Online Assignment 3
Assignment: Visual Response – Reimagining the Language Classroom
Main aim. Through this assignment, I would like you to:
-Interpret and represent decolonial metaphors through visual means.
-Engage critically with assigned readings, drawing connections across authors and concepts.
-Reflect on your own positionality and pedagogical context in relation to Colombian ELT.
-Develop multimodal academic literacies by combining visual and textual expression.
Copyright Pinterest
Task overview:
As part of our ongoing exploration of decoloniality in applied linguistics and Colombian ELT, this assignment invites you to create a visual collage that represents one of the key metaphors explored in the past readings:
“Unauthorized outlooks” (Guerrero-Nieto, 2023)
“Non-normative bodies” (Castañeda-Peña & Ubaque-Casallas, 2024)
“(Re)imagining teacher education” (Valencia, 2022b)
Your collage will serve as a creative and critical response to these ideas and will be shared with the group through our class blog. Your collage is intended to be a space of dialogue and disruption—a place where knowledge, identity, and resistance can be reimagined. Use this opportunity to experiment, to question, and to propose alternative visions for what language education can be.
Instructions
Create a digital collage that symbolically explores one of the three selected metaphors.You can use Canva or any other tool.
Incorporate visual elements (images, colors, textures, symbols, and/or words) that express a decolonial reimagining of language education in Colombia.
Post your collage on the class blog, accompanied by a 300-word rationale that:
Explains your creative and conceptual choices.
Draws explicitly on the assigned readings from the past weeks.
Reflects on your own context as a language teacher, researcher, or student.
Deadline
Post your analysis by 5:00 pm on April 30th.
Comment on two peers' posts by May 2nd.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Hi, this is my collage: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGljyE5bTE/Sh_k6xFyCyR3ChPtH7gi-A/edit?utm_content=DAGljyE5bTE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
ReplyDeleteReimagining the Language Classroom
After more than fifteen years of English language teaching, I began to analyze my practices in a more critical way. In this process, I have realized that we need to start deconstructing previous beliefs and practices or at least analyzing what is behind them because, as Guerrero-Nieto (2023) stated, we, ELT teachers, “have been educated, instructed, and directed from the center” (p. 2), which means that there is an ideology behind our practices, and this ideology represents Eurocentristic views. To start taking action, I believe we, as teachers, can raise our voices and promote change —a collective effort that we can all help weave together.
While reimagining my classroom, I need to cover several fronts. First, according to Valencia (2022b), thinking about who we are, what our presence implies in the classroom, and what we acknowledge to our students is essential. This is also a way of accepting that we are not the most important part in the classroom, that it does not revolve around us. Next comes the shift in the goal our students need to achieve while learning a language; we move from the ideal of the native speaker to the intercultural speaker (Corbett, 2003). This means that we need to stop worshiping certain cultures and countries and start building a more horizontal relationship. Likewise, our classroom relationships need to be more horizontal to “overcome the teacher-student divide” (Valencia, 2022b, p. 82); therefore, how we work as a small social group in the classroom also requires a decolonizing perspective. Additionally, it is crucial to broaden the “narrow view” of language teaching and utilize our practices to promote social justice, inviting our students to examine and challenge colonial paradigms critically.
As part of this pedagogization, it is crucial to acknowledge and embrace our students' diversity and to promote equality in the classroom, to make them all feel respected and appreciated. This involves accepting that each member of the class has something to contribute. As teachers, I think planting ideas related to social justice can invite our students to construct new images of their context, culture and traditions, and to understand that although our society has been working in a certain way for the past 500 years, we can always make changes to put on the table different ways to think, feel and see the world.
References
- Corbett, J. (2003). An intercultural approach to English language teaching. Multilingual matters.
- Guerrero-Nieto, H. (Ed.). (2023). Unauthorized outlooks on second languages education and policies: Voices from Colombia (pp.1-12). Palgrave.
- Valencia, A. (2022b). (Re)Imagining EFL language teacher education through critical action research: An autoethnography. In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, & S. Herath (Eds.), critical action research challenging neoliberal language and literacies education. Auto and Duoethnographies of Global Experiences (pp. 80-101). Peter Lang.
Interesting collage. I want to comment on this. Next comes the shift in the goal our students need to achieve while learning a language; we move from the ideal of the native speaker to the intercultural speaker (Corbett, 2003). This means that we need to stop worshiping certain cultures and countries and start building a more horizontal relationship." Believe it or not, the imaginary that native speakers are the only ones capable of and more prepared to teach English remains. I have faced this in my context, especially with teachers applying for a job at Icesi, who believe that their nativeness is more important than their academic background. I believe that things are changing in some contexts, and we are trying to have different relationships with other cultures and the idea of the native. In my case, I try to show students that native speakers do not own English. Still, now it is a lingua franca used by people from diverse cultures to communicate and share their experiences and have access to other perspectives.
DeleteDear Caro, thank you so much for your collage and words.
DeleteI'd like to start by saying that I enjoyed reading how you have began to analyze your teaching practices in a more critical way. I think the Ph.D. has enabled a process of analyzing, reflecting, reexamining the way we have been "educated, instructed, and directed from the center” (Guerrero-Nieto, 2023, p. 2). I totally agree on your phrase: "a collective effort that we can all help weave together", becuase I immediately thought about Professor Guerrero-Nieto when she highlighted the fact of supporting each other academically speaking. I strongly believe this is a effort that goes hand-by-hand with those who have a critical perspective about ELT.
Thank you!
Dear Caro,
Deletevery good collage. There are so many things that Valencia is suggesting that we reimagine; although as I claim in my post below, I would use the word resignify and then act upon as he did it. I also like your recall of Pedagogization as introduced by Walsh and Mignolo. Their proposal is also another way of resemiotizing or resignifying what pedagogy entails. It implies as you point out breaking biases. All types: our biases toward what being an education means, what language and communication are, what our students are and their roles, what our students' bodies mean. Too many challenges for language educators, but we cannot do more than starting somewhere!!
Dear Carolina,
DeleteWhat a very nice collage!
Valencia's call to reflect on what our presence implies in the classroom and, as you said, to decenter ourselves from the educational process, is crucial. I think it’s not easy to let go of the idea that we are the ones in charge of everything. We were taught that way, and we were told that teachers should behave like that. In practice, this can feel like losing control, and we’re often not very comfortable with that.
Please check my collage here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGly4AFkcM/UPfdldoWDzizo8I7iF9h-w/edit?utm_content=DAGly4AFkcM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
ReplyDelete(Re)Imagining Teacher Education through Visual Metaphors
This collage is my response to Valencia’s (2022b) invitation to (re)imagine EFL teacher education. I tried to represent some of the key ideas discussed in the chapter, especially the need to rethink traditional ways of teaching and learning.
The first image shows two hands, one from a teacher and one from a student, weaving the same colorful cloth. It represents the idea that "the teacher becomes a learner and the learner a teacher" (Valencia, 2022b, p. 84), breaking the usual hierarchy in education. Another part of the collage shows a mural full of symbols instead of dominant text. This image connects with Valencia’s call to "go beyond a verbocentric view of language" (p. 90), recognizing that meaning is also created through images, sounds, and movements.
In another part of the collage, a torn academic essay transforms into colorful graffiti and flowers. This image reflects the idea of "a world that is not exclusively mediated by the written word" (p. 90), challenging the traditional centrality of academic writing. I also included the image of broken pillars labeled "Standardization" and "Neoliberalism" to show Valencia’s criticism that "standardization is not a synonym for quality" (p. 88). Finally, the silhouettes of people speaking, painting, and dancing illustrate that "knowledge emerges through dialogue, encounter, and symbolic creativity" (p. 92).
Through these images and quotes, I wanted to (re)imagine teacher education as something more collective, creative, embodied, and open to different ways of knowing. As a Black Colombian scholar, it is important for me to challenge colonial ways of thinking and to imagine spaces where we can learn and teach differently.
References
Valencia, A. (2022b). (Re)Imagining EFL language teacher education through critical action research: An autoethnography. In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, & S. Herath (Eds.), Critical action research challenging neoliberal language and literacies education: Auto and duoethnographies of global experiences (pp. 80–101). Peter Lang.
Dear Juan, thanks for your collage. I liked how you included AI, great!
DeleteI think your explanation helps me comprehend deeply the essence of your ideas. Something I truly admire of you is your commitmemnt towards challenging colonial ways of thinking as a black Colombian scholar. I am pretty sure you are a remarkable teacher. I had the chance to meet some of your students last weekend at an event I had from ASOCOPI and only positive comments about your teaching. They look up at you for your transformative way of teaching.
Dear Juan David and Jhonatan,
DeleteI’m glad to hear that Juan David’s students view his pedagogical work as a source of transformation. I agree with Juan David’s point: given that language is so central to our profession, we need to start by resignifying (see my own contribution below) what language and communication mean in light of the current communication landscape.
I have previously discussed some of the features of this landscape, one of which is the multimodal view of communication that has significantly impacted the ways in which our students shape their identities. Social media, for example—enabling multimodal textual production—has decentered the written mode of language. Other modes such as color, visuals, and spatial distribution are now carrying semiotic weight, shaping how meaning is designed, disseminated, and negotiated.
This, of course, influences identity construction and expression. That’s precisely why you’re doing this task through a collage: the affordances of multimodal texts open up a myriad of possibilities for meaning expression and construction.
Hello Juan, I like that you highlight the author’s opinion about “standardization” that has been a stumbling block in our performance as teachers, it is the most evident way of a neoliberal education because It limits innovation in teaching, discourage personalized learning approaches, making it harder for teachers to adapt lessons to diverse student needs. Furthermore, It leads to focus on test performance rather than fostering creativity and critical thinking. I may say that the way teachers and institutions are assessed by the government undervalue teachers’ work. During my experience as a teacher, I have always complained about that criteria to evaluate teachers work, considering that teachers do many many things that are not reflected in those results, and if we talk about students, those results do not show who are our students, sometimes they do not get good results but they are wonderful people, however they are judged by the results gotten in different tests. I connect this to the text Entretejidxs: Decolonial Threads to the Self, the Communities, and EFL Teacher Education Programs in Colombia (Carvajal Medina, N. E., Hurtado Torres, F. Á., Lara Páez, M. Y., Ramírez Sánchez, M., Barón Gómez, H. A., Ayala Bonilla, D. A., & Coy, C. M. 2022, p. 599)It states “Coloniality manifests in various ways in academia through philosophies, discourses, and principles that tend to homogenize individuals and practices”.
DeleteHi, this is my visual collage: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmE5nlgtI/X5IJBXH_yVLtGmEP6B7VFQ/view?utm_content=DAGmE5nlgtI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h6872ffa4d5
ReplyDelete“Non-normative bodies” (Castañeda-Peña & Ubaque-Casallas, 2024)
Through this visual collage, I want to portray the non-normative corporalities of a fragmented body. Reading it from side to side, the left one shows a grayscale muscular figure, representing the rigidity of an idealized masculinity while the right one symbolizes vulnerability as it displays half part of a body made of flesh and bones. Reading it from bottom to top, the legs evoke femininity. They are dressed with a skirt because it represents how female bodies have been historically sentenced into visual codes that determines how they are supposed to look. As we move upward, the torso reveals a juxtaposition between strength and nakedness, highlighting how male bodies have been idealized as symbols of power, control, and authority. The face becomes a battlefield where every detail coexists and has a meaning. For instance, the clown nose with a happy smile shows how happiness is camouflaged. The flower crown alongside the big one on top illustrate not only beauty but the desire of being an inspiration for others. The black frame covering the eyes shows shyness and fear of showing one’s true essence. Finally, the wing suggests a longing for freedom and a desire to ascend to heaven. However, there is only one as it displays the struggle of feeling unworthy to reach that place.
I decided to create my visual collage following the notion of questioning the existing normativity of one’s own body and self. In my subjectivity, I think this collage engages with the authors' assertion that “we need to open spaces for recognizing the other far from the normative constructions of gender and self” (Castañeda-Peña & Ubaque-Casallas, 2024, p. 27). Indeed, Ramos-Holguín et al. (2018) argue that “identities are socially constructed and negotiated, which depicts a multifaceted dimension where the individual and diverse contexts play a significant role” (p. 17). In this sense, Vásquez-Guarnizo and Álvarez-Contreras (2021) affirm that “pre-service English teachers’ gender identities construction are permeated by diverse situations they face in their academic life which take them from being to becoming an in-service English teacher” (para. 4). In other words, identities are shaped through experiences that transform the self.
The visual collage also contributes to dismantle the 'culture of silence' that allows the oppression of marginalized groups (Cole, 2009, p. 569). From my perspective, it does not only challenge the traditional way of understanding “a colonizing discourse of the other” (Fine, 1994, p. 70) but it also represents a chance to learn from the narratives of those non-normative bodies who have been constructed as subalterns (Mignolo, 2000). In short, I aimed to disrupt the binary logic that determines a -legitimate EFL teacher-, and instead suggests a body that is plural as it has been co-constructed by political and sociocultural aspects daily.
References:
DeleteCole, B. A. (2009). Gender, narratives and intersectionality: can personal experience approaches to research contribute to “undoing gender”? International Review of Education, 55(5/6), 561-578.
Fine, M. (1994). Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage Publications.
Mignolo, W. (2000). Local histories/global designs: Coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking. Princeton University Press.
Ramos-Holguín, B., Aguirre-Morales, J., & Torres-Cepeda, N. M. (2018). Student-teachers’ identity construction and its connection with student-centered approaches: A narrative study. Editorial Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia.
Ubaque-Casallas, D., & Castañeda-Peña, H. (2020). Non-normative corporalities and transgender identity in English as a Foreign Language student teachers. HOW Journal, 27(2), 13–30. https://doi.org/10.19183/how.27.2.548
Vásquez-Guarnizo, J., & Álvarez-Contreras, F, A. (2021). From being to becoming: Pre-service English teachers’ gender identities construction. Revista Virtual Cuestiones Educativas, noviembre. Universidad Externado de Colombia. https://cuestioneseducativas.uexternado.edu.co/from-being-to-becoming-pre-service-english-teachers-gender-identities-construction/
Hi Jhonatan! I love your collage! I think you fit perfectly different pieces that create a single body demonstrating how we're all composed by different parts that in the end create who we are and how we identify.
DeleteI liked your phrase " identities are shaped through experiences that transform the self" because this demonstrates how complex we, human beings, are. And I always find it amusing how some people think we can just fit under certain labels, leaving aside all the things that each label encompasses.
Hello Jhonatan,
DeleteI really loved your collage; the explanation you gave is so interesting and thought-provoking. Thanks for sharing it!
It also made me think of the saying: “a picture is worth a thousand words” and how we, language teacher educators can foster in our students and why not, in ourselves, other forms of expressions that are more meaningful and enriching, letting aside the supremacy of written academic texts (Valencia, 2022).
Hello Jhonatan,
Deleteinteresting collage. I would certainily think that fragmented is a good way of describing our identities. But I also think that it is not necessarily negative because the fragments are put together. Think of a puzzle. When the pieces are set apart, they do not represent anything; they are not even connected. But when they are together they make a lot of sense, even when we know that they can easily be separated and lose that wholeness. Our bodies and identities are fragmented because they have been built on the basis of several corporeal, spiritual, and emotional experiences. For example, a farmer may have bigger hands because she works with soil; a fisher man may have darker skill because es/he is more exposed to sun rays; but they may have a more spiritual connection to nature than an person from urban centers. What I am trying to say is that the colonial matrix in its urge to conform normative bodies (homogenization: racial, cosmogonic, epistemological, ethnic, gender, political, capability, religion) has made us believe that being composed of different parts, identities, provenances, sizes etc. equates fragmentation and that is bad because it implies being broken; however, I think of it as a possibility for dynamism, movement, flowing, change. They want us to be a whole which is unchangeable, or when it breaks it breaks completely, but we are made of so many components and we can have the flexibility to change or reconstruct, or resignify any of the parts to engender other functions, identity affiliations etc. we do that with our hair, we tattoo our bodies, queer individuals assigned resignify what genitalia means for them etc... As I mention in my post below and my collage, the Western conception of human affairs is based on a narrative of perfection: we need to be perfect, to reach clarity, to solve all problems. This imperfection is what they consider the motor of development, but seen other eyes, it is what is leading us to destruction. The colonial narrative does not want to accept human imperfection, and most importantly as I cite below, Rivera Cusicanqui shows us that we need to inhabit an identity Ch'ixi, one where we can live with an understanding that we don not have to resolve our identity contradictions, but on the contrary make of those contradictions sources of creativity and productivity.
Jhonny Segura Antury. https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmCw_2_1s/b4vo1_g-JkQRPr344svGTw/edit?utm_content=DAGmCw_2_1s&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
ReplyDeleteThis collage symbolizes what I define as reweaving the language classroom, which is my interpretation of the conversation among the three intertwined decolonial metaphors: “Unauthorized outlooks (Guerrero-Nieto, 2023), “non-normative bodies” (Ubaque-Casallas & Castañeda-Peña, 2024) and “(re) imagining teacher education” (Valencia, 2022).
At the top of the collage, the colonial map and the raised fist disrupting the image evoke Guerrero-Nieto’s advocacy for breaking away from imposed frameworks. Following this idea, the collage conceives teachers as vital agents of educational transformation, disrupting the scene and making their voice heard. There is an urgency to weave a new tapestry that embraces local realities and locally rooted ways of knowing. That challenge is symbolized in the tapestry at the back of the collage.
In the center of the collage, bottom left, a diversity of bodies representing the richness of races, genders, and abilities in our context, which may challenge the norms as non-normative bodies. These new and non-hegemonic representations of the bodies should be included in the content and discussion that we have in our classroom.
At the top and bottom right of the college, a shared, participatory environment is represented to reimagine teacher education. In this environment, no specific figure is dominant; on the contrary, educators collaborate.
As a Colombian English teacher at a non-profit private university (Icesi), I work within systems shaped by international pressures, power, and economic dynamics that perpetuate inequities and divisions, unintentionally or not. Transforming my classroom into a space of critical imagination seems to be a way to reweave the threads of new relationships that will lead to a more just and equitable education.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDear Jhonny,
DeleteI loved how creative you were in your collage. Your explanation also contributed to having a wider perspective and meanings of each piece you included. Something that called my attention is the way you represented the diversity of bodies, making reference to Professors Castañeda-Peña and Ubaque-Casallas (2024). Besides, your phrase: "These new and non-hegemonic representations of the bodies should be included in the content and discussion that we have in our classroom" actually made me realize the need to stop critizing someone's else body. Every single one of us has gone through diverse experiences which have not only permeated but shaped our identities. Thus, labeling one's body is leaving aside the fact we all are different.
Dear Jhonny,
Deletethank you for your collage. Your collage as well as your explanation match a lot the argument that I make in my own college that you can find below. I see diversity, inclusion and interculturality as central in your image as well as in mine. Instead of reimagining, I propose to resignify since I draw on my social semiotic perspective, plus the postmaterialist and posthumanist indigenous views. Yes, we need to reweave, we need to unlearn, or unweave the colonial tapestry that we have weaved due to our colonial mindset. I show Colombia in my tapestry, because at the end of the day what we do in our classrooms is intended to have a broader impact in culture and society.
Dear Jhonny,
DeleteThank you for your creative collage. I really like the way you combined the three metaphors proposed by the different authors. I think what they all have in common is the call for the epistemological/ontological shift that is necessary to make space for a more just form of education. I'm glad we are reflecting on these issues, as it is not easy to put them into practice. I also appreciate your idea of transforming the classroom into a space for critical imagination as a tool to reshape education.
Hi Jhonny, I really liked how your collage brings in different kinds of bodies and experiences. It shows a clear intention to include people who are often left out—people with different racial backgrounds, genders, and abilities. I think this connects really well with the idea of “non-normative bodies.” It made me think about how important it is for us to question what kind of bodies and identities we usually represent in our classrooms and how we can make those spaces more open to diversity in real ways.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteFor this assignment I decided to work on Valencia’s reading (2022) and the ontological wounds metaphor; in this link you can find my collage: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fOmqOZdBy1YC8FPg0C4nRHZuc0gjA5Ni/view?usp=sharing
In this collage, I intended to represent a dichotomy of two realities I have seen and lived in my context. I represented both sides of the coin regarding the role of teachers, students, and language. I also questioned the role of language teacher education programs in the future of those dynamics. Finally, I questioned myself about where I am positioned within this dynamic and what practices I do to either perpetuate or to heal the wounds (open decolonial cracks). I focus specifically on the teacher-student hierarchical relationship, and the conception of communication skills within the class.
About the hierarchical teacher-student relationship in my context, I have seen teachers who believe they possess the absolute truth and treat students as empty vessels to be filled; I have also seen teachers that promote a co-creation and co-learning that transcends the classroom walls where everyone constantly teaches and learns which is an idea also explained in Valencia’s article (2022). I align with this second perspective, and I think that as human beings we are constantly learning and every lived experience and insight is valuable for the construction of knowledges.
Challenging “Verbocentric communication” assumptions is a way to disrupt how our ELT field is commonly seen, as we tend to focus on written and spoken language over other forms of communication. In my context, some teachers incorporate arts and theater as means of expression in the foreign language classroom which honestly, I find really interesting and appealing. However, I usually tend to make emphasis on academic and standardized language as I am aware that the subjects syllabi (where a heavy emphasis and grade percentage is given to written and oral mid-term and final exams), institutional and national policies prioritize linguistic skills over multimodal communication which is connected with Mignolo’s linguistic hierarchy (2000) where the written and standardized languages are the ones who seem valid.
Reading Valencia’s article (2022), reminded me of my own context which is pretty similar to the one described there in many different aspects. It also reminded me of a series of activities that were carried out at the school of languages that intend to disrupt traditional views (actually, some of the pictures were taken from this year’s “Día del idioma” event and pre-service teachers’ final teaching practicum). Thanks to those described experiences, I was able to make meaningful connections and see real-life examples of decolonial cracks Walsh (2021) discusses.
Besides, Guerrero-Nieto (2023) proposes to be “disobedient” and I could perceive that disobedience in Valencia’s autoethnography and how he broke schemes not only in terms of research but also using English as a means and not as the end in different EFL classes which can also have a long-term effect. In connection with Castañeda-Peña and Ubaque-Casallas (2024) I like the idea of doing research with individuals rather than about them which is something Valencia (2022), Carvajal-Medina et al. (2022) are embracing too.
Finally, reading the texts and looking at the pictures of the murals, make me wonder if those artworks are still present at the university as they were painted 6 years ago, I have not seen them and if new generations of students in the B.A. in foreign languages at Univalle know the stories behind them.
Sorry, I forgot to mention something that I consider important:the texture in the background of the artworkrepresents the mistakes I have made and the transformations I have undergone and will continue experiencing as a language teacher educator. The blank spaces also represent the stories to be written in that process. Thank you :)
DeleteHi Yuranny, nice collage!
DeleteI understand how you feel about wondering where you stand, for me it's sometimes hard because I try to make some changes in my practices, but I feel that my activities in the classroom are not as bold as those I read about, maybe it's related to what you say about the standard English because I also don't want my students to fall behind and lose important opportunities.
I like the meaning of the background, it's the visual idea of discarding a piece of paper and trying again to make it better.
Lastly, to answer your question, yes, those murals are still there, I have seen some of them (and I can't believe I had never wondered who had made them! I'll show them to you next time we go to the university.
Hello Caro,
DeleteThank you! I'd love to see those artworks!
I feel the same, I feel what I have done is not enough in comparison to other experiences I have seen.
Dear Yura, great job!
DeleteYour reflection actually touched deep inside. Awesome decision to represent the dichotomy of two realities you have lived. I think that your voice here is what, in my view, called my attention the most. As I wrote to Caro, I feel like this Ph.D. has allowed us to comprehend many teaching practices we have naturalized because of the hegemonical way of understanding eduaction. Your words feels like a reclaiming of your own epistemology, your own ways of knowing and being in the world as a teacher-educator, COOL!
Hello Yuranny, thank you for your image and analysis. I can see how you try to represent your process as someone who has played several roles across the different years of teaching experience. The serious strict teacher for example and perhaps the more understanding and yet rigorous teacher: co-creator of knowledge as you call it. I agree with Carolina and you that when we look at our practices and Valencia´s one, we fall short because ours may not be so disruptive. I can't imagine myself walking across Unicentro dressed as a women because I am way to shy and my connection with my body in public is different, let's say traditional given the way I was raised. But this is what I think is beautiful about weaving the communal tapestry of our society, we can all participate in different ways with diverse decolonial gestures. Some others will undertake actions such as the one Valencia did,; some others will do it through other ways of meaning making.
DeleteDear Yuranny,
DeleteThank you for your collage. I think that when we assume the role of educators, we adhere to certain principles, norms, and programs to integrate into the educational system, striving to be as competitive and productive as possible. However, as Valencia (2022) articulates, we often find ourselves besieged by the market. The question posed in your collage,"¿Donde estoy yo?" has captured my attention and prompted me to reflect more critically on how the ontological wound, described by Valencia (2022) as the teacher-student divide, might be healed. ? The co-construction of knowledge that you mentioned is a proper way, but without losing our status as academic knower, the community must not see us as the knowledge owner, but a person that can share their knowledge and experience from a more social stance.
María Alejandra Villa Salazar
ReplyDeletehttps://www.canva.com/design/DAGmJYxxn_c/lu-QHtDYvGFn32wmqNm4dQ/edit?utm_content=DAGmJYxxn_c&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
(Re)Imagining EFL Language Teacher Education Through Critical Action Research: An Autoethnography. Andrés Valencia
The chapter "(Re)Imagining EFL Language Teacher Education Through Critical Action Research: An Autoethnography," authored by Andrés Valencia, explores the reconfiguration of preservice and in-service teacher education through the dual frameworks of autoethnography and critical action research. In this text, the author mentions the principal problems he finds when teaching English from a neoliberal approach, they are the “the narrow view” which is evinced on the overemphasis on communication skills or as Alvarez Valencia calls “verbocentric” communication which he defines as the leaning in the field of applied linguistics to conceptualize communication primarily as a linguistic activity, emphasizing components such as vocabulary, grammar, and phonology.
Another significant issue highlighted is the “teacher-student divide,” which Freire (1970) critically examined as perpetuating hierarchical structures in education. This divide is manifested in the emphasis placed on standardized English tests, which Phillipson (2010) critiques for promoting the American linguistic norm, including its genres and cultural styles, thereby reinforcing the dominance of Western culture. Hence, the author proposes an ontological and epistemological movement to decolonize the English teaching, so he tells throughout an autoethnography his participation in three projects that used muralization as a way of cultural production and resistance to the conventional texts used, as it is the argumentative essay.
In this vein, the book Decolonizing Foreign Language Education: The Misteaching of English and Other Colonial Languages, edited by Donaldo Macedo, analyzes how the current English foreign languages teaching practices perpetuate colonial paradigms, this book shows how English and French have imposed social and cultural hierarchies, excluding marginalized communities. This book not only addresses the traditional methodologies that benefit the colonial power and aliened indigenous language but also, it proposes some challenges, like advocating for a critical approach in applied linguistics that empowers educators and students to reflect on power dynamics within language and promoting inclusive pedagogies that recognize and celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity.
References
Macedo, D. (Ed.). (2019). Decolonizing Foreign Language Education: The Misteaching of English and Other Colonial Languages. Routledge.
Valencia, A. (2022b). (Re)Imagining EFL language teacher education through
critical action research: An autoethnography. In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, & S. Herath
(Eds.), critical action research challenging neoliberal language and literacies
education. Auto and Duoethnographies of Global Experiences (pp. 80-101). Peter
Lang.
Hi Alejandra, there is no. permission to access your image.
DeleteHello, as the other link didn´t work, this is the new link https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmJYxxn_c/lu-QHtDYvGFn32wmqNm4dQ/edit?utm_content=DAGmJYxxn_c&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
DeleteHello Alejandra,
DeleteThank you for sharing your collage!
I loved the quote you included: “every act of reaction is an act of resistance” (Deluze, 2015) I have not thought about it, but it makes a lot of sense to me now. Most of the changes we have made in our ELT field have been due to “disobedience” Guerrero-Nieto (2023) talks about and have opened new perspectives. I believe that when we are oppressed and we struggle, but we share with others our experiences, we are able to construct new perspectives and paths. I think silent actions, if properly used, can be an act of resistance and can speak louder than a long speech.
Hi María Alejandra. Your collage and explanation are really powerful. I think you did a great job showing how teacher education is shaped by wider systems like the market, the state, and international tests, while also opening space to think of resistance from within. I especially liked how you combined keywords and images to bring attention to the tensions between public knowledge, local ways of knowing, and the pressures of neoliberal policies.
DeleteHello, here is the link to my collage:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.canva.com/design/DAGmNj_TSNs/u2UdWrdzlWsGiepxOyvi-g/view?utm_content=DAGmNj_TSNs&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h1d299cf648
There is a group of students in a public secondary school who have a significant gap between their ages and their academic development. This is due to various situations: some of them have been outside the school system because of forced displacement, drug use, or conflictive family environments that do not support their learning processes properly. They are labeled as the “worst” students — the ones who “are not able” to read and write properly, who “have no manners.” Teachers find challenging working with this group of studetns.
Valencia (2022) stated that reimagining EFL education implies a pedagogical-ontological movement, and I would like to highlight how this author challenges the wounded teacher-student relationship, where the teacher is often in a position of power to determine what students can or cannot achieve, and what counts as legitimate knowledge. I believe that one element that could help flatten the power disparities between teachers and students in such a context is the effort to understand their life stories. We need to step away from our traditional teacher roles — the ones who claim all authority in the classroom — in order to better understand the position from which students embody their realities.
As Castañeda-Peña & Ubaque-Casallas pinpointed, it is essential to try to understand experiences we have not lived, and the pain we have not felt, and to make these visible. I believe this is especially important during the developmental stage of high school marginalized students, so that we can propose practices where knowledge is not merely transmitted, but co-constructed, making learning more meaningful.
In my collage, I tried to portray how important it is, as I have already mentioned, to understand how my students envision their realities through the recognition and valuing of their stories, and to take this as a starting point for co-creating knowledge.
References
Castañeda- Peña, H., & Ubaque-Casallas, D. (2024). Non-normative corporeal-ity-ies in language education. In H. C. Kramsch, H. Castañeda- Peña & P. Gamboa, Decolonizing Applied Linguistics research in Latin America (pp. 147-168). Routledge.
Valencia, A. (2022b). (Re)Imagining EFL language teacher education through critical action research: An autoethnography. In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, & S. Herath (Eds.), Critical action research challenging neoliberal language and literacies education: Auto and duoethnographies of global experiences (pp. 80–101). Peter Lang.
Hi Sandra. Thanks for your collage and your ideas. I want to comment on this: "I believe that one element that could help flatten the power disparities between teachers and students in such a context is the effort to understand their life stories. We need to step away from our traditional teacher roles — the ones who claim all authority in the classroom — to better understand the position from which students embody their realities."
DeleteI believe power relationships are inherent to any social relationships and that they do not always need to be flat; in fact, I am not sure if that is even possible. The issue arises when power is enacted as imposition rather than as a form of guidance rooted in knowledge and mutual respect. This is similar to how authority is recognized within communities, where elders are invested with leadership because of their experience and wisdom.
Teachers are also invested with certain authority in our academic context, drawing from their pedagogical knowledge and role in our society. I think power relationships cannot always be considered something that needs to be flat or completely horizontal; rather, they should be somehow reframed, where relational authority and not hierarchical control define how we interact with our students. This relational authority should be rooted in dialogue and mutual respect.
Dear Sandra and Jhonny,
DeleteSandra, I like your collage because it clearly expresses the ideas you propose in your description and connects with Valencia's claims about bridging a gap that has historically separated the roles of students and teachers. I do agree with Jhonny; I am not sure we can eliminate power relationships. I think reframing that kind of relationship is what we need to consider. This would be good for a longer discussion, but in short, for several reasons a person may be placed in a position of power as an interactive condition. For example, when a teacher has 20 kids in front of her/him, some of them don’t want or don’t know social rules of interaction—like not poking your classmate’s eyes with a pen (kids, for example, may not understand the concept of hurting others). So, the teacher is not only the immediate adult, but also the educator in charge. By being in charge—without the previous authorization of the kids—that is already an exercise of power. This is because the school system is organized in a hierarchical way, and it is assumed that students must accept the teacher as the adult in charge. This analysis applies to many other situations in daily life.
As Jhonny proposes, the issue is how that endowed power will be administered: will it be shared? Will it be imposed? Drawing on Foucault, we might say that power is not something one possesses, but something that circulates through relationships and practices. It operates not only through domination but also through the production of norms, expectations, and behaviors. In this sense, even our efforts to share or redistribute power are embedded in broader discursive and institutional frameworks. The key is not to escape power, but to become more critically aware of how it is exercised and how we can open up spaces for more ethical and participatory interactions.
Dear Jose and Jhonny, thanks a lot for your replies,
DeleteCertainly - and speacially when working with kids - they need to have a grounded adult in charge. What I mean by flattenign the power relationships in the classrooms is more about, as both of oyu mentioned, making classrooms more democratic, participatory or dialogical, by truly recognizing our studetns' stories.
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to share with you my collage. This is the link to it https://www.canva.com/design/DAGmUCWbp9E/EeJOeB4_N00dpxvLlVKtkg/edit?utm_content=DAGmUCWbp9E&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
A Decolonial Intercultural Tapestry
This design comes not only from the readings we just did but from our entire construction of what decoloniality means and how, as Rivera Cusicanqui (2018) puts it, we need to recuperate our capacity to create metaphors that help us explain our realities. In a rationalist world, there is no space for metaphors, because we are supposed to have a clear, logical explanation for everything—leaving aside that we are unfinished, the cosmos is not finished, and nature is not finished in its continuous co-creation with all beings, living and nonliving, that are part of it. That is part of modernity’s rationality: to have an answer, a solution to all inquiries that is accepted by all (universal).
The image you will see has a sort of title: Decolonial Intercultural Tapestry. I say decolonial intercultural because not all interculturality is decolonial. Walsh (2009) talks about relational and functional interculturality; that is why she proposes a critical perspective, which ties in with a decolonial view. I have adopted the metaphor of a tapestry or tejido, since it is a well-known metaphor that Indigenous people use to talk about all dimensions of life. Most people use the metaphor in a superficial way, because it sounds straightforward, but cuando alguien ha tejido relaciones con ellos, we understand that it is more profound.
The picture includes a diversity of beings that we experience and walk with in our daily lives: humans of diverse identities—Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ+, children, the elderly, people with functional diversities (referred to by some as "disabled")—along with nature and animals. I also included a cat, since I live in Catli. I wanted to evoke the view of Caren Helena Guerrero in her Unauthorized Outlooks (2023), but also the rest of the material we have analyzed over these past weeks. From a decolonial view, we are essentially tapping into all unauthorized outlooks.
What do we need to align with those unauthorized outlooks? We need resignification. In some of my previous publications, I have talked about my alignment with a sociosemiotic view of culture, interculturality, and communication (Álvarez Valencia, 2021-2023). Social semiotics revolves around meanings. Everything we do spins around meaning. Society has organized living and experience around semiotic regimes—that is, areas of experience with particular webs of meaning into which we are socialized. The way we understand family, gender roles, professional identities, justice, violence, etc.
My argument is that if we want to produce change, we need to resignify the meanings we have inherited and constructed based on the semiotic regimes we have interacted with. I draw on Mignolo’s (2021) idea of reconstitution to talk about semiotic reconstitution. This will help us unweave the current tapestry that shapes Colombia—and even the planet—and begin weaving a new one, with a plurality of colors, textures, and images. A new tapestry that includes other weavers, a more inclusive one where everyone fits in with their diversities.
All of the above implies resignifying multiple dimensions or semiotic regimes. One of them is the nature of human beings—its supremacy and exceptionalism. This can happen if we adopt a more posthumanist and post-material view of beings. Indigenous communities have argued this for centuries. Their concept of Derecho Mayor (Flórez-Vargas, 2016)., for example (as in the case of the Misak and other communities), explains our entangled and interdependent connection with all beings: human, non-human, living, and nonliving.
My second part:
ReplyDeleteWe need to challenge the neoliberal narrative of individualism, autonomy for self-development, and profit, with the idea of community and the design and development of mutuality in a tejido comunitario. We need to resignify the assigned identity affiliations established by the colonial matrix of power, informed by patriarchal, capitalist, Judeo-Christian, able-bodied, and racialized imaginings.
This is what Castañeda-Peña, Ubaque-Casallas (2024), and Andrés Valencia (2022) propose in their studies. They suggest resemiotizing or resignifying our understanding of identity—I would say rather than reimagining, we need to semiotic reconstitution. The former invites us to think of identity from an intersectional perspective. The European model of examining social and natural phenomena through the lenses of fragmentation and isolation to reach specialization has developed an isolated view of the individual’s identity. It has strayed away from complexity by breaking individuals into isolated identities: racial, social, sexual, political, etc.
Castañeda-Peña and Ubaque-Casallas invite us to join the stitches and weave a holistic tapestry that represents individuals in their entirety. Valencia goes further by pushing us to go beyond resemiotizing, to acting, as a major move in embodying the new meanings we are trying to construct. As I have said in previous publications, learning is the product of engagement, and engagement means a person’s involvement at the cognitive, aesthetic, emotional, and artistic level in acts of meaning-making (Álvarez-Valencia, 2021, 2023).
Carmen Helena Guerrero’s volume, which features several theoretical and research-based contributions, is another invitation to resemiotize—to resignify not only content but also the ways of engaging with content, the ways of conducting research, or constructing knowledge.
All in all, the authors invite us to resignify the tapestry we are weaving in Colombia, in our professional doings. That tapestry needs to be co-produced, in communality, understanding that the bodies involved will make the tapestry pluriversal and that the universes each participant brings will enact a particular web of identity embodiments. These may create cognitive dissonance within ourselves and question our own identities—and it is our job to work through those tensions.
We are dealing with what Rivera Cusicanqui (2018) calls contradicciones no coetáneas—the substrate of the colonial mindset that still inhabits our bodies and minds. The challenge, as she poses, is that this is not resolved and will not be resolved, because we do not have to resolve everything. Instead, we could live a Ch’ixi identity. We could understand those contradictory poles that make up our selves and make use of them as a productive and creative source. As she says, we can articulate the autochthonous with the alien in subversive and mutually contaminating ways.
My references: part 3
ReplyDeleteReferences
Álvarez Valencia, J. A. (2023). A multimodal social semiotic perspective in intercultural communication: Bi/multilingualism and transemiotizing as semiotic resources in language education. In N. Miranda, A.M. Mejía & S. Valencia (Eds.), Language education in multilingual Colombia: Critical perspectives and voices from the field (pp. 172-187). Routledge.
Álvarez Valencia, J. A. (2021). Practical and theoretical articulations between multimodal pedagogy and an intercultural orientation to second/foreign language education. In J. A. Álvarez Valencia, A. Ramírez, and O. Vergara (Eds.), Interculturality in teacher education: Theoretical and practical considerations (pp. 41-69). Programa Editorial Universidad del Valle.
Castañeda- Peña, H., & Ubaque-Casallas, D. (2024). Non-normative corporeal-ity-ies in language education. In H. C. Kramsch, H. Castañeda- Peña & P. Gamboa, Decolonizing Applied Linguistics research in Latin America (pp. 147-168). Routledge.
Flórez-Vargas, C. A. (2016). El concepto de derecho mayor: Una aproximación desde la cosmología andina. Dixi, 18(24), 64-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.16925/di.v18i24.1523
Guerrero-Nieto, H. (Ed.). (2023). Unauthorized outlooks on second languages education and policies: Voices from Colombia (pp.1-12). Palgrave.
Mignolo, W. (2021). Introduction. In The politics of decolonial investigations (pp-1-81). Duke University Press.
Riversa Cusicanqui, S. (2018). Un mundo Ch’ixi es posible. Memoria, mercado y colonialismo. In Un mundo Ch’ixi es posible. Ensayos desde el presente en crisis (pp. 13-91). Tinta Limón.
Valencia, A. (2022). (Re)Imagining EFL language teacher education through critical action research: An autoethnography. In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, & S. Herath (Eds.), critical action research challenging neoliberal language and literacies education. Auto and Duoethnographies of Global Experiences (pp. 80-101). Peter Lang.
Walsh, C. (2009). Interculturalidad crítica e pedagogía de-colonial: In-surgir, re-existir y re-viver. In V. Candau (Ed.), Educação intercultural na América Latina: Entre concepções, tensões e propostas (pp. 14–53). 7 Letras
Hi Professor Jose. I found the image of the tapestry powerful and thought-provoking. I loved that it brings together humans, non-humans, and diverse identities. It shows coexistence, co-production, and mutual responsibility. Your point about resignification is very interesting, and the way you connected it with social semiotics and the need to shift inherited meanings made me reflect on how we can critically rethink what we have learned and what we teach. The image of weaving and unweaving really representes this kind of work.
DeleteThank you Juan David, yes, a shift in inherited meanings requires work. Notice that we human many times change our behaviors but not the meanings, for example the idea of being politically correct. A person does not modify the meanings associated to someone or a phenomenon, only modifies superficially the behavior but deep there is little believe in what the behavior represents.
DeleteDear professor Jose,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your collage with us, it was an unexpected! A variety of people making something together demonstrates how community is key to change.
I think your idea of resignifyig meanings can helps us think deeply about the world that surrounds us; what we take as legitimate, true, valid, "correct", etc., comes from a Eurocentric view, a constant reflection and analysis is needed because we grew up in this society and we have normalized practices that we just now realize are somehow biased. It seems like a big, important task and we sometimes don't know where to start, so I was glad to be reminded that we don't have to resolve everything. Living the Ch’ixi identity, embracing all the tensions, oppositions and differences is in my opinion the best way to start our decolonization process.
Thank you Caro, yes, not knowing where to begin maybe paralyzing. I just made a comment above to Juan David's reaction and I said that sometimes people don't change the meanings associated to people or social events, but they still act according to political correctness. That is not ideal but it is a good starting point. Sometimes change can happen either from the inside out or from the outside in. Sometimes, we need reflection to modify meanings; some other times we need to act upon the world and in that acting we end up modifying the very meanings that inform how we understand the world. I guess what matters is knowing that something is not in the right place and trying to find out what it is and the choosing if or how we want to go about it. Taking action in any way!
Delete