"Falando com o mundo": um projeto de internacionalização de Belo Horizonte na confluência de saberes locais e globais

Abstract

This research focuses on English teachers working in municipal public schools in Belo Horizonte. The general objective of the research is to contribute to in-service teacher development that contemplates aspects of the New Literacies, especially Critical Literacies from the perspective of decolonial thinking as a theoretical contribution to democratic and inclusive pedagogical practices, which associate the teaching of English with the construction of citizenship and social justice. As part of the specific objectives, I propose to question the influence of public policies and private foundations on teacher education. The relevance of the research is justified by questioning and debating the dominant and socially constituted ideologies in continuing education courses for English teachers, which, for the most part, institutionalized by public policies, continue to perpetuate a Eurocentric model of education. The theoretical foundation of the research is based on the assumptions of Critical Literacies and decolonial thinking as an alternative for the teaching of English in a global and local context, in line with the definition of "glocal" proposed by Canagarajah (2005). In contrast to hegemonic Eurocentric thinking, authors and researchers such as Pennycook (2005, 2007), Canagarajah (1999, 2005), Quijano (2005), Mignolo (2008), and Kumaravadivelu (2012) propose alternatives to rethinking the logic of colonial thinking dominant in the West. The methodology of this research is qualitative in nature, since the nature of research in this case study, as pointed out by Lüdke and André (1986), regarding research in education, is closer to a qualitative and interpretative analysis of its object of study. This is a case study, which focuses on English teachers representing the nine regional districts of Belo Horizonte, who have already participated at some point in in-service development courses at “Improve Your English”, the current program "Talking to the World". For data generation, I used primarily online questionnaires and audio narratives. Results point to a prevalence of international agencies and foundations in continuing education courses for English teachers in the City of Belo Horizonte, partially contributing to a cooling down by teachers not making connections with local and regional aspects of their school community.