Wayuu people’s contributions to the indigenization of English language teaching in the Global South

In the Global South, English has entered the linguistic landscape of every country, making its way to almost all classrooms across nations, buttressed by language policies that make its learning mandatory. For Indigenous communities, this incorporation of English in the schooling processes of children and youth has further relegated their ancestral language in an education system already dominated by another colonial language. To counter this dominance of English, this Community-based Design Research explored the possibilities to Indigenize English classes in an Indigenous territory. This Indigenization sought to transform the colonial, instrumental approach to English teaching promoted by the Colombian National Bilingual Program by centering Wayuu epistemologies in English lessons. Drawing on Wayuu knowledge shared during talking circles led by community members and Knowledge Keepers, English lessons became a vehicle for reconnecting Wayuu youth to their culture and ways of being, knowing, and doing. Findings indicate that, in this implementation, Indigenous and Western literacies and languages coexisted in epistemic dialogue to advance Indigenous education, thus creating opportunities to move toward a diálogo de saberes – dialogue among knowledges, and an ecology of languages. This text concludes by arguing that it is possible to join forces with Native communities to use the privileged space English has gained in Indigenous schools to Indigenize English classes. That is, to bring Indigenous ways of being, knowing, doing, and speaking to the English classroom while advancing students’ knowledge of English.