Corazonando the pandemic with Kichwa language teachers
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged not merely as a global health crisis impacting millions, but as a pivotal moment compelling modern Western science to heed insights from the pluriverse (Pratt, 2022). It exacerbated existing challenges, including climate change, dehumanization, structural racism, and ex...
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Recursos: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) |
| Repositorio: | Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada (Online) |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8679143 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/tla/article/view/8679143 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Corazonar Kichwa teaching Indigenous epistemology Covid-19 Decoloniality Enseñanza kichwa Epistemología indígena Decolonialidad Ensino Kichwa Epistemologia indígena Decolonialidade |
| Resumo: | The COVID-19 pandemic emerged not merely as a global health crisis impacting millions, but as a pivotal moment compelling modern Western science to heed insights from the pluriverse (Pratt, 2022). It exacerbated existing challenges, including climate change, dehumanization, structural racism, and extractivism. In response to the adverse effects of neoliberal capitalism, Indigenous thought has gained prominence. My research among Kichwa educators in Ecuador spotlights corazonar—thinking with the heart—as a central guiding principle for living in moral, ethical, political, social, economic, spiritual, and communal spheres. This article utilizes corazonar (Guerrero Arias, 2018; 2012) to delve into the experiences of five Indigenous Kichwa teachers during the pandemic. Corazonar is deeply rooted in Andean cosmology, perceiving life's cycles as pachakutik (pacha: time, space, and existential meaning, and kutik: transformation). Guerrero Arias characterizes corazonar as sabiduría insurgente, or the insurgent wisdom of the heart, reflecting the struggle for existence under colonizing ideologies. This study examines the teachers' resilience, resourcefulness, and joy through corazonar’s interwoven elements: spatiality, temporality, and existential meaning. Rather than viewing COVID-19 as a dire calamity, the Kichwa teachers perceived it as a human-induced challenge, expecting that a period of scarcity would lead to eventual prosperity. Embracing corazonar during the pandemic offers scholars from both the Global South and North essential wisdom for cultivating heart-based education, emphasizing mutual care, obligation, and planetary responsibility. |
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