This is a part of the article series Decolonial Praxis: Going Beyond Empty Words, edited by Fernando David Márquez Duarte, Dulce Alarcón Payán and Javier Daniel Alarcón Mares. Editorial and Translation Assistant: Lorenia Gutiérrez Moreto Cruz.

This article is presented as a result of a report of observations made in secondary education in its different modalities: federal, technical and telesecundaria. The purpose was to know the conceptions of students about infrastructure, school organization, social relations in the community, being a student, the concept of history, in addition to the teaching and learning of the subject. The methodology used is described in the regional diagnosis by making use of research techniques such as: observation, interview, and focus group. Subsequently, the epistemological paradigm used (phenomenological paradigm) is presented, contrasting with theories such as: the critical theory of education, the theory of context and the theory of social practices. The results of the regional diagnosis highlight relevant elements to consider in teaching and learning: coexistence, leisure moments, reflected through an educational proposal in history, in the modality of face-to-face education developed in a general secondary school. This was conducted during the month of December 2019 and the execution of the proposal in January 2020. The purposes, competencies, didactic sequences, strategies, evidence, and evaluations were undertaken through a transdisciplinary and decolonization approach. 

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Among the results obtained from the applied educational proposal, the following stand out: most of the students modified their conception of history acquiring new forms in their learning, linked the classes with current realities, promoting the reflection of history as present and future. In addition to knowing different representations of the world and associating decolonization with words such as: liberation, reconstruction, revolution, independence, autonomy, among others. Finally, the study addresses an interesting topic with an innovative methodology: transdisciplinarity in history shows the results of pedagogical interventions, which translates into relevance due to the application of decolonial pedagogy, especially in the current post-COVID situation. The findings, as well as their methodological application, can be linked and transferred to other educational spaces in other regions of Mexico, even apply to other subjects of the secondary educational level. It can be argued that this study applies a creative, dynamic and transferable methodology. 

Theories, Concepts and Epistemological Paradigm

The theories of this study emphasize the school, the context and the teaching and learning practices of history at this educational level, among them are: 

The critical theory of education (Gimeno 1995).

The critical theory of education (Gimeno 1995).

Context theory (Van Dijk 2001).

Context theory (Van Dijk 2001).

The theory of social practices (Bourdieu 1980).

The theory of social practices (Bourdieu 1980).

Transdisciplinarity. 

Transdisciplinarity. 

The concept of decolonization.

The concept of decolonization.

The critical theory of education (Gimeno 1995) studies educational phenomena as an alternative through its approaches, from the curricular field, addressing teaching-learning as a process, makes use of other pedagogies including alternatives, proposes dialectical relationships, gets supported on the coherence of phenomena and events, contemplates actors participating in the educational processes – authorities,  teachers, students, school community – and constantly seeks social transformation. The critical theory of education was an important explanatory source of these realities through dialectical relations present in the schools studied. The contributions of this theory are important, especially at the end of the diagnosis of this research-intervention, since it allowed the initial purposes to be raised from alternative pedagogies that seek social transformation. In this case in the subject of history from decolonization. This is understood as self-liberation in self-determination, in politics and in the social dimension of people to question the forms of authority and to allow sharing from new community and social models that correspond to their needs from the awareness of their conditions. 

Context theory (Van Dijk 2001) considers explanations of the process of adaptation of discourse to the communicative situation from reception and interpretation. The context in this theory is dynamic, due to changes during communication, where updates and adaptations arising in social reality or in the interpretation of discourse are common. Thus, the context influences the development of discourse. The context generates models built by everyday experiences through consciousness, from the situations given in the realities by interactions, times, places, acts, among others, which are manifested in individual mental representations from discourse. 

The theory of social practices (Bourdieu 1980), necessary for understanding the educational phenomenon under study, assumes everything social as the practices that are carried out, which are integrated by practical knowledge (practical knowledge and skills), senses (teleo-affective elements, cultural valuations and repertoires) and materialities (tools, infrastructures and resources). These practices are links between saying and doing. 

Transdisciplinarity is considered a research strategy, which transcends the disciplines of knowledge, with articulated, interpretive, pertinent and holistic approaches that generate support between disciplines of knowledge, or between common or similar areas. Transdisciplinarity  conceives "the object of study" as everything susceptible to rationality (proposed from classical science to current science), time stages that make it necessary and valid but insufficient to approach the aforementioned "objects of study" from the fragmentation of disciplines for their understanding in the realities of current times. These authors propose the need to explore different interactions between education subjects in order to face complex problems. A core aspect proposed is dialogue or communication through habitual discourse.

Transdisciplinarity is a relevant concept in the necessary change of education today, since it strengthens the education of reason, by observing and interpreting, as well as modifying, based on complexity (Morín, 1988), universality and consciousness. Transdisciplinarity as a concept, its meaning and orientation, is to go beyond the disciplines of knowledge, to understand the world, its social and natural phenomena and the people themselves. By articulating these elements from a perspective of unity and integration of the disciplines in dynamic, open and flexible scenarios, we are able to aspire to transform. 

From the concept of decolonization, we look for another perspective, that applies to the societies that were colonized. This is an issue that has been taken up by intellectuals who place themselves in a decolonizing perspective. There are authors who proposed the construction of a comprehensive view from those who suffer, that is, the colonized.

The starting point of recent socio-cultural processes by focusing on visibility and gradual recognition such as decolonization, favor the academic-social and integral formation of people, in this case students from the basic levels. Thus, it is necessary to conceptualize decolonization, which is conceived as the process of self-determination, freedom and independence that transcends diverse elements of human life such as the political in a colony or territory in relation to the foreign nation that dominates it in a condition of socio-political-economic-cultural dependence.

It is intended that from criticism, science achieves epistemological decolonization in the life of people, as well as from the economic and political structures that sustain the dominant system. It is also proposed to decolonize the cosmovision of all the different communities, to recover our own epistemology of Latin America and to detach ourselves from those Eurocentric epistemologies that limit us in recognizing ourselves as full human beings, with capacities and human potential without limits. In addition to the recognition of the processes of colonial theft, of genocide, of looting, among other situations, that demerit us as human beings. Decolonization poses resistance not only in persisting, but in the creation of the new, of the necessary, of one's own alternative; in the knowledge, recognition and transformation of the current situation towards other worlds that at this time are possible because of self-determination; to achieve freedom with our aspirations.

This intervention proposal contemplates the educational level of Secundaria (7th to 9th grades) as established in the 2011 Curriculum of SEP (Public Education Secretary in México), the subject to be trained in the subject of history considers: the use of language to interact in various social and cultural contexts, that the student identifies problems, formulates questions, makes judgments, proposes solutions and decides. In addition to using information from different sources to interpret and explain social, economic and cultural processes. It is also about understanding and contributing to democratic life, in addition to knowing and valuing the characteristics and potentialities of the human being. It attends to diversity through recognition and respect. 

A thinking, creative, empathetic, imaginative, critical, reflective, initiative-oriented, responsible individual is proposed. An individual understanding of past, present, and future realities, an integral socio-political-cultural-economic being. An individual who participates in the construction of a democratic citizenship focused on human development based on historical-formative processes and supported by human values and principles, considering personal, natural, collective and contextual possibilities.

The decolonization of thought in this proposal contributes to the achievement of the proposed purposes of formation, especially because when thought is decolonized, the individual participates in a process of personal and collective self-determination in the space in which they develop and move as in the family, the neighborhood, the community. In relation to what dominates them and creates that dependence in various areas: political, social, economic. 

These elements also allow us to provide elements of epistemological decolonization of life, of the structures and superstructures that perpetuate capitalism as the dominant system. Decolonization of thought favors the recovery of processes to generate our own knowledge that allows us to interpret and understand the world from yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Development and Methods

The study was carried out in the state of Michoacán, Mexico (Inegi, 2020), has 113 municipalities; five of them make up the Zacapu Region in the area of education and are: Zacapu, Coeneo, Huaniqueo, Panindicuaro and Jiménez. It should be noted that the state has a population of 4,748,846 inhabitants that represent 3.8% of the total of the country. The population distribution is the following: 71% in urban areas and 29% in rural areas. Average schooling in the state is 8.6 years of study, which represents a little more than 8th grades.  Indigenous language........

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