Comprendiendo las subjetividades de niños de preescolares en EFL a través de las prácticas de alfabetización basadas en el arte.

Abstract

This qualitative interpretative study explores the perceptions of self that EFL preschoolers had about themselves through the use of collaborative work and art-based literacy in a private school. It also had an endeavor of understanding how those perceptions impacted the EFL classes and the learning itself. It aimed at understanding and describing the multiple layered interrelations of the subjectivities they portrayed. In order to do this exploration there were some elements in regards to the pedagogical platform. First, two weeks and a half of art-based literacy based lesson were designed. Second, some elements from the flipped classroom and task-based learning were incorporated. In regards to the data, this study recognizes that the only ones accountable for the perceptions of self were students. Consequently, the main instrument used was an interview with seven participants, which validated the video recordings of the class interactions and their artifacts. For doing the analysis of the instruments collected, some principles from the Grounded Theory Methodology were used. This research understand that power, gender and the social-learning positioning, are key concepts when analyzing EFL learners’ perceptions of themselves and others (Foucault, 1988; Butler, 1990; Weedon, 1987, 2004; McMara 2019). The main finding of this study deepens into the notion of subjectivities by using the infinite reflections metaphor where it is determined how subjectivity is built upon chained layers of emotions, and experiences which arise from situations in an EFL preschool classroom context. This layered perception shows more evidently through the category of Racing to be the class Sheriff, which embodied a complex figure of authority and respect in the class. Keywords: perceptions of self, subjectivity, intersubjectivity, symbolic power, EFL preschoolers, gendered subjectivities, Participatory Multiliteracy Practices