Valores sociales y prácticas de literacidad en estudiantes de cuarto grado mediadas por las historias digitales

Abstract

In the context of English as a Foreign Language teaching in elementary school, fourth graders tend to have diverse social practices on how to build their interpersonal relationships. The following project focuses on addressing the relationship among fourth graders in terms of their literacy practices, social values, and the use of digital storytelling in an EFL context. In line with the above, the study of how the social values of the fourth graders are represented, co-constructed and produced is important. The qualitative research employed the instruments of semi structured interviews and observations in order to capture the multiple interactions among students, their literacy practices, and the social values integrated within the EFL context. The preliminary findings reveal how students challenge top-down teaching approaches and, instead, reconstruct social values through various dimensions of their social practices and environments, such as school and family. Grounded in a socio-constructivist epistemology, the findings from interviews and observations confirm that students redefined these values through interacting with peers, articulating feelings, sharing them, and deepening their understanding of one another. This bottom-up process, facilitated by digital storytelling in the EFL context, highlights the active role of students in co-constructing social values in practice.