Latin American Epistemologies

Catalog description

When it comes to preparing teachers, we speak about "knowledge," since that is the foundational raw material with which teachers work. Nonetheless, what is knowledge? What is knowledge for Latin Americans? Is it something generated only when teachers and students meet together? Or is it created spontaneously? That question implies concrete, but mostly philosophical, implications. In other words, it is an epistemological matter. This course is devoted to showing how we have built our epistemologies growing up in Latin America. Throughout history, foreign approaches tried to translate our thought. Currently, many scholars and international organizations are seeking to hear directly from us. This is why "decolonial thinking" is in vogue. Since you as an educator or teacher work with Latin American students on a daily basis, you have the opportunity to learn what knowledge and ways of knowing your students already have. This is related not only to what contents or skills your students already handle. This course will show you the way in which we have grasped our ways of knowing through our ways of being, since our cosmovisions, cultural learning, qualitative symbols, and stories have shaped our ways to know (epistemology) the world.