Latin American Matriarchal Epistemologies: Pedagogies of Hope and Indigenous Guidance

Abstract

Latin America offers a unique opportunity to reimagine educational leadership through its complex and intersectional frameworks where rematriation movements and liberatory pedagogies are the driving forces for “postponing the end of the world,” as proposed by Ailton Krenak (2020). While currently Latin American democracies are less than ideal as environmental and Indigenous initiatives have been directly attacked by ultraconservative politics, there are consistent foundations that deepen in each context by leading the way to a hopeful future. These foundations are the loud voices in the Latin American continent and they are multilingually expressed in Quechua, Guarani, Aymara, and more, as is also immersed in critical literacies; in processes of conscientização; experienced in the arts and the theater of the Oppressed; and loudly coming from the slums and the lungs of women like Mercedes Sosa, and many more. These are the absolute breakthroughs of hope we will continue to listen, follow, work with, and feel. Such breakthroughs are the pedagogies and the educational leadership of hope across Latin America, a region which has pushed to center on Indigenous mobilization and guidance.

Citation

Baptista, J. and Brigidi, B.B. (2022), "Latin American Matriarchal Epistemologies: Pedagogies of Hope and Indigenous Guidance", Wane, N.N., Todd, K.L., Chau, C. and Watts, H. (Ed.) Decolonizing and Indigenizing Visions of Educational Leadership (Studies in Educational Administration), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-468-520221009