ProfeDeELE Website and the Meaningful–Subversive Teaching of Hispanic American Language and Literature

Abstract

The present study examines the relationship between meaningful–subversive learning, as outlined by Marco Antônio Moreira (2006), and critical literacy in the composition of the didactic unit Los haikus de Mario Benedetti, proposed as a teaching resource by the ProfeDeELE.es platform. Considering the Latin American historical context marked by military dictatorships and by the association of “subversion” with a threat to the status quo, we discuss the contemporary relevance of this concept in the educational field, in which hegemonic discourses continue to sustain prejudice, intolerance, and forms of symbolic domination. In this scenario, meaningful–subversive learning and critical literacy emerge as a pedagogical perspective capable of forming critical subjects who are able to navigate the uncertainties and instabilities of postmodernity. Drawing on the contributions of Postman and Weingartner (1965, 1969), Moreira argues that teaching should abandon a transmissive logic and instead emphasize problem-posing, inquiry, and the activation of Ausubel’s (2000) subsumers. The analysis of the didactic unit demonstrates how these principles are materialized: the absence of prior information about Benedetti or the haiku typology, the encouragement of autonomous research, the construction of perceptual models, and the central role of language as a mediator of learning. We also show how the activities promote critical literacy, relativization, aesthetic perception, and cognitive reconstruction, enabling learners to understand both the structure of the textual typology and its function within the lyric genre. In the end, we conclude that the ProfeDeELE proposal aligns with a meaningful–subversive pedagogy by integrating language, literature, and critical literacy, contributing to the formation of sensitive, creative reader-authors who are actively engaged in their formative process.