Gains and Challenges Experienced by K5 Colombian Students During the Implementation of a Unit on Bullying Using Critical Read-Alouds

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Nowadays, it is very common to hear about cases of bullying taking place in schools, this is a form of unwanted and aggressive behavior that has become a social issue given its spread in schools. To deal with this, critical literacy scholars proposed to use Critical Read-alouds. These are high quality readings that are carried out for children in public to support their literacy development. They are critical because the conversations that emerge from those books before, during and after the read-alouds give students the chance to reflect upon and transform their realities. In spite of the importance of dealing with bullying situations, and of the potential usefulness of Critical Read-alouds to deal with the issue, a review of studies in main Colombian EFL journals reveal that there are no studies on how to deal with bullying in EFL classrooms in Colombia. To fill this gap, the researcher prepared a pedagogical unit through which K5 children in a private school in Medellín would be taught about bullying through Critical Read-alouds and the use of big books, drawings, videos, posters, among others. Along with it, a study was developed in order to explore the gains and challenges of using Critical Read-alouds to raise awareness about issues of bullying among these students. The specific question posed by this study was: What are the gains and challenges, if any, experienced by K5 Colombian students as a result of the implementation of a unit on bullying using Critical Read-alouds? Findings suggest that main gains had to do with the following: (a) identifying types of bullying and what bullies do, (b) identifying different participants in bullying situations, (c) understanding ways to stop bullying, (d) differentiating what bullying is and what is not, and (e) identifying feelings that bullying raises. Main challenges had to do with: (a) drawing mainly on physical types of bullying, (b) difficulty to identify the participants in a bullying situation, for some of the students, and (c) identifying feelings that bullying raises for some students. These findings suggest that, Critical Read-alouds are a good way to raise awareness about different aspects of bullying among K5 EFL students. Nonetheless, teachers need to place a special emphasis on other types of bullying besides physical and also work with the participants of bullying situations.