EFL eleventh graders’ decision-making via critical literacy practices: a study of their social agency

Abstract

This thesis reports on a qualitative-research study in a private school in Bogotá that accompanied the development of small-scale projects by teenagers. Within the critical pedagogy perspective, it examines the question: What does eleventh graders’ authoring cycle in an EFL classroom reveal about their social agency? and aims at better understanding learners’ decision-making capacity and what characterizes it concerning social issues that emerge in their daily school experiences by means of L2 as a mediator. Analysing the data teenagers themselves become co-interpreters of their own semi-structured interviews and written reports. The interpretive inductive approach served as the framework; findings address the interplay of learners’ decision-making capacity and their social agency sense to improve the surrounding context.