Maestría en Lingüística
URI permanente para esta colecciónhttp://hdl.handle.net/11349/13
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Ítem La (re)construcción de mi yo docente a través de la reflexividad antes, en, y después del Covid 19Posada, Laura; Quintero, Álvaro; 0000-0002-0315-8802This study aimed to make sense of my self-as-teacher before, during, and after the recent pandemic we all had to go through due to the COVID-19 virus. This resulted from my interest in relating this personal phenomenon to the (re)construction of language teacher identity (LTI) and reflexivity. The literature review was used to a) highlight the (re)construction of LTIs as a never-ending process that accounts for the instances teachers adopt thanks to their experiences (Varghese et al., 2005); b) show reflexivity as mechanism language teachers use to position themselves and practice agency (Edge, 2011; Kumaravadivelu, 2012); and c) show how reflexive self-positioning and interactive positioning, along with professional development (PD), are the result of the reflexiveness applied throughout the personal, professional and academic practices (Davies and Harré, 1990). Subsequently, the study adopted a self-reflexive/auto-ethnographic approach, since I played the only participant and researcher in this project (Ellis and Bochner, 2000). In the same way, my written stories were the main data; these were based on my personal, academic and job experiences. Then, this study adopted an introspective approach (Quintero, 2016), where teaching experiences were explored through a narrative inquiry perspective (Barkhuizen and Wette, 2008). Moreover, this study also analyzed six turning points (TPs) of my career experiences. The conclusions revealed that the critical awareness I have had throughout my career is the result of a 3R-EC framework (Reflection, Reflexivity, and Resolved Action for Epistemic Cognition) (Lunn Brownlee et al., 2017). Also, the idea of continuing to perform the 3R-EC framework in daily living tasks so that I can progress as a coherent mom, teacher, researcher, and meaningful other, which aligns with the fact that LTI is an ongoing process that implies experiencing forward and backward.Ítem Convertirse en profesores-investigadores: identidades de los profesores de inglés en un programa de maestríaLargo Rodríguez, José David; Quintero Polo, Álvaro Hernán; Quintero Polo Álvaro Hernán [0000-0002-0315-8802]This study sought to understand the ways teachers shape and negotiate their identities as teacher-researchers at a graduate program in a public university. This resulted from my interest to explore the intricate paths teachers traverse to become teacher-researchers and to problematize the growing interest in teacher research in the framework of a neoliberal panorama. The study adopted a poststructuralist perspective on identity that revolves around the works of Barkhuizen (2021), Norton & Early (2011), and Rudolph et al. (2018) to understand the contingent, ongoing, fluid, and ever-changing nature of identities present in teachers’ life stories. In the same vein, this perspective opened the scope to analyze external and internal elements (Borg, 2010; Edwards & Burns, 2016) intersecting teachers’ identities while they learn about research (engagement with) and conduct research (engagement in) (Xu, 2014). Through a narrative lens, this study analyzed nine teachers’ meaning of their lived experiences while storying their trajectory in being and becoming teacher-researchers. Findings revealed that teachers construct initial ways of being and becoming while they learn about research and conduct their research agendas. In this process, the available discourses, practices, and methodologies shape initial ways of being. Similarly, the sociocultural contexts and communities of practice teachers inhabit, and their inner capacities afford or constrain the constructions of their identities. Nevertheless, teacher-researcher identities do not lie fixed or complete but are fluid and ongoing as teachers deconstruct their past experiences in the master’s program. At this point, teachers experience epistemic breaks that allow them to (re)construct renewed ways of being teacher-researchers. In the end, their identities are constantly shaped in a pull-and-push relationship with their past experiences, their present constructions, and their imagined prospections.Ítem Desarrollo de habilidades analíticas y alfabetización informativa en estudiantes mediante mnemotecniasFlórez Espinosa, Alan Stick; Pineda Báez, Clelia; Pineda Báez, Clelia [0000-0002-1369-4190]This research explored the impact of mnemonic techniques and informational literacy on the analytical skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The primary objective was to investigate how the utilization of mnemonic devices influenced students' analytical abilities and their application of information in the development of their critical thinking. Mnemonic techniques are memory aids that help students to remember information by associating it with something else. They can be used to remember facts, concepts, or even entire procedures. This study adopted a qualitative methodology descriptive methodology to gather and analyze data. Students were actively engaged in activities that involved information analysis, source evaluation, and creation of mnemonic devices. The data was collected through learners’ reflections, observations, and artifacts analysis. The findings of this research demonstrated that the process of constructing mnemonic devices significantly enhanced students' analytical skills and fostered more robust critical thinking abilities. Moreover, students exhibited a heightened level of critical and reflective information processing, effectively assessing the reliability and relevance of various sources. The implications of the results are of great pedagogical significance, as they underscore the importance of instructing analytical skills and cultivating critical thinking within the EFL classroom. Educators are encouraged to integrate information literacy and mnemonic techniques into their teaching practices to effectively foster the development of analytical skills among students. Furthermore, it is recommended that students are sensitized to ethical concerns associated with the use of copyrighted materials and are taught to respect the rights of creators. In summary, this research provided empirical evidence to support the claim that mnemonic techniques can be an effective way to improve students' analytical skills. Second, it identified specific mnemonic techniques that are particularly effective for EFL students and third it presented a framework for integrating mnemonic techniques into EFL instruction.Ítem Re-significando mi yo culturado como resultado de una autoetnografía alrededor de interacción croscultural en línea de inglés como lengua extranjeraPérez Bonfante, Carolina; Bonilla Medina, Sandra Ximena; Bonilla Medina, Sandra Ximena [0000-0002-6625-501X]The present thesis goes over the phenomenon of online EFL cross-cultural interaction between a teacher (researcher) and her students (co-researchers) in order to account for the way in which my (inner) cultured self is re-signified, as a result of said interaction and autoethnographic reflection around it. Through observation and analysis of critical-cultural episodes, and retrospection into my experiences as an EFL teacher, learner, and researcher, as well as my students’ experiences, I was able to find that an individual’s cultured self is a layered construction. The study led me to conclude that, in situations where (collective, individual, corporate, academic, etc.) culture plays a key role, a teacher’s cultured self is flexible enough to adapt to contextual demands, exerted by factors such as personal (research, pedagogical or ideological interests) and interpersonal (rapport with students) motivations, school’s corporate rules (teaching methods, customer service, quality control), which are all linked to broader cultural values. Nonetheless, the principles that individuals are brought up with, as well as turning points and experiences that we have had throughout our lives, exert a very considerable –at times unconscious– influence on our cultured selves, too. Even when our more recent affiliations and convictions clash with these ‘elemental’ tenets. The autoethnographic exercise also revealed that some of the cultural biases that have shaped our cultured selves respond to historical relations of subordination, exclusion, and discrimination of oppressed groups by dominant ones, based on social and economic aspects (race, gender, class, nationality, or religion.)Ítem Perspectivas de los estudiantes sobre la construcción de la paz a través de las prácticas de literacidad en los mediosRodríguez, Sindy; Aldana, Yeraldine; 0000-0001-6655-2041; 0000-0002-3820-4194Observations of high school students in a Colombian public institution in the south of Bogotá showed that they faced personal conflicts with partners and authority role models (teachers and parents). They seem to naturalize and legitimize violence encoded in their everyday interactions. This research reports a qualitative, descriptive, and interpretive study that sought to understand high school students´ perspectives about peace that are collectively created when involved in EFL media literacy practices. The pedagogical intervention is built on the principles of media literacy and integrated social studies and EFL. The curricular platform supported all instructional activities and allowed using different forms of knowledge representation that facilitated the elaboration of students’ ideas about peace. Data collection included artifacts and field notes of all sessions. Preliminary findings suggest that students transform their understandings of peace as they collectively work with their families and close people. These re-constructions contributed to creating students’ inner sense of peace. Participants demonstrated freedom to express their feelings and discuss the importance of mental health, particularly during the quarantine caused by Covid-19.Ítem The depiction of language school EFL Teachers’ beliefs and issues through discourses found in memesMenses Perdomo, César Andres; Castañeda Trujillo, Jairo EnriqueResearch worldwide has focused on EFL teachers within the context of public and private schools and universities. Although studies have examined the context of EFL teachers in language schools, including their policies on skills such as reading, the use of textbooks, and cultural identities, as well as their salaries and descriptions of settings in countries such as Malta, Spain, or Canada, there has been a lack of attention paid to the phenomenon of EFL teachers' discourses in memes to comment on their beliefs and struggles within language schools. This study aims to expand on research into EFL teachers from private language centers, particularly their use of discourse and humor in memes to depict their experiences. Teachers in this setting have created humorous memes uploaded to social media sites such as Reddit, and these memes may contain discourses that inform us about EFL teachers' issues, struggles, and perceptions of the ELT field. Thematic filtering, multimodal discourse analysis, and cyber-pragmatic analysis are used to extract discourses and humor styles from image macro memes. Data were collected from posts made during the months of May, June, and July 2021. It has been found that teachers use metaphors, sarcasm, and text-image incongruities to not only change power relations within language schools or reinforce bonds with members of the ELT community, but also depict EFL teachers as creative, playful, knowledgeable individuals who imbue discourses with humor for purposes beyond entertainment.Ítem Nativespeakerism and english teachers’pedagogical discoursesEstupiñán Castellanos, Germán Enrique; Aldana, Yeraldine; Aldana, Yeraldine [0000-0001-6655-2041]Abstract The native speaker fallacy elicits both support and resistance within ELT settings. Nativespeakerism (NS) seems to create alienation and resistance mechanisms towards teachers’ and institutions’ pedagogical discourses in an informal teaching setting. The goal of this project is to understand teachers’ pedagogical discourses regarding NS within an EFL setting, to identify NS aspects within EFL teachers’ and institutions’ pedagogical discourses and to analyze relations of power derived from that dichotomy. This qualitative descriptive investigation took the critical perspective (Merriam, 2009) and the post-structuralist approach (Kincheloe, 2008) as frameworks of reference. The theoretical framework discusses the most relevant theory that backed up this qualitative investigation. In addition to, participants involved in this research were 3 English teachers from an EFL teaching setting, and the instruments were semi-structured interviews used to collect teachers’ pedagogical discourses regarding NS, and Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) was the data analysis approach applied to systematize data. To illustrate, two findings contracted in this study were: first, the way mainstream pedagogical discourses impact in the same way to teachers and institutions; and second, how non-native teachers develop pedagogical positionings regarding the native speaker privileges and upon NS. Finally, findings displayed as conclusions that inner-circle countries are set as norm-providing models with an ELT industry exported to the expanding circle countries which turn only into non-dependent countries or consumers. Key Words: Nativespeakerism, teachers, institutions, pedagogical discourses, alienation, resistance, self-positioning.Ítem Creencias de los estudiantes sobre los exámenes estandarizados en el contexto de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera en Nicaragua.Torrez Miranda, Cristopher Alejandro; Pineda, CleliaThe area of language testing in the EFL context has been severely criticized by the educational community, particularly in relation to standardized forms of evaluation. Standardized tests are tools that perpetuate segregation, discrimination and injustice, leaving aside students' experiences, lived stories, and beliefs. This thesis aimed at deepening the understanding of standardized testing in an international setting. Nicaragua, provides a new perspective to the critical language testing field, hence the importance of this study to the region. This descriptive, interpretative, qualitative, and phenomenological research study sought to reveal the essence of the lived experiences of a group of students who took the Versant English exam at a private high-level institution in Nicaragua. It also intended to unveil students’ beliefs about EFL testing. In-depth interviews along with students’ journals were used to collect data. The data analysis shows that students’ have inner visualizations of the exam that generate a constellation of feelings that impact their academic and social dimensions. The findings also reveal that students believed that the exam works as a mere instrument to measure their linguistic proficiency and it is a way to control their personal, and academic decisions. The results indicate that the EFL community must look for alternative and enriching ways to assess and evaluate students.Ítem Transiciones de la aritmética a la matemática crítica en InglésOlaechea Rojas, Nasly Katherine; Pineda Báez, CleliaThis descriptive and interpretive study responds to the need to transform a rigid structure of math practices in an EFL math classroom that followed a proficiency-oriented approach. Fifteen EFL Math students in the age range between 8 and 10 participated in six Critical Math Literacy didactic units (CML) at a private bilingual school in Bogotá-Colombia. Data were collected during six months, classroom observations, students' artifacts, and six Critical Math literacy units. The results showed students' engagement, participation and text production about the economy, healthcare, and environmental issues in inquiry and math tasks. The enhancement of the English language and concepts that merged content areas developed in sophisticated repertories. Student artifacts revealed initiatives about caring for natural resources and people to understand societal structures as citizens informed. Additionally, students' outcomes unveiled how learners raised environmental awareness through transitions from numeracy to critical math literacy. The results indicated that careful consideration of learners' constructions and social reflections enables math education to propose more emancipatory pedagogies that significantly foster a critical perspective in young learners’ engagement.Ítem Comprensión de las representaciones sociales en un aula de idiomas a distancia de EFLQuete Alarcon, Lina Paola; Pineda Baez, ClecliaThis research sought to understand how high school students from a private institution located in the south of Bogota represented themselves, others and their community during the adjustments caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also aimed at examining how their representations were connected to their EFL learning process, especially, while interacting in remote language classes mediated by different digital tools. The study was framed in a netnographic, qualitative, descriptive, and interpretive standpoint. Different modes of communication that were available in video conferencing tools were analyzed, along with observations from regular classes to examine interactions and ways by which students represented themselves and their environment. Findings revealed that students modified and adjusted available icons and images to fit their interests, moods, and features of authenticity as individuals. Additionally, they disclosed aspects of their daily life and situations that they were dealing with during remote modality of schooling. On the one hand, the results are aligned with George's theory (2009, 2007) about self-representation to understand the way students view themselves and how they connect with others and with the world during disruptive times. The results show the importance of examining social representations as alternative to address socio-emotional and socio-affective issues in remote learning environments. As Bozkurt and Tu (2016) stated, social representations increase learning experiences, emotional presences, and active engagement, especially in digital learning environments.Ítem Profundizando en las identidades de los maestros de inglés colombianos desde sus voces en tiempos neoliberales: Un estudio narrativoQuintero González, Jhooni; Quintero Polo, Alvaro HernanThis paper centers on a narrative study that delved into English language teachers’ voices in regard to their verbalized identity (re)construction when engaged in a reflexive and dialogical space in which storytelling was employed. This narrative study emerged from problematizing the principles, underpinning institutes for work and human development, which are rooted in the current national bilingual program. As a result, the adopted and adapted neoliberal discourses of the above-mentioned program and the legal measurements that strengthen them, allowed me to consider English language teachers have something to say and do about themselves in regard to ideologically-laden discourses fostered by the national bilingual program that are materialized at a private language institute in Bogotá. This, in turn, guided me to invite English language teachers to participate in a reflexive and dialogical space with the purpose of collecting their stories in order to account for the (re)construction of their identities through their own voices. EL teachers’ stories were collected through narrative interviews that were transcribed and analyzed from a socio-critical perspective using short story analysis (Barkhuizen, 2016). Findings suggest that, as opposed to powerful circulating discourses that have positioned EL teachers as emotionless, uncritical, and docile non-human beings that perpetuate neoliberal agendas, they claim their identity as human educators who attempt to contest a dehumanizing model between vertical and horizontal tensions with a humanistic dimensional agenda.Ítem Estudiantes de ciencias sociales como investigadores y escritores de los problemas de sus comunidadesObando León, John Jeiver; Clavijo Olarte, AmparoThis action research study intends to reveal the writing development of a group of eighth graders through two core elements: Community Based Pedagogies (CBP) and Inquiry-Based Learning. This work was carried out at a private bilingual school in Bogotá as the pedagogical context in which the national social sciences curriculum and the local literacy practices are the main focus in the language classroom, to support the learning objectives in both subject areas. The objectives of the study were to identify the ways in which the students address their social context in their writings resulting from an inquiry process as well as analyze the agency realms in the student’s writings which reflect their concern for their community issues. Considering the use of CBP and Inquiry Based Learning as a means to orient teenagers as readers, inquirers, and writers, this research was based on a qualitative methodology and data were gathered through students’ artifacts and interviews. The results show that inquiry and CBP foster a sense of social awareness among the students that allows them to connect local and global issues such as climate change, drug trafficking, or the migrant crisis. Consequently, students developed writing as a meaningful tool to convey their understandings, arguments, and proposals towards the problematic situations in their communities.Ítem Negociación de posturas culturales en un contexto hibrido urdentro de una clase hibrida, Urbana / rural de inglésBonilla Castañeda, Iván David; Olaya León, Alba del CarmenRural areas are suffering transformations due to the influence of globalization and migration issues. The curriculum for rural schools does not respond to the rapid changes rural regions face. Specifically, the courses’ contents are mostly developed from a foreign perspective that does not match students’ socio-cultural reality. This provokes a conflict with the local community and its members’ values. This study seeks to understand how English language learners negotiate cultural stances in EFL classes within a hybrid urban-rural context. Using Kumaravadivelu´s (2008) characterizations of English language learners as the main theoretical framework for this study, I expect to understand what type of cultural positioning students adopt as they negotiate cultural views. The project is framed in a qualitative descriptive and -interpretative approach to analyze students’ insights and introspective statements. Nine tenth graders, from different socio-cultural backgrounds, accepted my invitation to take part in this research process. Data collection instruments were mainly artifacts and the transcript of video recording. The data analyzed through a grounded approach revealed that students tend to adopt a globalized position, but they value their own culture as they become critical toward cultural issues. Then, they might become glocalizers which is a hybrid stance between globalization and localization.Ítem Reconciling local knowledge with english curriculum.Caro Vargas, Johanna Patricia; Clavijo Olarte, AmparoThis project aimed at integrating local knowledge from participants’ communities into the ELT curriculum. The theoretical principles of an inquiry-based curriculum (Wells, 1996) oriented the study to address the local needs of students in a public school using the community-based pedagogy (Sharkey and Clavijo, 2012, Clavijo & Ramírez, 2019) to foster locally, situated learning. The goal was to identify how students position themselves towards community knowledge through critical inquiries in the ELT classroom. This study is framed under the tenets of qualitative, critical, youth participatory, action research (YPAR). It was carried out with a group of eleven graders at a public school in a semi-rural context in Bogotá. During three academic terms, participants researched their communities with the purpose of identifying assets and issues of concern, starting from a field experience of mapping the community, then designing projects, and interacting with leaders. The students used different research methods to carry out their inquiries, they described their local settings, contacted leaders, and interviewed them to better understand the complexity of community problems. Findings indicated that when students’ realities are included in the ELT curriculum, they use the language to communicate their ideas, inquire about topics of interest, engage in learning and understanding local realities in a more significant manner, and use their leadership and social agency. The result also shows that students’ reflections suggest possible solutions to the problematic situations they identified.Ítem Resignificando la cultura a través de las teorías de práctica : una experiencia narrativa con profesores de inglésSegura Linares, Diana Natalia; Quintero-Polo, ÁlvaroThis study intends to unveil in-service English teachers’ theories of practice concerning teaching the English language and culture in institutes for work and human development. The research initiative emerges from the interest in problematizing top-down teaching methodologies that foster an essentialist vision of culture alienated from people’s realities and hinder teachers’ possibilities to decide on their pedagogical practices. Therefore, there is a theoretical discussion that banks on the work of Walsh (2009), Candau (2016), Holliday (2010), and Kumaravadivelu (2003) to propose critical interculturality as a concept that questions the Western understanding of culture and its teaching in EFL lessons and advocates for theories of practice as a depiction of teachers’ knowledge and expertise due to their subalternation in the ELT field. Following Barkhuizen’s ideas (2013) on narrative inquiry, participating teachers go through a process of introspection and reflection to make sense of their lived experiences and create written life stories that constitute the primary data source of this study. Findings indicate that teachers’ theories of practice regard teaching culture as an opportunity to challenge the objectives of top-down teaching methodologies and involve students’ realities in the language classroom. The theories of practice also account for teachers’ complex understanding of culture since it combines an essentialist and socially situated perspective. Finally, participants’ theories represent an attempt to demystify and transform the pedagogical practice aligned with the Western paradigm regarding culture and its teaching.Ítem English students’ subjectivity (Re)construction within the english language-related discourse of success: a narrative studyGómez Gaitán, Sandra Viviana; Quintero Polo, Álvaro HernánEsta tesis presenta el diseño, el proceso y el resultado de una investigación cualitativa narrativa desarrollada entre 2019 y 2021. Su objetivo principal fue desvelar la (re)construcción de la subjetividad de un grupo de estudiantes de lengua inglesa en relación con el lenguaje relacionado con la lengua inglesa. discurso del éxito. El problema de investigación surgió a partir de mi interacción diaria, como docente y como investigadora, con los estudiantes de idioma inglés en una institución de educación no formal en Bogotá. Allí, los estudiantes perpetuaron la decisión de estudiar inglés siguiendo la idea del inglés como sinónimo de éxito y esperando obtener beneficios económicos de su aprendizaje. Este estudio cualitativo se basó en el modelo de investigación narrativa de Barkhuizen (2013) y consistió en la reflexión, creación y recopilación de cuatro historias de vida escritas (WLS) sobre la experiencia de aprendizaje del idioma inglés de los participantes. El análisis de los datos siguió tres etapas: organización, reducción y categorización. Los hallazgos revelaron que la (re)construcción de la subjetividad de los estudiantes está mediada por tensiones entre la subjetividad y las prácticas de subjetivación. Por lo tanto, los participantes en el estudio consienten la ejecución del poder a través del discurso de éxito relacionado con el idioma inglés naturalizado, asumen la responsabilidad en el proceso de aprendizaje del inglés y luchan por adquirir el idioma inglés debido a una ideología neoliberal.Ítem Entendiendo el discurso de educación inclusiva en el nivel de educación superiorOrtiz Castro, Laura Camila; Aldana Gutiérrez, Yeraldine; Aldana Gutiérrez, YeraldineThe inclusion of diverse students into regular educational settings has become an increasing demand, requiring more extensive preparation from the teachers’ part. Therefore, responding to that phenomenon constitutes one relevant aspect English teachers should consider when facing inclusive classrooms. This study explored some inclusive education discursive practices that seem to maintain and reproduce social asymmetries that transcend the social field. The discussion of the above developed through the lenses of ongoing theoretical constructs, including Inclusive Education: the mantle to Exclude (Ainscow, 2001; Hornby, 2015; Stainback & Stainback, 2013); supported in three sub-sections that from a political perspective provides a panorama about the interrelation of inclusive education, diversity and curriculum. This qualitative study analyzed an official document titled Inclusive Higher Education Policy Guidelines (MEN, 2013), establishing relations with two English Language teacher education programs, and some of their subjects’ syllabi. Principles of SFL (Halliday, 1985; 2014) and CPDA (Fairclough & Fairclough, 2012) guided the analysis. Findings revealed that in the discourse of inclusive education has been circulating discourses and sub-discourses that are constructed through inclusion-exclusion constitutive tensions with the prevalence towards one of these two sides affecting how it is approached from the practice. Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that the discrepancies between the discourses circulating in these texts promote certain exclusionary sociocultural practices such as the invisibility and privileging of specific diversities.Ítem El conocimiento tecnomediado por los estudiantes como oportunidades de aprendizaje del inglésPerdomo Reyes, Julieth Patricia; Guerrero Nieto, Carmen HelenaIn the education field, technology has been reduced to the use of hardware to fulfill certain instrumental tasks. However, children today use technology in complex ways in and outside the classrooms. This qualitative research case study is being conducted with 10 fifth-graders and aims to understand how students' technomediated knowledge helps them to foster their English language learning. Technomediated knowledge has been defined by Rueda (2008) as the use and appropriation of technology in order to share and produce knowledge. Data was collected through a survey, students' artifacts, and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that participants' current and most used technomediated knowledge source is the YouTube network, which is linked to other sources such as online video games and video and photo applications. Besides, students use their technomediated knowledge to design and present their English activities; data also shows that students share these tools and learn together, as a community of learners, in and outside the classroom.Ítem Looking beyond the essentialization of culture through EL teachers' voicesDuarte González, Camila Andrea; Quintero Polo, Álvaro HernánThis research studies English language (EL) teachers’ narratives in regard to their cultural subjectivity (re)construction. From a socio-critical perspective, this study addresses the essentialization of culture in ELT as a discourse that exerts symbolic power over EL teachers’ cultural subjectivity (re)construction. Considering post-structuralism as my epistemological angle, this study presents resistance by making EL teachers’ voices visible, since their cultural subjectivity (re)construction is based on their lived experiences instead of static information about culture. In the same line, from the commonalities between the socio-critical perspective and post-structuralism, in this research I visualize language and culture through the relation among knowledge, power, and subjectivity. From these perspectives knowledge focuses on the interpretation of individuals’ self-reflection. Moreover, according to Greene (1992) from a post-structuralist view, knowledge is constructed from theory and genuine practices. By the same token, the more knowledge individuals get, the more empowered they are. Since they make sense of their own voices (Foucault, 1978) and decide either to resist or perpetuate the symbolic power that the discourse of the essentialization of culture exerts over them. From a socio-critical approach, I consider individuals are subjects of their thought being able to discuss their own world vision (Freire, 2010). EL teachers get knowledge and power from their self-reflection, as a consequence, they (re)construct their cultural subjectivities through the relation between social discourses and the positions they adopt. Bearing this in mid, throughout this study, the EL teachers were encouraged to narrate their experiences and reflections with the focus on producing an introspective activity vis-à-vis making meaning of their stories regarding culture, considering their academic, personal, and professional profiles. Data interpretation revealed that EL teachers’ cultural subjectivities are (re)constructed through a transition they make from an imposed cultural idealization to their own discourses based on lived experiences. On the other hand, data showed that EL teachers develop their agency when experiencing a tension between their voices as cultural actors and silencing forces. This study intends to be a contribution to a vision of culture that breaks its essentialization in English language teaching (ELT) since it revendicates EL teachers as active culture builders.Ítem Exploring learners’ (re) construction of linguistic identities: An analysis of discursive practices of positioning.Silva Alfonso, Katherin Lorena; Quintero Polo, Álvaro HernánIn school, there are instituted, fixed practices which classify and re-produce classification and standardization of language learners. Yet learners negotiate their identities within this framework. This qualitative study sheds light on how learners re-construct their linguistic identity through the discursive practices of positioning in the EFL classroom in a private school. Thus, drawing from tenets of poststructuralism, I aim at interpreting students’ discursive practices of positioning as related to the linguistic identity of language learners. In this vein, I describe, interpret, and explain how participants use language to determine themselves as social individuals and to display and negotiate their multiple linguistic identities (Hall, 2003; Pavlenko, 2000; Norton and Toohey, 2011). Therefore, this research assumes that linguistic identity is discursively constructed and co-constructed by oneself and others within the social dynamics and the positions individuals assign or are assigned according to specific situations. Subsequently, classroom interaction was audio-recorded and its transcripts were examined through the tenets of the Conversational Analysis Approach (Schegloff, 1997), the Speech Acts Theory (Searle, 2001), and the Positioning Theory (Davies and Harré, 1990). Data analysis was inductively conducted identifying emerging themes. Findings depict how learners’ linguistic identities are determined by the tensions and contradictions they experience between an imaginary about the English language, entwined with neoliberal agendas (Phillipson, 1992), and the real discursive encounters they take part in. Implications thus invite teacher-researchers to inquire about how social dynamics function and how language, framed in pedagogical settings, is a mediator practice for transformation. Hence, I insist on broadening critical studies about linguistic identity and English learning, as language is not the academic end, but the means to mediate sociocultural meanings.