Aprender Inglés en la U-diversidad: The Case of Colombian University Students with Multiple Marginalized Identities Disrupting Colonial Language Policies and Curricula

Required to learn English, Black, Indigenous, Migrant and Rural Colombian university students often find themselves oppressed by a colonial curriculum that overlooks their intersecting marginalized identities. Drawing from decoloniality and intersectionality, this paper discusses how coloniality and students’ plethora of identities converge in the English classroom and engage in a dance of oppression and resistance. Mediated by participatory dialogues, results of this (case) study indicate that engaging these minoritized students in a collective initiative to decolonize the English classroom enabled them to a) value the social, cultural, and linguistic identities of their territories b) reflect on the implication of colonial language policies in the displacement of ancestral languages, and c) gain resources that aid their permanence in higher education. These findings hold the potential to inform language teachers, universities, and policymakers about the possibilities a decolonial approach to ELT affords in the critical transformation of the English curriculum.