Local textbook production as decolonial praxis: collaborative design, workflow, and epistemic intervention in the development of Zeitgeist

Marceli Aquino

doi:10.5007/2175-8026.2026.e109949

Autores

Marceli Aquino Universidade de São Paulo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0518-7639

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2026.e109949

Palavras-chave:

Decoloniality, Textbook development, Collaborative authorship, German as an Additional Language, Global South

Resumo

This article examines Zeitgeist, a collaboratively authored German language textbook produced in Brazilian public universities, as a decolonial pedagogical intervention and model of locally grounded materials design. Based on critical document analysis and a reconstruction of the collaborative workflow, the study shows how decolonial principles shaped planning, writing, piloting, revision, and multimodal production. It highlights thematic organization, pluricentric phonetics, authentic texts, participatory authorship, and diverse voices and accents as resistance to Eurocentric textbook models. By presenting this workflow as adaptable, the article offers guidance for Global South contexts working with limited funding and uneven infrastructure. Zeitgeist thus emerges as an epistemic praxis that redefines whose knowledge shapes language education.

Biografia do Autor

Marceli Aquino, Universidade de São Paulo

Professor of German Language at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), with a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

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