A critical ethnography was conducted in a marginalized high school in Colombia to understand the youth lived experiences as they engaged in social justice-oriented pedagogies to learn English. Findings revealed how the teachers counter neoliberal narratives of teaching by negotiating the curriculum with the students to promote social cohesion.
During more than 50 years of sociopolitical unrest in Colombia, extreme violence has been mostly translated to marginalized students in public schools in Colombia and formal education has been identified as crucial for promoting social cohesion. History and social studies curriculum in schools have been designated to teach conflict and peace for several years (Bickmore, Kaderi, & Guerra-Sua, 2017). However, English as a foreign language (EFL) remains guided by a neoliberal agenda towards preparing students with language capacity for economic leadership but not necessarily to discuss social issues. To address this gap, this critical ethnography looks at how a social justice and peacebuilding curriculum (SJPBC) was used in the English classroom to potentialize students to learn English skills that allow them to discuss in/out of school violence and resolve social problems that are relevant for their communities. As a conceptual lens, this research engages social justice as a philosophical approach which seeks to treat all people with fairness, respect, dignity, and generosity (Nieto & Bode, 2012). This concept allows for understanding social inequities in schooling and enables teachers and students to envision teaching and learning for social transformation and equity (Johannessen, 2010). This study was carried out in a public high school located in an underprivileged area in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The participants in this study were three English teachers and their socially diverse students. I compiled extensive records of observations and conducted semi-structured interviews at various moments with teachers and a selected group of students. The analysis found evidence that teachers and students collaborate to create lessons that forefronts “being human” at the core of pedagogy. The teachers’ goals are more than simple teaching academic English but creating spaces for students to explore and engage in social-justice-oriented projects for students as they drift out from outside-of-school violence.
