Macedo (2019) asks "how can the field of foreign language education decolonize itself" (p. 14) and challenge "[…] its vast whiteness as reflected in classrooms, teacher preparation programs, and national and international language teaching?" (p. 14). In so doing he calls for a decolonial pedagogy in language education aware of the implications of teaching "colonial languages [such as English] that overcelebrate Eurocentric values while sacrificing ways of being and speaking of people who do not fit the white, middle-class mold and are always excluded from this mold no matter how hard they try to fit in" (p.12). Still according to Macedo (2019), it is possible to resist the perpetuation of colonial attitudes to decenter language education. In the same line, Kramsch (2019) claims that language education should resist neo-colonial interests by weakening the "traditional link between standard languages and national cultures" (p. 50). That is, moving away from market pressure and corporate view and, most importantly, delinking languages from their colonial and national states to emphasize 'pluriversality', 'hybridity', 'ecologies of knowledge', 'inbetweenness', 'border thinking', and 'Third Spaces'.
Third Spaces may be understood as potential sites for creating a more open and inclusive imaginaries of language use and appropriation as well as for reconceptualizing/reimagining language teacher education. The Third Space emphasizes the rhetoric of ambivalence in Bhabha's view (1990), and as such, it has the potential to weaken not only the authority of colonial discourse, but also the means by which it is exercised.
Hall and Wicaksono (2020) claim that the ontological dimensions of teachers' beliefs about English are relevant because "ideological beliefs based on different epistemological practices can become ontologies" (p. 6). That is why the authors emphasize the importance of challenging language ontologies that underlie conventional views of English. So, discussions on the ownership of English and native speakerism (Holliday, 2006) are key elements to rethink the ontology towards decolonization of English (Hall & Wicaksono, 2020).
The decolonization of English and language teacher education call for a combination of social and cognitive justice (Santos, 2007) with the lens of an 'ecology of knowledges' (Santos, 2007) about language in Third Spaces for decolonial praxis by bringing together different epistemologies and ways of knowing and being (Macedo, 2019; Wimpenny et al., 2022). In this world view, language education means evaluation, interaction, interrogation and connection of different types of knowing through the recognition of those knowledges produced on the other side of the abyssal lines (Santos, 2007). It implies being able to live with the difference and insecurity imposed by this world view seeing conflict as a productive space for questioning.
Helm (2018) states that preparing students for this type of world means exposing them to different models of thought and strategies to establish relationships, reviewing positions and perspectives, according to changing contexts, as well as being able to live together with complexity and uncertainty. Virtual Exchange (VE) is an innovative pedagogical approach (Dooly & Vinagre, 2022) that may afford Third Spaces for language education and alternative ontologies and epistemologies of language (Hall & Wicaksono, 2020) offering students contextualized learning opportunities to reflect on how knowledge is co-constructed and shared through multiple perspectives and collaboration. According to Dooly and Vinagre (2022), VE helps "people to see beyond appearances and simplifying discourses" (p. 400), that is, VE provides "realistic encounters" (p. 400) with users of the target language.
VE has increasingly been adopted in teacher education to prepare future teachers and continuous professional development for in-service teachers (Dooly & Vinagre, 2022). The Third Spaces created and harnessed in VE can provide pre- and in-service English teachers with opportunities to examine, elaborate, and integrate new information into their existing belief systems. As such, VE has the potential to realize SDG4 (quality of higher education) by offering a pluricentric approach and space of inclusion and diversity for students and teachers promoting cooperation across different cultures and languages.
References:
Bhabha, H. K. (1990). The Third Space: interview with Homi Bhabha. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: community, culture, difference (pp. 207-221). Lawrence & Wishart.
Dooly, M., & Vinagre, M. (2022). Research into practice: virtual exchange in language teaching and learning. Language Teaching, 55(3), 392–406. https://10.1017/S0261444821000069
Hall, C., & Wicaksono, R. (2020). Approaching ontologies of English. In C. Hall & R. Wicaksono (Eds.), Ontologies of English: conceptualising the language for learning, teaching, and assessment (pp. 3–12). Cambridge University Press. https://10.1017/9781108685153.001
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Marlina, R. (2014). The pedagogy of English as an international language (EIL): more reflections and dialogues. In R. Marlina & R. A. Giri (Eds.), The Pedagogy of English as an International Language: perspectives from scholars, teachers and students (pp. 1–19). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06127-6_1
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Stein, S., & Andreotti, V. de O. (2016). Decolonization and Higher Education. In M. Peters (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory (pp.1–6). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_479-1
Wimpenny, K., Finardi, K. R., Orsini-Jones, M., & Jacobs, L. (2022). Knowing, being, relating and expressing through Third Space Global South-North COIL: digital inclusion and equity in international higher education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 26(2), 279–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153221094085
