Translanguaging Mestiça

Implications and Challenges of a Disobedient Epistemology

Resumo

This article aims to share reflections on the concept of translanguaging and how it has been didacticized in the classroom, constituting what we refer to here as the principles of a translanguaging pedagogy mestiça. In alignment with the Theory/Pedagogy of Translanguaging (García; Wei, 2014; García; Johnson; Seltzer, 2017), we use in this article the Portuguese word “mestiça” to mark our standpoint and we also maintain the syntactic organization of the Portuguese language by placing the adjective after the characterized noun “translanguaging”, to reinforce this standpoint. Also, this is a gesture, as reflected in the title of this article, of epistemological disobedience (Mignolo, 2008), as well as a gesture of indiscipline in an effort “to explode the boundaries between theory and practice”, formulating knowledge which is “responsive to social live” (Moita Lopes, 2006b, p. 100). These discussions have been carried out by members of the Research Group named “Núcleo de Estudos Colaborativos em Contextos Escolares” (N.E.C.C.E.) (Center of Collaborative Studies in School Contexts, in English), affiliated with the Reading and Writing Research and Teaching Laboratory/Laboratório de Pesquisa e Ensino de Leitura e Redação (LabLeR) and the research line “Linguagem no Contexto Social” (Language in Social Context) of the Graduate Program in Language and Literature at the Federal University of Santa Maria (PPGL/UFSM), in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Firstly, we present the reasons why, within N.E.C.C.E., we have taken up these discussions in the UFSM context. Secondly, we problematize the concept of translanguaging and describe how we, at N.E.C.C.E., have been outlining teaching proposals that aim to materialize this concept into classroom practice. Finally, we share some pedagogical practices that attempt to didacticize the concept – practices that have already been implemented by N.E.C.C.E. researchers in a public preschool education context. Ultimately, we seek to engage in this discussion insofar as we agree with Pennycook and Makoni (2020, p. 128) who argue that proposals aligned with Global South perspectives must be open to public scrutiny, especially when they advocate for educational projects that interconnect theory, social context, and praxis.