Untangling english language teachers’ critical literacy views and practices by retrospective experiences

Abstract

This study intends to develop a conversation centered on untangling critical literacy views and practices by retrospective experiences in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This research begins with my personal interest in opening a space for raising the voice towards the socio-cultural realities of EFL Colombian teachers. This research offers a theoretical discussion about critical pedagogy, critical language awareness, identity construction, role construction in teaching, and varied critical literacy stances. My interest in exploring inside teachers’ views and practices made me open a call for those teachers who had something to express in relation to their retrospective EFL experiences. Thus, I developed a narrative study by conducting narrative interviews with five EFL Colombian teachers. Based on the conversations with these five participants, I created an individualized narrative story from the interviews. Here, I found that these teachers untangled views and practices toward their critical literacy teaching experiences and labeled themselves as bridges, guides, advisers, listeners, mediators, and safe spaces for the EFL educational process. Consequently, there exist five different narratives that converge in three themes regarding human connection, teachers’ roles, and adaptations of realities in the critical literacy teaching experience. This research paper is established under the qualitative paradigm because it includes voices from the five EFL teachers. Thus, I situated their voices as fundamental outcomes for comprehending their stories as narrative data. Here, I determined that the five teachers based these experiences on three stages of auto conception which are building the world, the teachers’ roles and the adaptation to realities in their contexts. These five participants express their conception of English as the means in which they interact with the world. The findings presented strong and positioned practices views in relation to the development of critical literacy in the EFL teachers. The purpose of unveiling ways of teaching English was reached through meaningful memories from the participants’ retrospective experiences. Keywords: Critical Literacy, Narratives, Views, Practices, Teachers’ roles, Building the world, adaptation of realities, Experiences.