Research on education: social movements and epistemological reconstruction in a context of coloniality

This article seeks to clarify some epistemological aspects that ground an investigative action consistent with emancipatory education in Latin America. The background from which the knowledge and alternatives for the transformation of reality are drawn consists of discussions of coloniality. History reveals that, along with epistemic servility, there has been a counter-hegemonic movement which values not only autochthones' knowledge but also the different ways of knowing. We have adopted the concept of epistemologies of the South of Boaventura de Sousa Santos to designate the expressions which have historically been made invisible and which have found multiple ways to survive, resist and express themselves. After a historical philosophical-epistemological review which aims to contribute to the reconstruction and expansion of our theoretical framework, we discuss the role of social movements in Latin America as a place of genesis of popular education and of forms of participatory research which may continue to inspire transformative research practices. We argue that social movements, despite their political and ideological heterogeneity, may contain theoretical potential to be an epistemological place of critical assessment of the ideological currents of the North, to foster the dispute about the interpretation of realities and to stimulate research methodologies which are participatory and promote citizenship.

Research on education; Participatory methodologies; Popular education; Social movements; Coloniality