For an Intercultural and Decolonial Pedagogy in Telecollaborative Practices

Abstract

In this chapter, we will reflect on Teletandem as an autonomous, collaborative, and intercultural context for language learning (Telles,Teletandem: um contexto virtual, autônomo e colaborativo para aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras no século XXI. Pontes Editores, 2009) and teacher training (Kfouri, A pesquisa em formação de professores de línguas, o ensino/aprendizagem de línguas no meio virtual e o teletandem. In J. A. Telles (Ed.), Teletandem: um contexto virtual, autônomo e colaborativo para aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras no século XXI, 2009; Vieira-Abrahão, A formação do professor de línguas: passado, presente e futuro. In K. A. da Silva (Ed.), Ensinar e aprender línguas na contemporaneidade: linhas e entrelinhas (pp. 225–234), 2010; Silva, A formação do professor interculturalista de língua espanhola mediada pelo Tele-tandem: crenças, ações e reflexões (Dissertação de Mestrado). Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, 2020), from a decolonial perspective (Quijano, 2015; Walsh, La interculturalidad en la educación. Ministerio de Educación. Dirección Nacional de Educación Bilingüe Internacional, 2005; Interculturalidad, Estado, Sociedad: Luchas (de)coloniales de nuestra época. Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar/Abya Yala, 2009, Interculturalidad crítica y educación intercultural. In J. Viaña, L. Tapia, & C. Walsh (Eds.), Construyendo Interculturalidad Crítica (pp. 75–96). Instituto Internacional de Integración del Convenio Andrés, 2010; Matos, Decolonialidade e currículo: Repensando práticas. In C. A. M. e. Silva (Ed.), A América Latina e língua espanhola: discussões decoloniais. (Ch 3 (pp. 93–115). Pontes, 2020a), thought with and from the perspective of Latin American voices of the South (Santos, Toward a new common sense: Law, science and politics in the paradigmatic transition. Routledge, 1995, Introdução às Epistemologias do Sul. In B. S. Santos (Ed.), Construindo as epistemologias do Sul: para um pensamento alternativo de alternativas. Clacso, 2018; Moita Lopes, inguística Aplicada e vida contemporânea: problematização dos construtos que têm orientado a pesquisa. In L. P. Moita Lopes (Ed.), Poruma linguística aplicada indisciplinar, (Ch 3) (pp. 85–107). Parábola Editorial, 2006; Linguística Aplicada na Modernidade Recente: Festschrift para Antonieta Celani. Parábola Editorial, 2013; Kleiman, Agenda de pesquisa e ação em Linguística Aplicada: problematizações. In L. P. M. Lopes (Ed.), Linguística Aplicada na Modernidade Recente: Festschrift para Antonieta Celani (pp. 39–58). Parábola, 2013; Silva Júnior; Matos, Linguística Aplicada e o SULear: práticas decoloniais na educação linguística em espanhol. Revista Interdisciplinar Sulear, 2019). The concept of decoloniality is used here as an agenda and as a process that seeks to overcome the colonialities still present in our society, reconstructing other forms of knowledge and giving visibility to subjects who are still silenced. Therefore, we aim at proposing an intercultural and decolonial pedagogy for pre-service Spanish teachers training, encouraging the protagonism of the Southern voices. With Latin America as one of its representatives (Alexandre, Revista Abehache, 15, 139–154 2019), we believe that the Institutional Teletandem sessions integrated to the activities of the discipline “Linguistic-cultural Exchange Practices via Teletandem,” offered by the Languages (Spanish) course at the State University of Paraíba (UEPB) for Brazilian students from UEPB and Hispanic students from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), will enhance the development of intercultural and decolonial practices, based on the dialogue with and from the Southern voices. In this sense, we will also present theoretical reflections on (i) telecollaboration and Teletandem and (ii) decoloniality and the Southern voices, an agenda of thematic materials aimed at southerning the interactions in Teletandem, which were used throughout our telecollaboration experience with Brazilian- and Spanish-speaking students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This chapter is the result of the initial reflections developed in the doctoral research, entitled “SOUTHing the formation of Spanish teachers: linguistic-intercultural and decolonial practices in the Teletandem”, developed in the Graduate Program in Language and Teaching, at the Federal University of Campina Grande, involving the two authors in the condition of mentoring and guiding, respectively. We thank the Research Support Foundation of the State of Paraíba (FAPESQ) for the financial support given to this research, Term Number 07/2021.