Resignificando la cultura a través de las teorías de práctica : una experiencia narrativa con profesores de inglés

Abstract

This 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.