Historically, Mexico has been a multilingual society (Heath, 1972). However, currently, Spanish and English have been hegemonic, rendering Indigenous languages, and their speakers, as inferior (Clemente & Higgins, 2008). In order to resist the language ideologies that portray English as a desirable and modern language (Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Motha, 2020) and in turn render Indigenous languages as inferior and undesired, teacher educators in Mexico have attempted to decolonize primary English language teaching (PELT), by way of raising awareness among "English" student-teachers and young children about the importance of recognizing, valuing and including Mexico's cultural diversity and people's multilingualism (López-Gopar, 2016; Mignolo, 2000). As an example of Mexican teacher educators' and English student-teachers' attempts at decolonizing PELT, this paper presents the results of one particular critical-ethnographic-action-research study involving three student-teachers working with low-socio-economic-status children at a community library in an urban center in Oaxaca, Mexico. The methodological basis of this study is a form of politicized qualitative research, which analyzes and discusses subjectivities related to the "social problems of vulnerable groups" in order to make a "contribution" (Flick, 2015, p. 122). The collected data consist of student teachers' diaries, audio-recordings of most classes, video-recordings of significant parts of the classes, photographs of class activities and course materials, and scanned copies of the children's work samples. After analyzing the data in an iterative manner, this presentation focuses on three emerging themes: (1) the development of a critical thematic unit centered on children's community eating and health practices; (2) challenges faced by the student-teachers; and (3) positive experiences the student-teachers had in teaching the above-mentioned critical thematic unit. At the end of the presentation, it is concluded that classroom practices aiming for social equity must take children's views and their family's ways of being and knowing seriously and respectfully, start at a personal and local level while addressing the trends and issues of the language classroom at a global level. References:Clemente, A., & Higgins, M. (2008). Performing English with a postcolonial accent: Ethnographic narratives from Mexico. London, UK: the Tufnell Press.Flick, U. (2015). Qualitative data analysis 2.0: Developments, trends, challenges. In N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina (Eds.), Qualitative inquiry and the politics of research (pp. 119–139). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.Heath, S. B. (1972). La Política de lenguaje en México: De la colonia a la nación. México: Secretaria de Educación Publica: Instituto Nacional Indigenista.Kumaravadivelu, B. 2016. 'The decolonial option in English teaching: Can the subaltern act?' TESOL Quarterly 50/1, 66-85.López Gopar, M. 2016. Decolonizing Primary English Language Teaching. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Mignolo, W. 2000. Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Motha, S. 2020. 'Is an antiracist and decolonizing applied linguistics possible?' Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 40, 128-33.
