Home General Interest Social transformation and liberating language education in challenging times: Southern voices and perspectives
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Social transformation and liberating language education in challenging times: Southern voices and perspectives

  • Cláudia Hilsdorf Rocha ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 21, 2025
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

This article approaches social transformation through a Freirean liberating perspective to address the challenges faced by language educators in our digital age. We are currently confronted with the adverse effects of neoliberal capitalism, misinformation, violence, human rights violations and environmental degradation. A critical, politically engaged (language) education seems increasingly necessary for fostering solidarity, global responsibility and radically transformative, distributed and affective agency. I also argue that, in these challenging times, such liberating premises are powerful for nurturing social change from a decolonial, southing or Southern standpoint. These premises lead us to the central question for this discussion: How can a critical and politically engaged Southern perspective nurture a liberating language education? To explore this complex question, transformative language education is linked to a decolonial perspective and a translingual enactive-performative viewpoint. Additionally, the basic principles of Freirean educational philosophy are outlined. To contextualise this discussion, a didactic project related to deaf education will be addressed. The proposed debate highlights that a critical and liberatory language education, experienced from a decolonial and translingual perspective, can provide a foundation for responsible and transformative praxis in our time.


Corresponding author: Cláudia Hilsdorf Rocha, State University of Campinas/UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, E-mail:

  1. Research ethics: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  4. Conflict of interest: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  5. Research funding: CNPq/Brazil – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Research Productivity Scholarship).

References

Abreu, Marcella dos Santos & Claudia Hilsdorf Rocha. 2024. Translingual crossings: an enactive-performative approach to a pedagogical guide for the teaching of Portuguese as a welcoming language to children. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2024.2381499.Search in Google Scholar

Aden, Joëlle & Sandrine Eschenauer. 2020. Translanguaging: an enactive-performative approach to language education. In E. Moore, J. Bradley & J. Simpson (eds.), Tranlanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities, 102–117. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.2307/jj.22730468.13Search in Google Scholar

Arendt, Hannah. 1968. Between past and future: eight exercises in political thought, English ed. New York: Viking Press.Search in Google Scholar

Arias, Patricio Guerrero. 2010. Corazonar el sentido de las epistemologías dominantes desde las sabidurías insurgentes, para construir sentidos otros de la existencia [To hearten the meaning of dominant epistemologies from insurgent wisdoms, to build other meanings of existence]. Calle14: revista de investigación en el campo del arte 4(5). 80–94.Search in Google Scholar

Arias, Patricio Guerrero. 2011. Por una antropología del corazonar comprometida con la vida. La arqueología y antropología en Ecuador [Towards an anthropology of the heart committed to life. Archaeology and anthropology in Ecuador]. Escenarios, retos y perspectivas, 97–122. Abya Yala: Universidad Politécnica Salesiana.Search in Google Scholar

Austin, John Langshaw. 1962. How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. 1975/2015. In Teoria do Romance I. A estilística Mikhail Bakhtin. Tradução, prefácio, notas e glossário de Paulo Bezerra [Theory of Romance I. A stylistics/Mikhail Bakhtin. Translation, preface, notes and glossary by Paulo Bezerra]. Organização da edição russa de Serguei Botcharov e Vadim Kójinov, vol. 34. São Paulo: Editora.Search in Google Scholar

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. 1981. Discourse in the novel. In The dialogic imagination:four essays. (caryl emerson & michael holquist, trans.), 259–422. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Search in Google Scholar

Blackledge, Adrian & Angela Creese (eds.). 2014. Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy. New York/London: Routledge.10.1007/978-94-007-7856-6Search in Google Scholar

Brum, Eliane. 2017. Cotidiano de exceção: como lutar por democracia aprendendo sobre tirania [Daily life of excess: how to fight for democracy while learning about tyranny]. El País: Opinião, Brasil 29 May. https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2017/05/29/opinion/1496068623_644264.html.Search in Google Scholar

Campos, Marcio D’Olne. 1991. A arte de sulear-se [The art of learning]. In T. Schneider, (org.), Interação Museu-Comunidade pela Educação Ambiental: manual de apoio ao curso de extensão universitária, 01–03. Rio de Janeiro: Uni-Rio/Tacnet Cultural.Search in Google Scholar

Campos, Marcio D’Olne. 2019. Why SOUTHing? Northern imprints on the South, from school to geopolitics. ANO 2(2), Edição Especial Dossiê SULear. 10–35.Search in Google Scholar

Canagarajah, Suresh. 2013. Translingual practice: Global englishes and cosmopolitan relations. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780203073889Search in Google Scholar

Canagarajah, Suresh. 2017. Translingual practices and neoliberal policies: Attitudes and strategies of African skilled migrants in anglophone workplaces. Springer: Kindle edition.10.1007/978-3-319-41243-6Search in Google Scholar

Cassino, João Francisco, Joyce Souza & Sérgio Amadeu Silveira (eds.). 2022. Colonialismo de dados: como opera a trincheira algorítmica na guerra neoliberal [Data colonialism: How the algorithmic trench operates in the neoliberal war]. Cotia: Autonomia Literária. Edição Kindle.Search in Google Scholar

Cepeda, Juan H. 2017. The problem of being in Latin America: Approaching the Latin American ontological sentipensar. Journal of World Philosophies 2(1). 12–27. https://doi.org/10.2979/jourworlphil.2.1.02.Search in Google Scholar

Chun, Christian W. 2017. The discourses of capitalism: Everyday economists and the production of common sense. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315751290Search in Google Scholar

Cowley, Stephen J. 2019. The return of languaging toward a new ecolinguistics. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15(4). 483–512. https://doi.org/10.1515/css-2019-0027.Search in Google Scholar

Da Silva, Simone Batista. 2021. Implicated literacies: Life begetting life in linguistic education. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada 21(2). 605–626. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-6398202117950.Search in Google Scholar

Dorta, Jéssica Vasconcelos. 2024. Palavreando em devir: uma travessia translíngue pela (re)construção de um aplicativo para aprendizagem de palavras em português-libras [wordplay in becoming: a translingual journey through the (re)construction of an application for learning words in portuguese-libras]. Campinas-SP: Doutorado em Linguística Aplicada), Instituto de estudos da Linguagem, Unicamp, Thesis. Search in Google Scholar

Escobar, Arturo. 2016. Thinking-feeling with the earth: Territorial struggles and the ontological dimension of the epistemologies of the south. Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana 11(1). 11–32. https://doi.org/10.11156/aibr.110102e.Search in Google Scholar

Escobar, Arturo. 2017. Designs for the pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autonomy and the making of worlds (New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century). Durham: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822371816Search in Google Scholar

Espinosa, Baruch. 2008. Ética [Ethics]. Trad. Tomaz tadeu, 2nd edn. Autêntica: Belo Horizonte.Search in Google Scholar

Fals Borda, Orlando. 1984. Resistencia en el San Jorge [Resistance in San Jorge]. Bogota: Carlos Valencia Editores.Search in Google Scholar

Fals Borda, Orlando. 2015. Una sociología sentipensante para América Latina [A sentipensant sociology for Latin America]. Buenos Aires: CLACSO.Search in Google Scholar

Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2004. Ästhetik des Performativen [Aesthetics of the performative]. Berlin: Fischer-Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Fleuri, Reinaldo Matias & Lilian Jurkevicz Fleuri. 2017. Learning from Brazilian Indigenous Peoples: Towards a decolonial education. South-South Dialogues: Global Approaches to Decolonial Pedagogies (Special Issue). 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2017.28.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo. 1974. Pedagogia do oprimido [Pedagogy of the oppressed]. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo. 1976. Educação como Prática da Liberdade [Education as the practice of freedom], 6th edn. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo. 2014[1992]. Pedagogia da esperança: um reencontro com a pedagogia do oprimido [Pedagogy of hope: A reencounter with the pedagogy of the oppressed], 21st edn. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo. 2017[1996]. Pedagogia da autonomia [Pedagogy of autonomy], 55th edn. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo. 2018[1995]. In Pedagogia da tolerância, vol. 6. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo, Ana Maria Araújo Freire & Walter Ferreira de Oliveira. 2021. Pedagogia da solidariedade [Pedagogy of solidarity]. São Paulo: Paz e Terra. Recurso Eletrônico.Search in Google Scholar

Freire, Paulo & Alfredo Faundez. 2017[1985]. Por uma pedagogia da pergunta [For a pedagogy of the question]. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.Search in Google Scholar

García, Ofelia. 2020. Foreword: Co-labor and re-performances. In Emilee Moore, Jessica Bradley & James Simpson (eds.), Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities, xvii–xxii. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.2307/jj.22730468.5Search in Google Scholar

García, Ofelia & Jorge Alvis. 2019. The decoloniality of language and translanguaging: Latinx knowledge-production. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics 1. 26–40. https://iacpl.net/journal-of-postcolonial-linguistics-12019/the-decoloniality-of-language-and-translanguaging-latinx-knowledge-production/.Search in Google Scholar

García, Ofelia & Wei Li. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137385765_4Search in Google Scholar

Giri, Ananta Kumar. 2023. The calling of global responsibility: New initiatives in justice, dialogues and planetary realizations. London/New York: Routledge.10.4324/9780429347481Search in Google Scholar

González, Diana Albarran. 2022. Corazonar: Weaving values into the heart of design research. In Paper presented at Participatory Design Conference, vol. 2. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. 19 August – 1 September. https://doi.org/10.1145/3537797.3537805.Search in Google Scholar

Holanda, F. U. X. 2021. Crise Civilizacional e Pensamento Decolonial [Civilizational crisis and decolonial thought]. Belo Horizonte: Editora Dialética: Kindle Edition.10.48021/978-65-5956-614-3Search in Google Scholar

Kohan, Walter. 2019. Paulo freire Mais do que Nunca [Paulo Freire more than ever]. Uma biografia filosófica. Belo Horizonte: Vestígio. Kindle Edition.10.2307/j.ctv253f5tqSearch in Google Scholar

Kothari, Ailton, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria & Alberto Acosta. 2019. Introduction: Finding pluriversal paths. In Ailton Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria & Alberto Acosta (eds.), Pluriverse: A post-development dictionary, Xxi–xl. Delhi: Tulika Books and Authors Upfront.Search in Google Scholar

Krenak, Ailton. 2019. Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo [Ideas to add to the end of the world]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.Search in Google Scholar

Krenak, Ailton. 2022. Futuro ancestral [Ancestral future]. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.Search in Google Scholar

Leroy, H. 2022. Corazonar. In C. Lantulfo & D. Matos (eds.), Suleando conceitos em linguagens: Decolonialidades e espistemologias outras, 83–90. Campinas: Pontes.Search in Google Scholar

Li, Wei. 2011. Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics 43. 1222–1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035. https://www.academia.edu/1171773/Moment.Search in Google Scholar

Liberali, Fernanda, Valdite Pereira Fuga & José Carlos Lopes. 2021. The creation of the viable unheard of as a revolutionary act. In Robert Beshara (ed.), Critical psychology praxis: Psychosocial non-aligned to modernity/coloniality, 85–99. New York and Oxon: Routledge.10.4324/9781003119678-8Search in Google Scholar

Lopes, Jader Janer. 2022. Geografia da infância, justiça existencial e amorosidade especial [Childhood geography, existential justice and spatial love]. Revista de Educação Pública 31. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.29286/rep.v31ijan/dez.12405.Search in Google Scholar

Makoni, Sinfree, Ana Kaiper-Marquez & Bassey E. Antia. 2024. Introduction. In Sinfree Makoni, Ana Kaiper-Marquez, Magda Madany-Saá & Bassey E. Antia (eds.), Foundational concepts of decolonial and southern epistemologies (global forum on Southern epistemologies Book 3). Bristol/Jackson: Multilingual Matters. Kindle Edition.10.21832/9781800418868Search in Google Scholar

Makoni, Sinfree & Cristine Severo. 2022. Southern perspectives of language and the construction of the common. Language & Communication 86. 80–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2022.06.003.Search in Google Scholar

Maldonado-Torres, Nelson. 2018. Analítica da decolonialidade: algumas dimensões básicas [Analytics of decoloniality: some basic dimension]. In Joaze Bernardino-Costa, Nelson Maldonado-Torres & Ramón Grosfoguel (eds.), Decolonialidade e Pensamento afro-diaspórico, 27–54. Autêntica.Search in Google Scholar

Maturana, Humberto R. 1988. Ontology of observing: The biological foundations of self-consciousness and of the physical domain of existence. In R. E. Donaldson (ed.), Conference workbook for “Texts in Cybernetics Theory”: an in-depth exploration of the thought of Humberto R. Maturana, William T. Powers, and Ernst von Glasersfeld, 1–53. Felton, CA: American Society for Cybernetics.Search in Google Scholar

Maturana, Humberto R. & Francisco Varela. 1998. The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Boston/London: Shambhala.Search in Google Scholar

Mazzaferro, Gerardo. 2018. Translanguaging as everyday practice. An introduction. In Gerardo Mazzaferro (ed.), Translanguaging as everyday practice. Springer: Kindle edition.10.1007/978-3-319-94851-5Search in Google Scholar

Menezes de Souza, Lynn Mario. 2023. Decolonialidade e(m) Linguística Aplicada: Uma entrevista com Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza [Decoloniality and/in Applied Linguistics: Na interview with Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza]. Polifonia 29(53). 149–177.Search in Google Scholar

Mignolo, Walter D. 2011. Epistemic disobedience and the decolonial option: A manifesto. Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World. 44–66. https://doi.org/10.5070/t412011807. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/62j3w283.Search in Google Scholar

Mignolo, Walter D. 2017. Desafios decoloniais hoje. Epistemologias do Sul, Foz do Iguaçu/PR 1(1). 12–32. https://revistas.unila.edu.br/epistemologiasdosul/article/view/772/645.Search in Google Scholar

Mignolo, Walter D. & Catherine E. Walsh. 2018. On decoloniality: Concept, analytics, praxis. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822371779Search in Google Scholar

Mills, Kathy A. 2016. Literacy theories for the digital age: Social, critical, multimodal, spatial, material and sensory lenses. Bristol/Buffalo/Toronto: Multilingual Matters.10.2307/jj.26931997Search in Google Scholar

Nascimento, Gabriel. 2019. Racismo linguístico: os subterrâneos da linguagem e do racism [Linguistic racism: The subterranean aspects of language and racism]. Belo Horizonte: Letramento Editorial.Search in Google Scholar

Nascimento, G. 2021. Entre o lócus de enunciação e o lugar de fala: marcar o não-marcado e trazer o corpo de volta na linguagem [Between the locus of enunciation and the place of speech: Marking the unmarked and bringing the body back into language]. Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada 60(1). 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1590/010318139578611520210313.Search in Google Scholar

Neves, Cynthia Agra de Brito. 2017. Slams – letramentos literários de reexistência ao/no mundo contemporâneo [Slams – Literary literacies of re-existence in/through the contemporary world]. Linha D’Água 30(2). 92–112. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2236-4242.v30i2p92-112. https://www.revistas.usp.br/linhadagua/article/view/134615.Search in Google Scholar

Neves, Cynthia Agra de Brito. 2021. Letramentos literários em travessia na Linguística Aplicada: ensino transgressor e aprendizagem subjetiva da literature [Literary literacies in transit in applied linguistics: Transgressive teaching and subjective learning of literature]. In E. Lima (ed.), Linguística aplicada na Unicamp: travessias e perspectivas, 6. Bauru, SP: Canal.10.52050/9786586030617.c3Search in Google Scholar

Pennycook, Alastair. 2004. Performativity and language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: International Journal 1(1). 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15427595cils0101_1.Search in Google Scholar

Pennycook, Alastair & Sinfree Makoni. 2020. Innovations and challenges in applied linguistics from the global South. London/New York: Routledge. Kindle Edition.10.4324/9780429489396Search in Google Scholar

Porto-Gonçalves, Carlos Walter. 2009. Entre América e Abya Yala: tensões de territorialidades [Between America and Abya Yala: Tensions of territorialities]. Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente 20.10.5380/dma.v20i0.16231Search in Google Scholar

Pratt, Mary Louise. 1991. Arts of the contact zone. Profession 91. 33–40.Search in Google Scholar

Quijano, Anibal. 1992. Colonialidad y modernidad/racionalidad coloniality and modernity/rationality]. Perú Indíg 13(29). 11–20.Search in Google Scholar

Quijano, Anibal. 2007. Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural Studies 21(2–3). 168–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601164353.Search in Google Scholar

Rocha, Claudia Hilsdorf & Ruberval Franco Maciel. 2024. Affect and an enactive-performative approach to translanguaging. In Anamaria Welp & Ruberval Franco Maciel (eds.), Transformative practices in translanguaging classes, 26–41. Zouk: Porto Alegre.Search in Google Scholar

Rolnik, Suely. 2018. Esferas da Insurreição: Notas para uma vida não cafetinada [Spheres of Insurrection: Notes for a non-exploited life]. São Paulo: N-1 Edições.Search in Google Scholar

Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Phylosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139173438Search in Google Scholar

Stetsenko, Anna. 2017. The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky’s approach to development and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9780511843044Search in Google Scholar

Stetsenko, Anna. 2019. Radical-transformative agency: Continuities and contrasts with relational agency and implications for education. Frontiers in Education 4. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00148.Search in Google Scholar

Sting, Wolfgang. 2012. Performative praxen und theaterpädagogik [Performative practices and theatre pedagogy]. In W. Sting, G. Mieruch, E. M. Stüting & A. K. Klinge (eds.), Poetiken des Theatermachens, Werkbuch für Theater und Schule, 119–126. Bobingen: Kessler Druck und Medien Kopaed.Search in Google Scholar

Tanzi-Neto, Adolfo, Larissa Picinato Mazuchelli & Vanessa Moreno Mota. 2021. Linguística Aplicada de Resistência: Agência Radical, Transgressões e Política para Transformação Escolar [Applied linguistics of resistance: Radical agency, transgressions, and politics for school transformation]. In Adolfo Tanzi-Neto (ed.), Linguística Aplicada de Resistência, 25–46. Transgressões, Discursos e Política. Campinas: Pontes.Search in Google Scholar

Varela, Francisco. 1991. The origin of perception: A cartography of current approaches. In Fransisco Varela & Jean-Pierre Dupuy (eds.), Understanding Origins. Norwell: Kluwer Associates.Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. 2013. Introducción. Lo pedagógico y lo decolonial: Entretejiendo caminos [introduction: The pedagogical and the decolonial: Weaving paths together. In Catherine Walsh (ed.), Pedagogías decoloniales. Prácticas insurgentes de resistir, (re) existir y (re)vivir. Quito: Abya-Yala.Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. 2014. Lo pedagógico y lo decolonial: Entretejiendo caminos [The pedagogical and the decolonial: Weaving paths together]. Quito: Qurétaro.Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. 2018. Interculturality and decolonilaity. In Walter D. Mignolo & Catherine E. Walsh (eds.), On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, práxis, 57–80. Durham, London: Duke University Press.10.1515/9780822371779-005Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. 2019. Gritos, gretas e semeaduras de vida: entreteceres do pedagógico e do colonial [Cries, cracks, and seeds of life: Weaving together the pedagogical and the colonial]. In Sueli Ribeiro Mota Souza & Luciano Costa Santos (eds.), Entre-linhas: educação, fenomenologia e insurgência popular, 93–120. Salvador: EDUFBA.Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. 2023. Rising up, living on: Re-existances, sowings and decolonial cracks. Durham and London: Duke University Press.10.1215/9781478024156Search in Google Scholar

Walsh, Catherine E. & Walter D. Mignolo. 2018. Introduction. In Walter D. Mignolo & Catherine E. Walsh (eds.), On decoloniality: Concept, analytics, praxis, 1–11. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822371779-001Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2025-09-03
Accepted: 2025-09-23
Published Online: 2025-10-21
Published in Print: 2025-12-17

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 11.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/eduling-2025-0017/html
Scroll to top button