"South of the birthplace of mankind": coloniality, language and literacy in Portuguese language teaching

Abstract

This paper presents part of an investigation into theoretical and methodological transitions towards decoloniality in the undergraduate education of Portuguese language teachers. The aim of the study is to explore conceptions of language and literacy that pervade Portuguese language teaching, by problematizing their relationship with epistemic colonization, as well as with epistemicides and glotocides. The theoretical framework is the concept of coloniality (QUIJANO, 1997, 2005 and 2007), which points to the permanence of the capitalist, modern and colonial pattern, based on racial classification, in contemporary societies. The premise of this article is that the transformation of Portuguese language teaching implies the comprehension of the impact of colonial energies of domination, exploitation and conflict on conceptions, practices, discourses and documents about Portuguese language teaching. In this sense, the erasure of multilingualism in colonial Brazil is examined, as well as the hegemonic conception of literacy, linked to schooling and mastery of the standard written norm. Both ideas are perceived as traces of the coloniality of knowledge. Considering that their conjunction contributes to the reinforcement of dominations positioned at the intersection of race, class and gender, which are produced and reproduced in language, we suggest possible transformative paths, based on the notions of linguistic cosmopolitanism, languaging and pluridiverse literacies.