The purpose of this panel is to shed light into the coloniality exhibited by higher education institutions and music teacher education programs in four Latin American countries and present research-based practices that will allow for a decolonial turn in the development of pre-service music educators as well as their future instruction. The colonization of Latin America engendered Eurocentric narratives that still shape music teacher education programs in the region and the institutions that offer said degrees (Mateiro 2010, 2011). The association of Western European Art Music (WEAM) with modern discourses deeply influences the bureaucratic practices of higher education music institutions that host music teacher degrees (Shifres & Rosabal-Coto, 2017). For instance, in Brazil, in spite of the colonialist structure in higher education, a gradual increase in affirmative action policies in undergraduate and graduate programs has taken place. These changes are a historic repair and manifest in both admission processes and curricular changes (Author 2, 2021). However, pressure from the bureaucratic system and the Conservatorial Habitus (Pereira, 2013) still slow down the process of change. In Perú, The National School of Folklore (NSF) trains professional folklore musicians and music teachers by retrofitting vernacular expressive forms from different regions of the country into a curriculum that reproduces colonial discourses of music, professionalism, and folklore. Despite disseminating Peruvian Indigenous and Afrodescendant traditions, Eurocentric notions of music, art, professionalism, and folklore, continue to reproduce patriarchal, racist, colonial hierarchies of power, knowledge and being through tropes, assumptions, and pedagogies (Author 3, 2022). In México, 26 million people self-identify with some Indigenous heritage (Consejo Nacional de Población, 2016); nevertheless, Mexico’s public education has failed to embrace Indigenous perspectives in the national curriculum and adequately support the Indigenous education branch (Author, 4, 2022). In Puerto Rico, in spite of having four traditional musical expressions, music teacher education programs in the island do not allow musical development outside of the WEAM cannon and train pre-service educators from an Eurocentric perspective (Author 1 & Related Author, 2025). In face of the coloniality facing music education in the region, this panel aims at offering alternative models that will allow departure from Eurocentric hegemonic narratives across Latin America. In Brazil, an expanded look at the growth of affirmative action policies related to university music and music education programs and their possible impacts on curricular changes at institutions in different regions of the country is offered. Through content analysis of documents and social media publications from analyzed institutions, it was possible to identify which actions transcended the space of the curriculum as a document, realizing plans of study as a practice and social prophylaxis (Author 2, 2019). Under an eclectic, iconoclastic approach to music learning that addresses power and coloniality, students at the NSF in Perú, build networks of practice that bypass institutional boundaries by combining useful institutional knowledge with experiences acquired in other social spaces like hip hop collectives, indigenous communities, and migrant clubs. A reform of higher music education is proposed which could draw inspiration from the ways in which students embody “world-crossing” and ch’ixi practices (Rivera Cusicanqui, 2010) while navigating their identities as “folklore professionals”.Turning to Mexico, a 7-day community-immersive learning experience that took place in 2022 in the Huasteca region is discussed. In this project, a cohort of music education students of a Mexican university had the opportunity to learn the way in which local Huasteco music culture bearers transmit their musics traditions to children and youth. It will be discussed, reflections on the impact that this learning process had on pre-services music educators. In the case of Puerto Rico, arguments for the admission of musicians of indigenous music, the promotion of traditional musics in K-12 settings, and the bridging between formal institutions and community music programs is proposed. Germane community music research in Puerto Rico exposes a model for the integration of traditional music into formal spaces (Author 1, 2024); non-formal practices in Puerto Rico provide the blueprint for pedagogical approaches for diverse learners while also offering the ethical framework that allows for a faithful representation in formal spaces.This panel will consist of an initial 40-to-45-minute presentation in which each of the panelists will have up to ten minutes to outline coloniality practices in music teacher education in their particular country, and the research they are undertaking to address them. Subsequently, the panel will engage amongst themselves and the audience with pre-determined questions that address common Eurocentric practices and how a decolonial music teacher education could look like in Latin America.