THE DECOLONIAL OPTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CURRICULUM OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS LA OPCIÓN DECOLONIAL: IMPLICACIONES PARA EL CURRÍCULO DE PROGRAMAS DE FORMACIÓN DE DOCENTES EN LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS

This reflection article derives from the discussions and argumentative sessions that took place at the heart of a doctoral seminar on Decolonial Theories. With this paper, the author intends a twofold purpose: on the one hand, to present his perceptions about the literature analyzed and discussed along the seminar, and on the other, to shed light on how such literature can have a positive impact on the curricula of Foreign Language Teacher Education Programs. The ideas that the author puts forward are the product of discussions with colleagues and teachers; in that sense, the arguments presented here are open to further scrutiny and academic dialogue with other scholars. It is hoped that this article contributes to the current discussions on the construction of curricula, the teaching of foreign languages from an emancipatory perspective, and the search for social justice in education. 1 This paper stems from the discussions and argumentative sessions within the Decolonial Theories seminar, offered in the Interinstitutional Doctorate program in Education at Universidad del Valle, in Cali-Colombia. 2 Universidad del Valle, Cali Colombia alexander.ramirez.e@correounivalle.edu.co https://orcid. org/ 0000-0002-7122-9537


INTRODUCTION
The current globalized world poses many complexities, as well as advantages, for the ways humans live nowadays: modern transportation, communication technologies, the Internet and social networks have made a huge impact in the way people across countries interact, negotiate and collaborate. But the same factors that bring us together, also make us prompt to conflict (Jackson, 2014), pushing the world towards a state of global upheaval.
Similarly, globalization has uncovered ancient and longstanding social inequalities stemming from the differences in race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or regional background, just to name a few. Such inequalities might not be new, but they are more evident than ever, which makes people more aware of the injustices committed against others and against themselves. Not surprisingly, in a world where injustice based on difference is sadly and increasingly the norm, the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities have placed a great deal of research attention in concepts such as critical theory, decoloniality, and social justice.
Languages are not alien to this new reality. On the contrary, today more than ever we hear of bilingualism, multilingualism, and interculturality, as phenomena that affect everyone. What is paradoxical, however, is that the languages that unite human beings in communication, mutual understanding, negotiation of meanings, and conflict resolution, are also a differentiating factor that separates the world into a sort of linguistic castes that do not escape to the logic of colonial hegemony. It is against this background that this paper is written with a twofold purpose:  (2009) define coloniality as the dependence from an imperial organization of society, that rules our thoughts, as well as our forms of thinking and being; this "subtle" imperialism is "the hidden side of modernity" (p. 132) as there can be "no modernity without coloniality" (Tlostanova & Mignolo, 2009, p.132).
As a result, our societies struggle in a constant quarrel of uneven power relationships where dominant groups (be they cultural, ethnic, political, religious, or even academic groups/ elites) exert oppression over some dominated groups. In that sense, our vision of the world, as well as the institutions and categories we use to organize our societies and make meaning out of our surrounding reality, are the product of colonization processes as well as the product of modernity.
Decoloniality, therefore, is the radical response of the oppressed, whereby societies are encouraged to "question the ways in which power works through the discursive practices and performances of schooling" (Popkewitz, 1999, p. 1). Decoloniality is the banner of postmodernism, and the process of identifying and reverting longstanding inequalities. It is a wake-up call for all human beings to be aware of the hidden agendas and ruling powers that control our societies; but apart from being merely aware, decoloniality implies action: it B O L E T Í N R E D I P E 1 0 ( 1 2 ) : 1 0 2 -1 1 2 -D I C I E M B R E 2 0 2 1 -I S S N 2 2 5 6 -1 5 3 6 · 1 0 4 · entails "epistemically and effectively delinking from the imperial/colonial organization of society" (Tlostanova & Mignolo, 2009, p.132).
In other words, once we become aware of the colonial system(s) that surround us and that we have somehow helped to maintain, our coherent choice is no other than rupturing such a yoke (Macedo, 2019), and acting against it.  With this in mind, the field of FLTE constitutes the seedbed over which change for the future generations can be promoted; pre-service FL teachers have the potential of making a huge impact in terms of how the future generations will use languages, both mother tongue and foreign ones, to participate in international scenarios and make their voices heard. Accordingly, FLTE programs must strive for the decolonial option in search for the emancipation of preservice teachers: an emancipation of the self, of epistemologies, of pedagogies, of languages, and finally, an emancipation that will allow for the heterarchical thought in our society (Kontopolous, 1993, as cited in Castro-Gómez andGrosfoguel, 2007, p.18). As teachers to be, they hold the power and the responsibility of educating the generations to come, and finally establishing a paradigm shift in education.

DECOLONIZING THE CURRICULUM OF FLTE PROGRAMS
This section is devoted to analyzing and reflecting over some core elements of curriculum that can be transformed by adopting the decolonial option. Reagan and Osborn (2019)  Thus, if we agree with the fact that education is a political act, then the decolonial option is the way to promote a democratic education that breaks, once and for all, with the banking practice of knowledge whereby teachers deposit knowledge in the recipient learners, in a transactional fashion (Freire, 1997 Furthermore, pre-service teachers must be early introduced to the critical analysis of the nativespeakerism fallacy, as well as to the avoidance of traces of linguistic supremacy, that beget negative ideologies both in the foreign languages and the mother tongue (e.g., the idea that certain regional accents in Colombia are better or "more elegant" than others"). •

EDUCATION
The need for an intercultural approach in second language teaching has been pointed out since the late 1980s, yet culture has been marginal to the curriculum of communicative language teaching despite the relevance that culture has for language teachers (Corbett, 2003). A reason for this might be the lack of systematic models to include culture in the curriculum (Corbett, 2003). Authors such as Palaiologou and Dietz (2012) argue that "the struggle for multicultural and/or intercultural education is increasingly justified by the apparent inability of the majority society to meet the new challenges created by B O L E T Í N R E D I P E 1 0 ( 1 2 ) : 1 0 2 -1 1 2 -D I C I E M B R E 2 0 2 1 -I S S N 2 2 5 6 -1 5 3 6 · 1 0 7 · the heterogeneity of pupils" (p.7). In other words, the constantly changing world has also changed our classrooms in terms of diversity, so much so that cultural aspects are no longer an option but a compulsory requirement in curricula. On a similar token, Reagan and Osborn (2019) call for a true paradigm shift, whereby an intercultural approach enriches the languagelearning experience and contributes to the global educational goals "of better understanding one's own community as well as those of others" (Corbet, 2003, p.44). In a nutshell, FLTE curricula need to be designed around an intercultural approach across, so that the core of language teaching may be an ample understanding and respect for cultures (Kramsch, 1993). Such an approach is an urgency, not merely because of the changes in communications technology, transportation, and changing demographics of the current globalized world (Jackson, 2014), as well as the demands of internationalized and multilingual educational systems (Griffith et al, 2016), but also because an intercultural orientation is a humanistic way of viewing the world (Liddicoat, 2021).

TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS
Textbooks and language teaching materials hold the power to encourage perspectives and to spread ideologies -both linguistic and cultural ones-about others. Such ideologies may be biased, colonized and stereotypical, which is the reason why the decolonization of textbooks and materials is a must. In this regard, Núñez-Pardo (2020) asserts that FL textbooks "ways of being, knowing, and exerting power that hide, distort or misrepresent the multiplicity of sociocultural realities in local contexts" (p.122). Even though FLTE program might use textbooks or not, the pre-service teachers that these programs educate will have to use them at some point in their future jobs. Therefore, they must be taught how to analyze these materials in search for colonizing elements, and what is more, preservice teachers need to learn the way in which those textbooks materials can actually be used with decolonizing purposes. As Tomlinson (2016) puts it, textbooks and materials are not good or bad in themselves, it is the use that teachers make out of them which holds the potential of transformative or decolonial practices in our classrooms.
The decolonial option, then, must serve the purpose of encouraging pre-service and inservice language teachers to design materials repressive practice on pre-service teachers, and these latter end up reproducing the same power abuse on their students. In Shohamy's (1991) words, the "use of tests occurs at all levels -teachers with students, principals with teachers, regional officials with principles and national authorities with regional officials" (Shohamy, 1991, p. 35 and meanings, as the basis of another rationality that can claim, with legitimacy, some universality" (Quijano, 1992, p. 447 it must be part of that basic universal education we wish for all. Keeping English from anyone, whether actively or indirectly, must now be seen as a social injustice" (p. 3). In this sense, school curriculum has to strive for the development of agency in equity in its teacher and student bodies, so that a new kind of citizenship is formed: one that begets active decolonial participants of social change and social justice (Bassey, 2010).