Critical intercultural education for social transformation through intercultural responsibility in a context of decoloniality and internationalisation

The proposed research investigates the role of critical intercultural and international education to promote intercultural responsibility in teacher trainees in Mexican Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), or Escuelas Normales (ENs). The study draws on a theoretical and socio-contextual framework rooted in coloniality to explore the interplay of Latin American intercultural perspectives and decolonial internationalisation in the intercultural responsibility of future educators trained at Mexican ENs through a Critical Intercultural Pedagogy. The socio-historical context of Mexico still calls for emancipation and equal validation of knowledge, forcing a critical examination of power-structured relationships. The study presents a particular approach to the strategic programmes implemented at ENs in order to foster future educators' criticality and intercultural responsibility, thus enabling them to achieve a social impact in their educational and social communities. Methodologically, this investigation undertakes a qualitative study integrating dialogical, observational, thematic, and documental analysis of trainee teachers and educational programmes in three ENs. The analysis of internationalisation programmes and teacher trainees' intercultural experiences in training and in the local community will reveal ideologies of internationalisation, and appropriate critical intercultural pedagogies for the development of intercultural responsibility among these trainees as Mexican future educators. The analysis will provide the basis for constructing a reflexive plan of internationalisation as a decolonial tool through intercultural responsibility.