Although the 1988 Constitution recognized Brazil as a multilingual country, the relationship among ontology, epistemology, methodology and agency of colonial difference (MIGNOLO, 2005) towards active socio-cultural and... [ view full abstract ]
Although the 1988 Constitution recognized Brazil as a multilingual country, the relationship among ontology, epistemology, methodology and agency of colonial difference (MIGNOLO, 2005) towards active socio-cultural and political participation of the ‘minorities’ such as the indigenous communities and the ‘new’(im)migrants deserves further attention. This happens due to the construction of concepts of language, literacies, culture, power and education from hegemonic historical views, albeit the recent National Curriculum for the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools in Brazil (2006) has revised such notions under the premise that renegotiation of shared norms and resituatedness of the constant problematizations of meaning making without erasing difference are desirable. That said, this paper presents and discusses how Haitians construct meanings while interacting in educational and social spaces in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil. This is part of a broader research, which investigates the images the media and its readers/viewers construct around the (im)migrants and how (im)migrants see the Brazilian environment and their implications in education. The qualitative and interpretive methodology entails an ethnographic spirit considering the participants´(Haitians and researcher) world views from the perspective of critical education (FREIRE, 2005) and the ‘imagining of economy and politics otherwise’ (MIGNOLO, 2005). Interrogating the collective selfness and otherness via self-critique is emphasized. Data is generated from interviews, field notes and sites. Partial results reveal that what is conceived of as bi-multi-trans-lingual/cultural is quite often monovocal maintaining power relations stable. The simple adoption of prefixes such as bi-multi-trans does not necessarily mean the production of alternative discourse and the immigrants´participation in important decisions contaminating the the native speaker of Brazilian languages and/or pluralized Portuguese, the media and the authorities. In many instances, it was observed that meanings emerged from the everyday are apparently rooted in dominant educational epistemology as suggested by one interviewee´s desire for protection and control by his language professors at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul. Further investigations are needed, though.
References
FREIRE, P. (2005). Pedagogia da tolerância. São Paulo: Editora da UNESP.
MIGNOLO, W. (2005). The idea of Latin America. Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.
