‘Un futuro mejor para todos’: Towards a critical humanizing English language teaching

Abstract

During more than 50 years of socio-political unrest in Colombia, extreme violence has profoundly affected marginalized students in public schools. Although these topics have been mainly addressed by history and social studies teachers, English language teaching (ELT) has paid little attention to addressing issues of social injustice in the class. To fill this gap, this critical ethnography looks at how a social justice curriculum has been used in ELT classes to empower students to learn skills that allow them to discuss the violence that occurs both inside and outside of the school environment. The fieldwork was carried out in a public high school for eight months, in Bogotá (the capital of the country) with three English teachers and their young students. Data was collected through focus groups, interviews and classroom observations and then analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the activities suggested by the teachers proposed a change in teaching pedagogies toward solving social problems in students’ communities. The findings further suggest that a negotiated curriculum with the students fosters a critical humanizing pedagogy that promotes social cohesion, and as a consequence improves language learning.