Transcript Community based pedagogies to enhance the EFL curriculum
Community Based Pedagogies to Enhance the EFL Curriculum
Amparo Clavijo Olarte PhD Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Bogotá, Colombia LESLLA 2014 Nijmegen, Netherlands
Context
2008-present
Integrated CBP activities in the literacy and research courses in the MA program in Applied Linguistics 2012-2013 Community Based project with 15 teachers in four schools in Bogotá
Multiyear Collaborative Study Colombia-USA
Question: How do we promote knowledge of
local communities as rich resources for language teaching and learning integrating community based pedagogies?
Conceptual Framework
Sociocultural approach to language Critical perspectives to literacy Funds of Knowledge Community based Pedagogies
Sociocultural approach to language and literacy
“The nature of literacy embeds the interaction between the humans and their environments”. Barton (2007, p.29) “Literacies are situated and all literate activity is an indicative of broader social practices”. (Barton & Hamilton, 2000 p.1)
Critical Perspectives to Literacy
“Literacy implies more than reading the world; it deals with having learners write and re write reality, transforming reality through a conscious work.” (p. 56).It implies reading the word reality because “there is not any use of language that is not related to reality.” (Freire and Macedo, 1987, p.53) Funds of knowledge refer to the “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 133).
Community-based Pedagogies
Curriculum and practices that reflect knowledge and appreciation of the communities in which schools are located and students and their families inhabit. It is an asset-based approach that does not ignore the realities of curriculum standards that teachers must address but emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and learning (Sharkey & Clavijo Olarte, 2012, p. 41)
Research Methodology
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We employed a collective case study methodology in our investigation. For our project, the study is bounded by participants, location (i.e., school sites), time, and task (i.e., curriculum that reflect community knowledge).
Data from interviews to teachers, classroom observations, Curricular units, Students´ community projects Participants: EFL teachers and adult learners from basic English level at two universities in Bogota.
The study also included two public schools: School 1: Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, 27 students, age 16-18; low working class, 3 hours English per week.
School 2: IED Jazmin, three elementary school teachers, low working class students.
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Community-based Pedagogies Framework
Research Teaching
Observation of community practices Community scanning /mapping Understanding Learning as a social practice within a community Investigating Community Knowledge and practices Funds of Knowledge Reflecting and Identifying key aspects of community literacy practices Examining how Curriculum is constructed, for whom? Establishing possible Connections with the Curriculum content Developing research projects that address community issues in the language classroom Reflecting upon the implications in their teaching
Video with pictures of mapping the community around the school Video of children reporting about their visit to the community
Community as Curriculum:
Linking the community, school, and home in the lives of refugee students (Manchester, USA) An exploration of the community through the eyes of refugee students, visiting places such as: • Parks • Police station • Boys and Girls Club • Currier Museum of Art
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Evidences -Student´s artifact -Survey
Evidences Students´artifacts
Universidad Nacional
Teachers and students explore places in the community and interview some inhabitants.
Community Investigations
Community asset mapping using photographs
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Sharing the outcomes with a wider audience 5 Links with the curriculum Standards 2 Implementation of the projects 4 Planning the pedagogical units using the community assets
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Findings
Human Assets Linguistic Assets
How do we promote knowledge of local communities as rich resources for language teaching and learning integrating community-based pedagogies?
Recognizing Community assets
Cultural Assets Ecological Assets Historical Assets
Renewing curriculum through community projects
Identifying connections between the community and the curriculum Designing community projects with students Sharing the project results with an academic audience
Human assets
http://youtu.be/slEWOwyl1Yw
Ecological assets.
Ecological Assets
National University in Bogotá has a resource that benefits the university community, Surrounding people and to Bogota, the flora that is present on our campus, which creates a quiet space in which we conduct our activities academic daily.
The flora of the campus is comprised of native plants, And introduced plants. As an example of an introduced plant found a beautiful tree known scientifically Eucalyptus globulus known as Eucalyptus (photo 1). this tree up to 100 m of high originating in Australia and very used in marshy areas by their ability to absorb large quantities of water and pleasant aroma is one of my best friends. With a group of companions the named Lipton. he is behind the engineering classroom building and CYT, the side of a companion of the same kind sadly marked with blue spray as Bathroom.
We visit Lipton more than once a week for lunch, relax and share. He gives us peace, company, wisdom, and foster care; Lipton connects us to the natural world taking us out of the routine, we disconnected from the Internet, television, cellular, stress, the contamination which are subjected to everyday. etc; with its lovely fragrance relaxes and helps to recognize our animal part that we all have inside. (Andres’ first posting, September 24, 2012) 18
Communitarian Assets
The university offers a plethora of services for community inhabitants and citizens in general. Libraries, cafeterias, dentistry, veterinary hospital, legal aid clinic and psychological service are some of these services that have been created to assist the larger society. 19
Linguistic Assets
http://youtu.be/qfNe9yIKar4 20
Cultural Assets
“A nivel general el proyecto sobre la comunidad me ayudó en varios aspectos: Conocer la riqueza en espacios que tenemos en la universidad los cuales en muchas ocasiones no son aprovechados por nuestro propio desconocimiento de las actividades que ofrecen y todo lo que nos pueden aportar social y académico para nuestro paso por la comunidad. Conocer que diversidad cultural y social podemos encontrar en la comunidad para así distinguir la riqueza social que tenemos de la cual se puede aprender y enriquecernos” ( Romapega, Students’ survey, UNAL, November 2012 ) 21
Recognizing Community Assets
McKnight and Kretzman (1993): a process of documenting the tangible and intangible resources of a community by viewing the community as a place with strengths or assets that need to be preserved and enhanced, not deficits to be remedied.
Recognizing valuable sources available in the community helps learners acquire knowledge embedded in social, cultural and material contexts (Gee, 2000). Five types of assets were identified in the community as follows: human, cultural, historical-ideological, ecological, communitarian and linguistic. 22
Community as curriculum
Community-situated pedagogies (Schecter, Solomon, and Kittmer,
2003): Posit community as curriculum resource and challenges teachers to design and implement pedagogies based on community knowledge.
Curriculum change (Canagarajah. 2006) considers that curriculum change should be a ground up construction taking into account resources and knowledge, with a sense of partnership between local and outside experts. Teachers in different communities have to devise curricula and pedagogies that have local relevance (p. 20).
English in the Community
“In my neighborhood There are some ads in english…. Why?
- I ask the owner ,why? He say : Because people likes it … so I sell more.” Student’s mapping, 2013 Foreign Language Standard: “I can recognize other cultures
and their values and this allows me to construct my own interpretation of their identity”
10th &11th grade
Weeks Assignment
Renewing Curriculum
Description Connections with the Level Syllabus Resources
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Walking around the UN community: A picture Common places at the university Interviewing a person from the community Students walk around the university or browse their Facebook pictures and choose an image of something that catches their attention from the University or the surrounding community. Students post a voiced comment about the picture of an emblematic place of the university. Writing descriptive texts. Present simple. Present Perfect. Writing Narrative texts. NarrativeTenses Webpage with instructions: pictures of the community taken by the students. Forum Voicethread Individually or in groups, students interview a person of the community they find meaningful to their daily lives. Reporting statements. Reported Speech Questions Pictures, videos, or any other media students choose. Week 4 Week 5 Week 7 Week 8 A story about our University Community Video Script Video recording Video posting shared in the forum. Students write a complete story about the place, person or image of the community that they have shared in previous forums. Students write video scripts about community topics. Students record and edit their videos about the university community. Students publish the videos and post them to the forum. Comment and rate their favorite videos Narrative Tenses Reported Speech Questions Narrative Tenses Reported Speech Questions Pronunciation / Fluency Expressing opinions. Modals Pictures, discussion boards. Discussion boards, newspapers etc. Video resources Discussion boards, newspapers etc. Week 10 Reflection Students fill in an online questionnaire about the process of the project they have carried out. Self- assessment Online survey
Community as Curriculum
From the teacher perspective:
“It was an opportunity for me to learn more about their community. I could engage my students in their English learning in a more authentic way—they saw their environment as a resource.” Teacher’s final interview
From Students’ Perspective
“This project allowed us to find out about the life-story that forms part of the university. We found out about the teachers that give us their best to improve the university as well as the administrative staff whose smiles make us feel at home in the same way as the smiles of our fellow students do”. (Leidy’s survey, November, 2012) “A nivel general el proyecto sobre la comunidad me ayudó en varios aspectos: Conocer la riqueza en espacios que tenemos en la universidad los cuales en muchas ocasiones no son aprovechados por nuestro propio desconocimiento de las actividades que ofrecen y todo lo que nos pueden aportar social y académico para nuestro paso por la universidad. Conocer que diversidad cultural y social podemos encontrar en la universidad para así distinguir la riqueza social que tenemos de la cual se puede aprender y enriquecernos”. (Romapega’s survey, November 26,2012)
Reflections
In the development of community projects teachers and students: Increased and/or changed awareness of local resources in the communities Valued students’ agency in the co- construction of curriculum Made community knowledge applicable and relevant in the content areas Used the community as a learning resource by examining students´reality.
Publications
Sharkey, J. and Clavijo, A. (2012).
Promoting the value of local knowledge in ESL EFL teacher education through community-based field assignments . In Medrado, B. and Carla Reichmann (Eds.). Projetos e praticas na formacao de professors de lingua inglesa. Paraiba: Brasil. Editora Universitaria UFPB.
Clavijo, A. & Sharkey, J. (2011).
Community-Based Pedagogies Projects and Possiblities in Colombia an the United States . In Andrea Honigsfeld and Audrey Cohan (Eds.). Breaking the Mold of Education for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. R & L Education
Graduate students’ theses
Ana Milena Valcarcel . Inquiry as a way to generate inclusive learning environments in EFL contexts. 2014 July Rincón. Fostering students’ inquiry skills through the exploration of community based pedagogies and expressed in an EFL blog.2014
Ángela Pamela González . Community Based Pedagogy and Ӗbẽra Immigrant Kids Schooling Process in Bogotá. 2014 Leidy Maje. EFL University Students as inquirers investigating community problems.2014
Rosa Alejandra Medina.Community Based Projects as Literacy Resources in an EFL course of a Virtual Program.2013
Questions and Comments
http://aclavijo.wordpress.com/ http://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/ojs/index.php/calj