EPISTEMOLOGIES OF CRITICAL RACIAL LITERACY IN THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXT: IDENTITIES OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER AND INTERSECTIONALITY WITH RACE, GENDER AND SOCIAL CLASS

Abstract

This article discusses epistemologies about critical racial literacy in the Brazilian context. The article also analyses the identities of language teachers in the sense that they intersect with race, gender, social class and critical racial literacy. Previous studies have examined applied linguistics in relation to the identities of language teachers and the racial issue in Brazil (MELO, 2015; NASCIMENTO, 2019; GONÇALVES; ROMERO; AMORIN, 2020), as well as outside Brazil (BLOCK, 2009; KUBOTA; LIN, 2009). However, there remains the need to understand more about the professional identities of language teachers and how they interrelate with issues of race, gender and social class. This article is intended to fill that gap, and the autobiographical narratives of language teachers are analysed from this perspective. The narratives that I use have been generated through interactions during several courses that I administered on the subject in Brazil. The theoretical framework that I use is derived from the following: autobiographical narratives (BARKHUIZEN, 2013); critical racial theory (FERREIRA, 2011, 2014; LADSON-BILLINGS, 1998); critical racial literacy (FERREIRA, 2015a, GARDNER, 2017); and intersectionality (CRENSHAW, 1990). I conclude that the identities of language teachers intersect with issues of race, gender and social class. Teachers negotiate their various identities in the classroom context; however, in order to do this, it is necessary for them to firstly perceive their own intersecting professional identities.