Knitting a Community of Practice as a Framework for Elementary and High School English Teachers’ own Professional Development in a Public School in Medellin : From Reflections on Practices and Beliefs and Back to the Class

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper aims at presenting the results of a multiple case study about the knitting of a Community of Practice as a framework for elementary and high school English teachers’ own professional development in a public school. This proposal had its starting point on the fact that the language policies and reforms launched by the national government affected teachers at public school directly. These policies and reforms have not promoted a clear, continuous, and coherent professional development process for most of the teachers at public schools, especially for those who work at elementary levels. This research study aims at knitting this community of practice as a framework and as a strategy, where elementary and high school English teachers might talk and work together. The researcher was an insider participant observer, which allowed her to understand and see this process from a closer and natural interaction. Results from this study suggest that this community encourages teachers from elementary and high school levels to come together and value their own and others colleagues’ expertise and reflection. It also enables them to frame their own professional development process in a different way and space where they could build and share experiences within their own realities and construct their own meanings and path to follow. Additionally, teachers reformulated the way they have taught English and proposed to focus on contextualizing it according to their students’ needs. This study intends to encourage other English school teachers to rethink, reflect and propose more appropriate and contextualized strategies to enrich their professional development process at their own schools.