Narrativizaciones colectivas de las experiencias de los docentes en formación de inglés y su transición a la práctica profesional en el departamento del Huila

Abstract

This doctoral research explores, from a critical and decolonial perspective, the experiences of a group of pre-service English teachers during their transition to professional practice in the Department of Huila, Colombia, through collective narrativization processes. Using collaborative autoethnography, my own journey as a language learner, English teacher, and teacher educator is interwoven with the participants’ stories to understand how their professional identities are constructed in contexts shaped by colonial legacies, institutional tensions, and social inequalities. The methodology unfolded in three phases: writing individual autoethnographies, co-constructing collective narratives, and conducting post-graduation dialogic encounters. Analysis revealed three interconnected moments—crises, epiphanies, and epistemological theorizations—which respectively reflect clashes between expectations and professional realities, transformative learning emerging from critical reflection, and the development of locally grounded conceptual frameworks for English language teaching. Crises included experiences of discrimination, curriculum tensions, the imposition of hegemonic linguistic standards, and standardized assessment practices that perpetuate inequities. Epiphanies emerged through recognizing the value of inclusion, linguistic diversity, and student-centered teaching as tools to resist and transform the system. Theorizations, rooted in lived experiences, articulated the need for a more inclusive, context-sensitive model of teacher education that questions hierarchies and imported methodologies from the Global North. Findings show that initial English language teacher education, rather than being a purely technical process, is an arena of identity and political struggle where narrativization becomes a means to amplify traditionally silenced voices and propose changes toward social justice. The study concludes with a call to rethink initial teacher education as a dynamic, situated field that integrates local knowledge, fosters teacher agency, and dismantles the colonial structures that persist in foreign language education.