Critical Interculturality. A Path for Pre-service ELT Teachers

Abstract

This article elaborates a theoretical reflection upon critical interculturality as a tool for decolonial pedagogy, which needs to be explored in initial language teacher education programs as a means to counteract the increasing emphasis on the instrumental nature of the field caused by a limited view of the meaning of professional development. For this purpose, the text addresses, first, the theoretical developments of the decolonial turn; secondly, it discusses the notion of critical interculturality; and finally, it presents a reflection on the links between critical interculturality, decolonial pedagogy, and a vision of teacher education as a dynamics of personal development. The text concludes by explaining the potential of critical interculturality as a point of intersection for transgressive pedagogies, whose main feature is recognizing and making subjectivities visible. The article is part of an ongoing research on initial language teacher development programs currently being carried out within the framework of the Ph.D. in Education at Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino in Bogota, Colombia.