WHAT CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE: reflections on the condition of subalternity

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.929412418014

• Palavras-chave: National Common Core Curriculum, English language in the last grades of middle school, Subalternity, Agency, Loving practices.

• Keywords: National Common Core Curriculum, English language in the last grades of middle school, Subalternity, Agency, Loving practices.

• Abstract:

  In times of implementation of the proposals for the Brazilian basic education policy, the National Common Core Curriculum /2017 (Base Nacional Comum Curricular - BNCC), herein referred to as  the Base, and no less important, times of defining the new model of High School, my provocative question “What cat got your tongue ?” brings reflections on how certain practices in the English language (EL)/Foreign Languages (FL) classroom, promoted by a certain group of teachers with certain types of agency, serve to place certain groups of students in a subaltern position marked by silencing and erasure. Thus, focusing on the development of the competencies contemplated in the Base, I seek to discuss some notions, presented on the online course offered by MEC on the AVAMEC platform, for teaching English language (EL) in the last grades of Middle School. The theoretical framework of this discussion encompasses the concepts of subalternity and agency broached in Monteiro (2021), with emphasis on the critical analyzes of Spivak (2010 [1988]) and Andreotti (2007, 2014), added to those of Monte Mór (2013a) on the relevance of studies and problematizations of Brazilian language policies in EL/FL Teachers Education program. Aiming for a responsible, egalitarian and just educational project, I also rely on the critical perspective of bell hooks (2021[2000]), who argues that there is no justice without love. I therefore defend the idea that subalternities arise where there is no love. From my perspective, this project requires loving practices in the classroom with non-hierarchical approaches, seeking to populate the classroom space with student contexts and desires. This calls for critical readings of ourselves (cf. Menezes de Souza, 2011), considering our implications for the continuity of the colonial logic that today permeates the digital universe, with interventions in data collection, development and learning of artificial intelligence.