(De)coloniality of time in teacher education: discussing narratives of language practicum experiences
Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper aims to discuss time in the context of language teacher education from a critical and decolonial perspective. The methodology is centered on the analysis of narratives and informed by the understanding that narrating is a political act that allows us to make sense of social life. Based on thematic analysis, written narratives by two undergraduate students in a Language and Literature program at a public university were examined according to three thematic axes. The analyses highlighted these students’ adversities in academic life resulting from demands of productivism, which may produce oppressive ways of experiencing time. Thus, we discuss the need for different paths of teacher education in the scenario of practicum experiences, which are more coherent with the real possibilities teachers face, paths that may escape from the time imperative shaped by colonial, capitalist, and neoliberal logics, which are hinged on efficiency and productivism.