Land-based Literacies in Education
Tatana Becerra Posada, PhD
Associate Professor- Universidad de Córdoba, Montería-Colombia
March 27- 12:30 pm- 2 pm - ROOM EDUC 434- Faculty of Education Building - McGill University
In-person Event
Informed by Pluriversality and Pluriversal Literacies, this workshop seeks to contribute to the construction of alternative teaching approaches that recognize the plurality of knowledge, languages, and literacies present in the world. We will describe the process of identifying emerging local literacies from interaction with the land and bodies of water, which support social practices for the co-creation of decolonizing school curricula.
We will analyze with participants artifacts, excerpts, and materials that vindicate local knowledge and land-based literacies as assets for school learning. Participants will then engage in a participatory and collaborative design exercise, starting from the recognition of land-based literacies as a starting point for reconfiguring teaching-learning objectives and designing activities and materials that strengthen students' relationship with these local literacies. We will discuss the potential of these curricular developments to promote the appreciation of the literacies of rural communities and their territories, as well as pedagogical principles that humanize community members.
In summary, this workshop will offer curricular models that challenge the coloniality present in national curricula, revaluing linguistic practices, vernacular languages, local literacies, and the knowledge of rural communities within formal educational contexts.
Dr. Tatana Becerra Posada is an Associate Professor of English as an Additional Language and Literacies at Universidad de Córdoba, Colombia, where she has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in ELT Methods, Applied Linguistics, Language Learning Assessment, Practitioner Research. She has also led teacher professional development programs centered on co-design. Over the past four years, she has engaged in participatory, equitable partnerships with educators in Colombia and Canada.
Committed to collaboration and interdisciplinarity as guiding principles in both research and teaching, Tatiana designs teacher-education curricula that foster the co-construction of knowledge across disciplines and contexts. She actively collaborates with peers across fields, as reflected in her involvement in academic networks such as the Sustainable Futures Global Network, Building 21 at McGil University, and the Learning Sciences Network of Canada. Her work has been published in high-impact journals, including TESOL Quarterly, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, ELT Journal, and Profile Journal. Her doctoral research, framed within pluriversality, advances land-based literacies curriculum co-designs that challenge coloniality in rural communities. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and a commitment to co-designing knowledge with educators and communities, she seeks to advance more inclusive and context-responsive approaches to language education.
