“I AM THE FLOWER”: DECOLONIAL ENCOUNTERS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Abstract

This article is grounded in a pedagogical experience that developed over three English lessons in a Brazilian public school, where a student named Malu, a transgender and autistic girl, resisted the colonialities of being, knowledge, ability, and gender. Based on critical language education (Pennycook, 2021) and the praxiological framework of decoloniality, especially the coloniality of being (Maldonado-Torres, 2007), intersected with the colonialities of gender (Lugones, 2023), ability (Dirth & Adams, 2019), and knowledge (Mignolo, 2009), this critical/decolonial research analyzes how Malu redefined the lesson through her personal engagement with a poem. Drawing from classroom observations and Malu’s own productions, the study shows how her actions constituted a decolonial pedagogical biopraxis (Ortiz Ocaña et al., 2021), revealing possibilities for transforming the language classroom into a space of recognition and life affirmation.