ELT policy interpretations and translations in rural Colombia

ABSTRACT

Drawing on a study of English language teachers’ practices and identities in rural Colombia at a time of active education policy promoting English, this paper reports on how such policy has been “interpreted” and “translated” in rural schools. Informed mainly by the theory of policy enactment [Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. London: Routledge], the paper shows how school contexts, external pressures, values of teachers and schools, as well as infrastructure and resources available are factors that filter policy implementation and, in turn, generate reinterpretations and practices of both resistance and accommodation to policy. Particularly, the analysis suggests that although teachers’ views on the importance of English seem to converge with those of policy-makers, they have reinterpreted policy goals in more socially sensitive terms. Likewise, it is shown how teachers’ professional judgement has come to counterbalance the idealisations and demands of policy. However, the analysis also indicates that some pressures are harder to resist and teachers are then led to adapt their practices in an attempt to comply.

KEYWORDS:

• ELT policy
• policy interpretation
• policy translation
• rural contexts
• resistance
• accommodation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ferney Cruz Arcila is a PhD candidate in Language Discourse and Communication at King’s College London. He holds a Master in Applied Linguistics to TEFL (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia). His research interests centre on bilingual education, the implications of language policies, processes of construction of teacher identity, rural education and the relations of all these elements with issues of social justice.

Notes

1. According to local newspapers, some of the common foreignisms in Colombia include the use of stop, twin cam, clutch, switch, and by-pass (“Extranjerismos más Usados,” 1999; Peralta Romero, 2012). Frequently, the pronunciation of these words are influenced by the Spanish language.

2. ICFES was the name of the national examination students have to take when leaving high school, known now as Pruebas Saber 11.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación [6171].