Critical Literacies From/in/for Colombia: Reading the World and the Word in Uncertain Times

• In Event: Transnational Critical Literacies for the Public Good

Abstract

Objectives
This paper outlines the current state of affairs for critical literacies in Colombia, both from scholarship and advocacy. We cannot discuss critical literacies in Colombia just as a review of the existing literature, thus missing the central point of critical literacy as a “social imperative” (Author 4A, 2014) and the importance to locate critical literacy within social, political, and economical factors (Luke, 2012). Therefore, this paper will discuss the past, present, and future of critical literacies in education as inextricably linked to our current realities. We need to look at local scholarship and advocacy as the compass that will guide our efforts in the incoming decade.
Theoretical Framework
Our framework blends the works that have largely influenced the field of critical literacy in Latin America and Colombia (Author 4B, et al., 2017, 2018) and the current efforts that young scholars are proposing to reframe critical literacy from, in, and for Colombia. Any understanding of critical literacy moving forward needs to consider those three prepositions as analytical lenses where frameworks need to surface from local authors (from), situated in context (in), and conscious of how to address local realities (for).

Methods
On the one hand, authors collaborate in a meta-analysis of the existing literature in the field (comprising peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, master’s theses and dissertations) to determine the trends, epistemological positions, and current issues affecting how we need to frame critical literacy from, in, and for Colombia. On the other hand, all five authors will engage in extended duoethnographic conversations, from their own positionality as positioned (Authors 4A and 4B) and emerging (Authors 4C, 4D, and 4E) critical literacy scholars to raise questions about what new definitions for critical literacy need to inform Colombian scholarship in years to come.
Initial Findings and Significance
Our first meta-analysis shows a gradual transition from the traditional authors, usually Anglo and from the North, to a series of rewritings of the idea of critical literacy, where younger scholars begin to recognize the new scholarship from local scholars. Our findings show us that, even if we may need more peer-reviewed articles, there is fertile soil for this field as we surveyed efforts in master’s and doctoral programs, where more theses and dissertations related to critical literacy are appearing. Although most of this work is mostly emerging from language studies, we find plenty of potential for an expansion of critical literacy to other fields as a possibility to inform the curriculum.
We believe exploring an emerging site for literacies research such as Colombia is important because it can help us understand how educational research is shaping up in areas traditionally overlooked by international scholarship. From a critical literacies perspective, we find it fitting to recognize what new conceptual and advocacy stakeholders are surfacing all over the world, how they appropriate and reinvent conventional frameworks to better reflect their own realities, and how learning about this experience is a necessary factor for more coordinated, worldwide efforts toward social justice in educational research.

Authors

• Raúl Alberto Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Lina Trigos-Carrillo, Universidad del Norte

• Polina Golovátina-Mora, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Claudia Cañas, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Gloria Gutiérrez, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano

• Natalia Ramirez, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

• Carlos Andrés Gaviria, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana