still confront classroom contexts that are dominated by colonial languages, mostly Spanish and English. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to argue that an epistemological lens of CALP must include in its conception of teaching and teacher education, not just the resistance to Global English, but also the resistance to colonialism. It contributes to the argument constructed in the preceding two papers that CALP must be considered a project of decoloniality.
Methodologically, this is a qualitative study that draws on interviews with Kichwa and English teachers and teacher educators in two Ecuadorian universities. Participants include two pre-service Kichwa teachers and a Kichwa-language teacher educator, as well as two pre-service English teachers and one English-language teacher educator. All interviews were conducted in Spanish. Content and thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted to identify relevant data related to issues of Global English, hegemonic language and curricular practices, understandings of decoloniality, and examples of critical pedagogy. Findings demonstrate how future English teachers understand concepts of linguistic imperialism and colonialism and enact those understandings pedagogically. The findings further demonstrate how Kichwa teachers practice resistance to Spanish hegemony, while also replicating some practices of Global English. Taken together, the authors offer conclusions regarding what can be learned from teacher preparation in both contexts for resistance against Global English as a larger project of decoloniality.

Author

• Magdalena Madany-Saa, Pennsylvania State University