Colombia is one of the most socioeconomically unequal countries in the world and the second most unequal in Latin-America (WorldBank Group, 2021). According to the National Department of Statistics (2021), there are big social gaps especially in terms of economic income and access to opportunities. Currently, 39.3% of Colombians are monetarily poor, 12% are extremely poor and 16% are multidimensionally poor. Furthermore, despite having signed a peace agreement in 2016 with FARC (Revolutionary armed forces of Colombia) – that have kept the country in war for over 50 years, president Duque (2018-2022) seemed to have made every effort to hinder the fulfillment of the agreements (Arias-Henao, 2019), which has prevented Colombians from advancing satisfactorily in the peace building process. In Colombia, it is no secret that issues of extreme poverty, lack of both economic and academic opportunities, and the armed conflict has affected the rural dwellers more dramatically, which, in turn, has derived in cultural marginalisation against rurality, largely regarded as undesirable.
Despite the multiple social problems, public education policies are thought to be equally beneficial and possible to be implemented in all regions, regardless of their situated particularities. One of the best examples of this are the different ELT initiatives in the country, which aligned with dominant discourses that position English as the language of opportunity and development (Coleman, 2010; Mohanty, 2017), have imposed quite ambitious goals in language proficiency to the national curriculum. That is, English language teaching and learning is mostly seen as a technical task, disconnected to social reality (Guerrero, 2008).
Drawing on critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), this paper discusses how the lack of sensitivity to the social problems of rural areas in the architecture of ELT initiatives has contributed to the reproduction of discrimination that have shaped educational actors' practice unwittingly. The talk will highlight how the socioeconomic and cultural social injustices (Fraser, 1996) are forms of racialisation and how they play a role in configuring teachers' identities and practices. Besides raising awareness of these issues, the presentation shares attempts to disrupt dominant racist discriminatory practices by means developing socially sensitive teaching material.
References
Arias-Henao, D. (2019). Objeciones a la paz colombiana: derecho y realidad en 2019. Refexión Política 21(42), pp. 80-92.
Coleman, H. (2010). English in development. British Council. www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ transform/books/english-language-development.
DANE (2021). Pobreza Monetaria y Multidimensional en Colombia 2021.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory an Introduction. New York and London: New York University Press.
Fraser, N. (1996). Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation. Paper presented at the The Tanner Lectures on Humn Values, Stanford University.
Guerrero, C. (2008). Bilingual Colombia: What does it mean to be bilingual within the framework of the National Plan of Bilingualism. PROFILE, 10(1), 27-45.
Mohanty, A. (2017). Multilingualism, education, English and development: Whose development? In H. Coleman (Ed.), Multilingualisms and development (pp. 261–280). British Council.
WorldBank Group (2021). Hacia la construcción de una sociedad equitativa en Colombia. Banco Internacional de Reconstrucción y Fomento/Banco Mundial.
