Exercising “critical proximity” in teacher education to mobilize viable novelties

Abstract

Moita Lopes and Fabrício (2019) argue that an attentive look at micromovements and their potential transgressors makes it possible to imagine the impossible, which is a distinctive feature on the production of “critical proximity chronicles”. Similarly, Paulo Freire (2021 [1992]) urges us to look for viable novelties, that is, to build something new based on our perception of its viability. In line with these constructs, we aim to build a Freirean “critical proximity chronicle” about our pedagogical practices, drawn from what we understand as critical teaching, in two distinct experiences that we shared as educators of language teachers. We focus on an undergraduate Letras discipline and on an extension course for teachers from the basic education network. The discussions we led throughout the remote meetings aimed at the critical practice of problematizing and reflecting on possible pedagogical undertakings in which hegemonic epistemologies and ontologies were placed under scrutiny. This attitude enabled the creation of a democratic space for the circulation of multiple narratives. Writing this chronicle constituted a dialogical space for the construction of new meanings from our pedagogical practices, as we sought to resignify them, while focusing on our perceptions of the narrative devices administered by these groups.