Validating Rural Youth Learners’ Identities in an English Classroom Through Multiliteracies Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In Colombia, rural English learners have been at disadvantage in their efforts to achieve the government’s expected proficiency results in English. Living conditions and education in these regions have been critically affected by broader social issues such as lack of resources, high rates of student drop-outs, lack of access to higher education, and the armed conflict (Cruz Arcila, 2017). Added to this, the implementation of the MEN’s initiatives has systematically disregarded the needs, realities, and expectations of teachers, learners, and communities in the different regions around the Colombian territories (Correa et al., 2014; Roldan & Pelaéz, 2017; Usma, 2009). Consequently, the way in which English has been taught in rural areas has tended to disregard students’ knowledge, needs, experiences, identities, and forms of meaning-making. Guided by the principles of multiliteracies pedagogy, the present aimed at understanding how multiliteracies pedagogy may foster rural English learners’ expression and critical reflection about their identities. This study was conducted in the program Semestre 0, an initiative that aims to increase access to higher education for rural high school students in Antioquia. Participants included 23 11th graders from a northern town in the department of Antioquia.Data collection included a survey, recordings of class sessions, two substitute teacher’s reports, learners’ artifacts, and a group interview. Findings indicated that through their participation in the implementation of a pedagogical module designed from a multiliteracies pedagogy perspective, students could challenge dominant representations of youth, express their identities in their own ways, and gain new knowledge to become more critical readers and creative redesigners of texts. These findings demonstrate that English learners in disenfranchised contexts like Colombian rural areas can benefit greatly from opportunities to render their identities and perspectives on realities visible through multiliteracies pedagogy by creating different multimodal identity texts. These results also invite reflection on the alternatives that rural English teachers may have to make English learning relevant and meaningful for their students and thus find different ways to mediate between global and national demands regarding English learning and their students’ needs and realities. However, a single module in one course cannot make a big difference, nor can it be considered the panacea of teaching in rural areas. Further research about foreign language teaching and learning within a multiliteracies framework and other critical approaches in rural settings are needed as a way to contribute to the construction of social justice in Colombian rural classrooms.