“Espanhol para Todos”: an autoethnography of understanding oneself as a decolonial teacher

Abstract

Since 2017, with the repeal of Law No. 11,161/2005, the Spanish language no longer forms part of the Brazilian Basic Education curriculum. Spanish teachers have found, in a more autonomous way, practices to occupy this space. Based on Hall (2006) for the understanding of fluid identities and in continuous displacement, this work is an autoethnographic narrative, whose aim is to report my process of understanding myself as a Spanish teacher in this scenario of resistance. The narrative refers to the experiences of the first co-author of the article under the guidance of the second co-author. Engaged in the anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle, I dialogue with my intersectionalities of race and gender, which influence my perspective on teaching and the teacher I seek to become. To this end, in this text I present my experience of building a popular and free course called “Espanhol para Todos”, which became an Extension project linked to the Instituto Federal do Sudeste de Minas Gerais, in 2021, and which had as theoretical support scholars of decoloniality. While still graduating in Languages with qualifications in Portuguese and Spanish Language, I found in decolonial approaches a way to confront the hegemony of European Spanish teaching, expanding the perspective to Latin America and promoting other narratives for a critical and anti-racist Education through appreciation of Southern identities.