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(1)AWAKENING CRITICAL STANCES: STUDENTS ENGAGING IN INQUIRY PRACTICES AND REFLECTING ON THEIR SOCIAL REALITIES. FABIAN CAO MORALES. UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS SCHOOL OF SCIENCES AND EDUCATION. MASTER OF ARTS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS TO THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. BOGOTÁ, D.C., COLOMBIA 2019.

(2) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. AWAKENING CRITICAL STANCES: STUDENTS ENGAGING IN INQUIRY PRACTICES AND REFLECTING ON THEIR SOCIAL REALITIES. Fabian Cao Morales. Thesis Director: Yolanda Samacá Bohórquez M.A.. A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the degree of M.A. in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas School of Sciences and Education. Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. Bogotá D.C., Colombia 2019. ii.

(3) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. NOTE OF ACCEPTANCE. Thesis Director:. Yolanda Samacá Bohórquez. Juror:. __________________. Name:. Dr. Ximena Bonilla. Juror:. __________________. Name:. Dr. Clelia Pineda. iii.

(4) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Acuerdo 19 de 1988 del Consejo Superior Universitario Artículo 177: “La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las ideas expuestas en esta tesis”.. iv.

(5) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Dedication To my beloved family, especially my brother Alex, my sister Martha, my father, my cousin Jorge, for their support, patience, and conviction that all my dreams are possible. They have made this endeavour real. They have given me strength to hold on to my objectives. And to all my colleagues and students who have been part of my life, encouraging me to keep transforming my teaching practices.. v.

(6) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Acknowledgements First of all, I wish to thank Maximiliano Kolbe Bilingual School for opening not just the physical spaces to perform this study, but also for going beyond those spaces. I thank you for your conviction that innovation is required in education to awaken the students’ critical awareness to transform the social reality. My greatest thanks to its senior managers, Dr Pedro Sanabria and Mrs. Reyna Becerra, for their concern and unconditional support of my project. Secondly, my special appreciation for my students of the class 2020 from Maximiliano Kolbe Bilingual School, their commitment, interest, and social sense make it possible to dream of a better world. I have evidenced their sensibility and humanity world and their wish to act and break the perpetuity of social injustice. Their critical view of the world showed me that they will face human and environmental issues actively. In the same way, I appreciate the support that the doctors of the master’s program have given me, especially professor Yolanda Samacá for her patience and guidance. I thank doctors Álvaro Quintero and Clelia Pineda because their commitment with education and their passion for teaching became an example and challenge in my profession. My greatest acknowledgments to all of them.. vi.

(7) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Abstract This qualitative study, which is based on a descriptive and interpretive approach, presents tenth graders’ reflections about their social reality. Through a cycle of inquiry practices, the students analysed and understood their local issues. Similarly, this study acknowledged the role humans have in the society and their ability to transform social injustice. For this study, writing in a second language became the tool for students to raise their voice and awaken their critical awareness. In addition, this research focused on critical literacy as described by Freire (1970), which involves the teacher – student in a dialogue of interaction, reflection, and analysis of their world. Consequently, the students were encouraged to participate actively in class, and their personal experiences were acknowledged as a starting point to critically read and write about their world (Freire & Macedo, 1987). Furthermore, the concept of language was seen as a social practice (Pennycook, 2001), and it fostered critical analysis of social contexts through interaction. Thus, the students could construct new knowledge, which allowed them to address the situation from different perspectives. Finally, the pedagogical intervention intended to foster students’ immersion in their local contexts to identify problems that affected their worlds. Thus, they could approach, document, analyse and understand them. With this in mind, they strengthened their position about reality and developed their critical points of view. In essence, the students identified the main causes and effects of social issues, such as corruption, indifference, passiveness, and others. Thus, these aspects allowed them to establish their critical stances as a step to commit themselves to social transformation. Key words: Critical literacy, inquiry practices, EFL writing, language as social practice, social injustice, transformation, Conscientização, resistance.. vii.

(8) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Table of Contents |CHAPTER I ......................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement.......................................................................................................... 5 Research Questions: ..................................................................................................... 11 Rationale ....................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER II ...................................................................................................................... 15 LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................... 15 CRITICAL LITERACY .......................................................................................................... 17 Language as Local Practice .......................................................................................... 31 State of the Art .............................................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER III ..................................................................................................................... 43 RESEARCH DESIGN ............................................................................................................ 43 Type of study ................................................................................................................ 43 Participants ................................................................................................................... 45 Data Collection Instruments ......................................................................................... 49 Role of the Teacher-researcher ..................................................................................... 51 Data Analysis Framework: The Constant Comparative Method.................................. 52 Ethical issues ................................................................................................................ 53 CHAPTER IV ..................................................................................................................... 55 INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN.................................................................................................... 55 Writing with a Social Sense.......................................................................................... 55 Curricular Platform ....................................................................................................... 56 Inquiry-based Learning................................................................................................. 59 Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 63 Implementation ............................................................................................................. 63 Role of the Teacher....................................................................................................... 69 Role of the Students...................................................................................................... 70 Role of Materials .......................................................................................................... 71 Assessment ................................................................................................................... 71 viii.

(9) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. CHAPTER V ....................................................................................................................... 73 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ........................................................................................ 73 The Constant Comparative Method .............................................................................. 74 Awakening a Sense of Self-involvement with the World ............................................ 77 Transcending from Reflex to Reflection as an Act of Consciousness ......................... 88 CHAPTER VI ................................................................................................................... 107 CONCLUSIONS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS ........................................................... 107 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 107 Implications ................................................................................................................ 110 Suggestions for Further Research ............................................................................... 112 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 114 APPENDIXES................................................................................................................... 120. ix.

(10) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Table of Figures Figure 1 Design of the Literature Review ............................................................................ 16 Figure 2. Inquiry Cycle......................................................................................................... 61 Figure 3Inquiry Cycle Adaptation ........................................................................................ 62 Figure 4. Identifying Social Issues ....................................................................................... 65 Figure 5. Applying Mapping Method ................................................................................... 66 Figure 6. Choosing Type of Text ......................................................................................... 67 Figure 7. Writing Drafts ....................................................................................................... 68 Figure 8 Final Texts.............................................................................................................. 69 Figure 9. Emerging categories .............................................................................................. 77. x.

(11) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCES. Table of Appendices. Appendix A. Survey to identify interests ........................................................................... 120 Appendix B. School Consent ............................................................................................. 121 Appendix C. Students’ Consent Form ................................................................................ 122 Appendix D. Unit of Intervention....................................................................................... 123 Appendix E. Materials First Session .................................................................................. 129 Appendix F. Material Session 3 ......................................................................................... 132 Appendix G. Questions for Focus Group ........................................................................... 133. xi.

(12) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 1. |Chapter I “The answer does not lie in rejection of the machine, but rather in the humanization of man” (Freire, 1974, p. 31). Introduction This qualitative research project attempts to analyse tenth graders’ reflections about their local realities and social issues that they identified through inquiry processes. Inquiry practices are intended to awaken the students’ sense of belonging within their context. Through their own texts, we can reveal their thoughts, feelings, and emotions about the social problems surrounding them. Incidentally, “Inquiry is a continuing process in every field with which it is engaged” (Dewey, 1938, p. 8). For this reason, this research study intended to go beyond standardized practices that fail to consider the students’ needs, concerns, and expectations about knowledge. The standardized practices mentioned above are a product of the governmental policies imposed on schools, and they have determined two main roles in the teaching practice. The first is that teachers are the ones who provide knowledge, and the second is that student are the receivers of that information. Freire (1970) defined these roles as banking education and highlighted that “The teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (p. 72). Nevertheless, this type of education has remained in place for years as a result of economic competitiveness around the world, despite society’s interest in an education that promotes dialogue between teachers and students. Given the current roles in place, it is crucial to awaken students’ critical consciousness about the world and social problems around them..

(13) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 2. Throughout history, researchers have sought to transform the “banking” interaction between students and teachers in the classroom. Freire mentioned that “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors” (Freire, 1970, p. 73). However, traditional teaching practices persist because of testing. Thus, students must use the knowledge they have received to answer questions that rarely provide the space to reflect on the issues around them. In Colombia, students are required to take the Prueba Saber, a national standardized test, to get into college. Given the implications the test has on the school and student’s life, teachers are asked to focus their work on preparing students for the test. One of the issues with standardized tests is that they ignore the students’ living and learning conditions. Barton and Hamilton (1998) stated that “decontextualized tests due to the literacy is out of its context instead of dealing with people’s real lives” (p. 57). Because of the conditions of the test, students are forced to memorize standard knowledge instead of reflecting on the problems within their contexts. Due to the banking practice, it is necessary to search for real actions that transform teacher-student interactions. Therefore, this project aimed to open academic spaces for students to assume a pivotal role in their education process. To reach this goal, the students’ world had to be brought into the classroom as an object of study, knowledge, and understanding. Accordingly, the students had the opportunity to reflect about their contexts, hence, they started becoming agents of transformation in their settings. As mentioned above, society has tried to instil a sense of critical awareness in its students to transform their realities. Education requires a change to transcend from traditional test training to papering subjects to contribute to society’s transformation. “A.

(14) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 3. society beginning to move from one epoch to another requires the development of an especially flexible, critical spirit” (Freire, 1974, p. 6). Hence, it is time for teachers to create spaces that can meet institutional and governmental demands, while allowing students to awaken their critical awareness. Doing so gives students the opportunities to discuss and reflect about political, social, and cultural concerns with the hope of generating real change. To address this issue, I have focused my project in the field of applied linguistics, mainly looking at language as a local practice. In this case, language is the vehicle used to interact and construct knowledge through classroom practices. Its use in a particular setting sheds light on how language operates in a social context rather than as isolated structures (Pennycook, 2001, p. 15). In order to achieve the previous, I sought to give learners the opportunity to interact in discussions and writing practice about their local context. Through inquiry and cause and effect analysis, students could present the way they see the world and think about ways to transform it. Critical literacy theory (Freire, 1970) was the main backbone of this study. Freire introduced the ideas of dialogue, reflection, and analysis as means for participants to become aware of their environment, feel empowered, and transcend from oppression toward liberation. Similarly, Freire advocated the need to educate students to critically comprehend their world and its conflicts in order to transform it. Hence, education, especially the work done inside of the classroom, should encourage the students’ knowledge about their contexts to identify problematic situations. Thus, they need to be submerged in their realities to improve their world (Freire, 1974). When students are allowed to inquire about injustice conditions and their causes, they can see their contexts.

(15) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 4. from a critical point of view. Later, students can react to the identified problems by writing their stances. Additionally, Lankshear and Mclaren (1993) described the importance of experiences in constructing social relationships (p. 86). Morgan (1997) defined language in relation to socio-political arrangements, while Pennycook (2001) highlighted literacy as a social practice in which knowledge is constructed through interaction. Finally, Barton, Hamilton, and Ivanič (2000) remarked critical literacy as practices that involve values, attitudes, feelings, and social relationships. In other words, it is how individuals construct their experiences due to literacy within a group or community. These tenets support the view that critical literacy promotes equity and equality among subjects and subjects with nature. According to Freire (1974), the subject is a person who integrates with his or her world, thus, positioning their critical view with the hope of transforming it (p. 4). This provides education with the mission to liberate the oppressed from the oppressor by questioning relations of power, inequity, and injustice. Consequently, students feel engaged to understand emotions, beliefs, and values held by those who have a role in social relations. Moreover, Freire challenged teachers to help their students to read the word and the world as a process to become conscious of unequal power relationships (as cited by Lankshear & McLaren, 1993, p. 82). Given the above, critical literacy emphasizes students’ consciousness and responsibility as active agents of their world. My intention with this project is to give action to Freire’s words and break banking education in our time. Now that I have described the main concern of this study, I proceed to explain its organization. To begin, I detail the statement of the problem and research question, which.

(16) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 5. was justified through the objectives and rationale. In other words, this chapter presents the contextualization of the research problem, as well as the relevance of this study. Secondly, chapter outlines the literature review as the theoretical support of the project. Here, I highlight the most important concepts and authors, in addition to other visions about education and language related to the study. I look at the epistemological foundations to understand the research problem and interpret the research results. Afterward, the third chapter introduces the research design, type of study, participants, context, data collection instruments, and analysis method. Immediately following the research design, I introduce the instructional design in chapter four. I include the pedagogical intervention; whose purpose is to encourage the participants to awaken their sense of social justice. In addition, this intervention describes the role of the teacher, students, materials, and methodology implemented during the study. In addition, I describe the inquiry cycle and how it was applied in the data collection process. Then, in chapter five, the data analysis depicts the organization and interpretation of the data, which illustrates the students’ transformation from superficial to deeper perceptions about their contexts. Finally, the conclusions are presented in chapter six, along with the pedagogical implications, limitations, and recommendations for further studies. Likewise, this chapter presents these interpretations with the intention to contribute to the educative context.. Problem Statement In my experience as an English teacher in three private schools, I have observed the ways students use literacy for testing practices. Students are accustomed to using writing to answer test questions and filling in the blanks. In terms of reading, they focus on.

(17) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 6. underlining words, copying sentences, and reading texts to answer specific questions. Therefore, I have seen how the classroom has become a space to train students to acquire some strategies in order to successfully answer tests. However, classroom activities hardly ever promote the student reflection regarding their world to awaken their critical awareness. Accordingly, this view of education becomes instrumental and mechanical, instead of allowing students to analyse and reflect on what they are reading and writing about. By training students to take national and international exams, I have noticed that this has directly affected their ability to argue and choice a critical position on topics about corruption, poverty, and the country’s economic situation. In this sense, I have seen that students feel detached from the situations that affect their society. Therefore, students reject discussing topics, such as teenage pregnancy, business, government, and crime and punishment. They prefer to talk about music, movies, video games, or sports. In general, the lack of knowledge about social problems could mean that adolescents need more spaces to inquire about their world. Moreover, they need to immerse themselves in their contexts, get to know it, and awaken their sense of critical awareness and responsibility. Because of this, I wanted to work with adolescent to help them give voice to their critical stances and knowledge about their world. While working at a private bilingual school in Colombia, I have experienced a division on how the English language should be taught. On the one hand, the school promotes students’ critical stances, and it underpins its pedagogical pillars on learning theories, such as Meaningful Learning (Ausubel, 1963) and Constructivism (Vygotsky, 1930; Piaget,.

(18) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 7. 1967). The school’s PEI 1 highlights that “the subject creates systems to understand its world and experiences” (p. 6); “It requires the active participation of the students” (p. 8); or “the learning is used to be applied in different situations, or contexts” (p. 7). In addition, the school mentions the four pillars of learning in its project, which are “learning to know, learning to be, learning to do, and learning to live together” (UNESCO, 1996, p. 37). When we analyse these principles, it seems like the school is promoting ideal pedagogical practices in the classroom. However, the school has also established certain requirements that go against these principles. Despite recognizing students as agents able to transform their world, the school must also give mandatory exams like the FLYERS, KET, PET, and IELTS tests. This requirement has restricted the time and efforts that can be spent on helping students develop their critical awareness. Additionally, the students’ results on these exams will directly affect the institution and its status as a bilingual school. Consequently, the principles mentioned in the paragraph above remain only on paper. Because of this situation, I ask the questions: Where are students supposed to develop their critical sense? Which spaces and time do we have to educate our students to construct their knowledge about the world and transform it? Unfortunately, the spaces that we have to reflect and promote discussion about the students’ contexts has been given to test training. In high school, students are also required to take the prueba saber 11. Students are highly encouraged to score well on this exam in order to get into college. Additionally, a high pruebas saber 11 score will ensure that a student can select his or her career. Schools. 1. The PEI is an acronym that stands for Proyecto Educativo Institucional [Institutional Education Program]. It has the school’s mission and vision statements, as well as the academic development plan..

(19) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 8. also receive a muy superior [distinguished] category based on their students results, which serves as publicity for the institution. As a consequence, training for the exam has become another impediment on developing students’ critical consciousness. The school’s need to be certified in regard to test results prevails, and it forces teachers to train students rather than promote practices of interaction, knowledge construction, and critical awareness. So, the question remains as to how we can motivate students to become social agents capable of transforming their world if traditional instruction, grammar, and reading practices persist. In 2016, the National Ministry of Education regulated in the Basic English Learning Rights that English language learning was a right of every high school student. This regulation has focused on communicative competences, such as oral and written skills. However, this regulation should consider that developing students’ points of view about their world are also a right. Therefore, teachers should foster the communicative skills with critical literacy through reflection, transformation, and action on issues of power (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004). This should be the aim of education: Encouraging students to reflect on social issues and use the language as a tool to express their thoughts and stances about the world. While policies demand that students learn English as a second language, we can also encourage them to use the language as a vehicle to free themselves, raise their voices, and write about their world. As Lerner (2001) stated, “The communicative purposes such as, write to establish contact with someone distant, or to know another possible world and think about one's own” (p. 29). In essence, students may recognise other cultures through a second language as well as increasing their knowledge while observing issues in other social contexts, consequently, this practice allows them to analyse their world reflecting on.

(20) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 9. its social issues from different perspectives. Thus, these principles develop students' abilities to become active agents in transforming their communities and world. Indeed, the language should transcend a number on a test. Instead of learning the language to pass tests, we can use it to recognize and reflect on our own culture. At present, learning a second language helps institution maintain their status. However, the students are not encouraged to create or express their points of view. Students should be given the opportunity to deeply comprehend the issues within their context and use writing as a power to create their own texts. Consequently, this work began as a way understand the students’ contexts from a critical perspective. As Freire (1970) states, we need to awaken the consciousness of the oppressed and use the language as a tool to do something more than get a passing grade. Critical literacy fosters an active role among students and transcends the institutional structures. This study sought to create spaces to transform classroom practices from instrumental to dialogical, in which the students' experiences were the object to create their texts. To reach this goal, it was necessary for me to identify my students’ needs and concerns. Therefore, I observed, discussed, and surveyed the students. I began my observation during a training session for IELTS. I talked with the students who had had difficulty in writing about social topics in the test. They expressed that they were unaware about these issues. As a consequence, this study needed to transcend instructional practices without denying the importance of technique and writing style. It was also necessary to encourage students to feel curiosity for the positive and negative situations surrounding them every day..

(21) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 10. The tenth-grade students also completed a survey, which asked them about their interests and worries. In this survey, the female students responded that they their interests were related to music, cell phones, and television series. Meanwhile, the male students preferred sports, video games, and/or girls. They mostly watched the entertainment and sport news online, and they avoided political and social news (see Appendix A). Only four of the twenty students surveyed said that they were concerned about world issues, human history, violence, and the consequences of drug consumption. Indeed, other students said these issues stressed them out, so they preferred to talk about “their things”. However, they expressed that they would like to learn about social problems to feel part of their world and search for solutions to theses issues. When students recognise their social problems, they can also understand and assume their role in the transformation of their own future. Overall, the education for today's competitive world does not motivate students to deal with social, cultural, or political discussions, nor does it engage students in social justice and equity. This is contradictory to the needs of society, which requires that its children develop the competences to improve the world we coexist in. As Freire (1970) claimed, pedagogy is responsible for encouraging it youth to awake their critical consciousness in order to analyse situations, understand the context, and propose solutions. By gaining knowledge about their world, students are recognized as subjects who perform a role in society and are able to transform their social realities. In short, we can help our students transform the world by providing materials, resources, and dynamic classrooms to motivate students to reflect and act for a fairer local reality..

(22) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 11. Research Questions: Once I had identified and described the problem, a research question and objective emerged. Through this project, I will answer the question: What transformative actions do tenth graders demand when reflecting on their local realities through an inquiry process? Objective: To characterize transformative actions proposed by EFL tenth graders’ reflections about their local realities through an inquiry process.. Rationale Today's world requires that students be prepared to assume an active role in their local context. After all, they are the ones who should construct the world they desire for their future. In this manner, teachers have the mission of engaging students to recognise their world and its social problems, to understand them, and to accept the challenge of transforming these situations. Furthermore, teachers must consider students' experience as a starting point to act as agents of change and observers of their own realities from a critical view. Because of this, students need spaces to feel they can express themselves freely. As Freire and Macedo (1987) explained, “teachers will begin to make the necessary inroads into opening new spaces for creative and reflective discourse and action” (p. 17). For this reason, this project is meant to foster students’ immersion in their worlds and bring up experiences, problems, and positions about their realities. Consequently, what makes this study relevant is that it seeks to strengthen the interaction between teachers and students so that they can co-construct knowledge through.

(23) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 12. analytical and dialogical process. Freire (1970) suggested that teachers should establish practices, such as problem-posing, reflection, and critical consciousness, to transform our teaching performance in favour of a better learning environment that contributes to the world’s progress. Therefore, this project is vital because it is intended to make students and aware of their role in constructing society. Likewise, they too will acknowledge the influence they have in transforming their reality. This project encourages students to understand the world they live in; identify discrimination, oppression, and injustice; and critically reflect on these situations. Furthermore, I expected students to awaken their sense of belonging in the world and discover how they can contribute to a better future. In this case, inquiry practices provide the elements to underpin their critical stances sustained by the literacy practices. In other words, this study opens up spaces to analyse, discuss, debate, reflect, and construct their critical stances through writing practices. Thereby, they can approach the causes and effects of social issues. In this way, students transform the way they acquire their knowledge “from discussion of questions that arise, to the formulation of questions. Points about which difference of opinion is possible, matters upon which experience, reflection, etc” (Dewey, 1902, p. 146). Moreover, they acknowledge language as a vehicle to express how they perceive their social realities. Indeed, when students comprehend their role in constructing society, they also take on a sense of responsibility. Therefore, this study encourages students to approach their contexts and identify the issues that affect them. Bringing these situations into the classroom to discuss and analyse them helps students establish their.

(24) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 13. critical stances. Further on, students will understand how their decisions will affect their future. The process mentioned above contributes to answering the research question since the participants can follow the inquiry cycle to get to the main causes and effects in their social realities. In turn, students take on a constructivist role when reflecting about local problems based on their knowledge about their world. In order to construct knowledge in the classroom, language is used as a social practice (Pennycook, 2001). Thus, communication, discussion, and debate are used to present ideas during inquiry practices. In the following section, I expand on these practices. However, it is important to note that writing practices are the engine that moves learners from a passive to an active role. Additionally, this project seeks to open a space where students can use a second language to position themselves when faced with different social problems. As mentioned before, “it is a requirement to educate children to develop their competences with a critical, ethical, moral, and social sense 2” (Ley 115, 1994, p. 6). Hence, education has the mission of encouraging students to become agents of transformation and to develop their critical sense. Whilst this law considers the acquisition of a second language in relation to the cultural, physical, and social environment in any context, it does not highlight the true value of the local situation and students’ experiences. By extension, the culture that should be discussed in the classroom should be the students’ because the acquisition of a second language starts from the students’ experiences. Therefore, this study seeks to transcend the instrumental instruction of the language for standardized purpose. Instead, I want to start. 2. The translation is done by the author..

(25) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 14. from the students’ experiences first as way for students to become aware of their knowledge and critical stances. Accordingly, this study recognised the role of the language as the means to raise our voices. If students utilize this resource and own their voice, the world will also listen to their thoughts and understand their critical points of view. Unfortunately, people have become accustomed to perceiving social problems without reflection on the injustice, oppression, and indifference behind those situations. According to Freire, “This new, critical optimism requires a strong sense of social responsibility and of engagement in the task of transforming society; it cannot mean simply letting things run on” (1974, p. 10). Besides that, the students must have spaces to dialogue and interact with others to communicate their feelings and concerns. Therefore, this study expects to encourage its participants to be subjects of the world with a voice and power in their writing practices. Thereby, they will feel motivated to express themselves freely, connect with their context, and act according to their critical stance as a step to transforming the world..

(26) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 15. Chapter II Literature Review “Critical, loving, humble and communicative and therefore a positive stance. The man who has made a radical option does not deny another man's right to choose, nor does he try to impose his own choice” (Freire, 1974, p. 9).. This chapter discusses the constructs underpinning this research study. To begin, this project takes critical literacy as its foundation for reflection, critical consciousness, transformation, and social justice Overall, critical literacy is the ability to read and write actively about the world, thus, reflecting on its problems and establishing critical stances about its realities. and setting a critical stance about those realities. Therefore, critical reading and writing will be presented as practices that allow participants to empower their voices. Freire (1970) emphasized that education was a practice of freedom, and he also demanded that students and teachers interact in the classroom to awaken critical consciousness. Hence, this section demonstrates how reflecting about social problems is the first step to transforming it and fostering social justice. In addition, this discussion highlights the role of language in critical literacy to awaken critical consciousness within the social reality (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. xiv). Therefore, it is relevant to show how the language contributes to knowledge construction as a local and social practice through the interaction in and with the context (Pennycook, 2001). Moreover, this study is focused on encouraging students to awaken their critical sense,.

(27) 16. AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. which becomes evident when they reflect on their local realities to transform their world based on social justice.. Critical Literacy. (Freire, 1970). Critical Stances. (Freire, 1974). Students’ voices. Social Realities. (Freire, 1992). (Barton et al. (2002). Language as a social practice. (Pennycook, 2001). Writing practices. (Lerner, 2001). Figure 1 Design of the Literature Review. Critical literacy concentrates its principles on the importance of reading and writing beyond the instrumental vision of these skills, which might be focused on grammar exercises or answering standardised tests. It even proposes transcending toward social literacies to explore and understand student’s realities and their causes and effects. Consequently, this requires bringing the participants' experiences from their context into the classroom as a source of knowledge. When students identify themselves as part of their contexts and problems, they think about ways to transform them. This is what Freire (1974) claimed “to develop reading and writing as an act that allows humans to discuss the problems in the context” (p. 30). The value of these practices relapses on encouraging students to get to know their world and participate actively in its transformation. Therefore, reading and writing practices are used to analyse and reflect about their local concerns and feel part of the problem and solution..

(28) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 17. This discussion advocates the theoretical bases that help comprehend how students question themselves about their world, thus, becoming aware of their context. In doing so, students can act and break the chains of ignorance through critical interactions and understanding. As Coleman (2009) described, “These approaches see a locality as a starting place from which connections will be traced outward, rather than as a single isolated point” (as cited in Barton & Hamilton, 1998, p. xxviii). As a consequence, this section explains how tenets of critical literacy, such as analysis and reflection on the local problems, awaken students' critical consciousness about oppression, marginalization, and discrimination. Similarly, I explain how critical stances can serve as claims toward transformation of reality, and furthermore, as social justice among humans.. Critical Literacy The concept of critical literacy is based on the principles of Paulo Freire (1970), who was concerned about the need to educate peasants in Brazil. Overall, the author positioned literacy as a way to balance the relationship between the oppressive landowner and the oppressed workers due to their lack of knowledge in reading and writing skills. Then, Freire recognised the need to change this situation and liberate the oppressed. Hence, he proposed education as an “instrument for liberation” (Freire, 1970, p. 21). Therefore, one of the tenets that Freire claimed was social justice, where knowledge could break domination practices and guarantee a balance among all subjects in society. In addition, Freire did not only want peasants to learn reading and writing as mere skills to communicate. He thought that they could express what they felt, dreamed, and.

(29) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 18. thought through these tools. Therefore, he asserted that learning routines should transcend the banking concept, which was mentioned in the previous section as the practice of receiving, memorising, and repeating information deposited into the students’ minds (Freire, 1970). To do so, students and teachers need spaces to reflect about their world. We see that in today’s educational system, teachers are required to reject the banking concept if they are to create spaces of discussion, interaction, and analysis of social situation. In addition, the invitation to transform also invites reading, analysing, and criticizing situations of social injustice as a practice that approaches students to their reality. Because of this, students are required to fee the call to read their world with the intention of understanding it. Therefore, they need to see their world from a reflective point of view in order to analyse and interact with social situations. What this means is that we need to approach the world from a critical viewpoint to understand relations of power between rulers and the oppressed. The fear of challenging these positions of power dominates over citizens who prefer to keep silent, despite obvious injustice and social inequality. In other cases, people become indifferent to the problems around them. In some cases, people might know the origin of the problem, but they prefer to ignore the issue or hide their voice to avoid being displaced, threatened, or even killed. In Colombia, social leaders who speak their mind are often murdered for doing so. According to El Espectador, a Colombian newspaper, 317 social leaders were killed in 2018 (Garavito, 2019). In light of this situation, people in rural and urban areas remain in silence, perpetuating social injustice to protect their own lives instead of fighting for their rights. Moreover, when people’s fears are mixed with indifference, the powerful continue.

(30) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 19. to oppress the weak. Freire (1970) named this conflict as the fair of freedom, where the human is in a duality; their fight lies in choosing between being a spectator or an actor (p. 48). However, while humans decide what role to take, they keep making the same mistakes by being indifferent to social problems, electing the same governors who favour their own interests, or rejecting the opportunities to act as transformers. In August 2018, the Colombian people had the opportunity to vote against anti-corruption practices (in Spanish: Consulta Popular Anticorruption). Unfortunately, only 11.6 million of 36 million voters supported the anti-corruption proposal. Unfortunately, it was not approved. Under those circumstances, teachers have the responsibility of educating to free and empower students as agents of transformation. By the same token, schools must adapt their literacy practices inside the classroom to meet the world’s current needs. Reading and writing can become a repetitive exercise, but the action behind transforming our social contexts seems to be missing. So, we live a utopia of what education should be like, but it is trapped in books and research articles. However, the actual teaching practices continue to provide information that needs to be memorised for tests instead of teaching students to analyse their history and present to prepare for the future. As Freire mentioned, “Our traditional curriculum, disconnected from life, centred on words emptied of the reality they are meant to represent, lacking in concrete activity” (1974, p. 33). Hence, it is necessary to stop talking about changes and start implementing them. Even if transformation is every person’s responsibility, the teacher can start by inspiring students to think critically about their world through dialogue and reflection of lived experiences. Activities, such as interviews, discussions, and research, allows students to analyse,.

(31) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 20. reflect, and construct knowledge about their world. Consequently, these teaching practices in classrooms encourage the relationship humans have with their world by reading their local context to identify those problematic situations that affect society. Later, students recognise and understand the causes and effects of these issues in context, so that they will acquire enough knowledge to act as agents of transformation. As Barton et al. (2000) affirmed, “literacy as social practice that connects the individual with one another to understand the social structures” (p. 8). Moreover, inquiry practices allow people to acknowledge how others see their world, how they assume their role in that world, and their concerns about it. For instance, documentaries regarding indigenous or peasant issues in different rural and urban areas of Colombian allows others to recognise how violence and injustice affects these communities. Similarly, identifying others' views enriches students’ knowledge of their world. Additionally, knowledge is constructed with others in interaction, which contributes to understanding problematic situations from other points of view. Therefore, he or she broadens his or her world perspective. “The notion of ‘literacy events’ highlights the mediation of texts through dialogue and social interaction, in the context of particular practices and settings” (Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2000, p. 195). As a consequence, these interactions favour negotiation of meaning and rules during dialogue and interpretation of cultural and social issues. Furthermore, students question the history behind these problems despite generational opposition. In order to fully understand the world and its problems, individuals must come together to construct their vision of the world. Indeed, recognising the others’ points of.

(32) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 21. view and analysing problem situations motivate people to assume a critical stance on conflicts like corruption, contamination, and social injustice, among others. This is what Freire (1974) called reflection, which is the way a person sees and thinks about their world. He also defined reflection as a critical perception that analyses humanity throughout history. It implies observing the world as agents acting as subjects to understand social issues. Similarly, he explained the object as a passenger who avoids reflection by being indifferent or ignoring world problems and their consequences. In contrast, reflection is materialized through actions that give meaning to words, which come from discussion, analysis, and real changes. Namely, the term reflection describes how humans should see the problematic situations the world faces today. “Men relate to their world in a critical way. They apprehend the objective data of their reality though reflection - not by reflex as do animals” (Freire, 1974, p. 3). Therefore, the question under consideration is humans today react as reflex due to a lack or knowledge or voice in the face of social issues. In fact, other causes of adaptation, such as indifference and ignorance, force people to accept problems without claiming them. However, to break this state of adaptation, society needs to give critical points of view a more significant and powerful role in transforming the world. Similarly, when every single person takes on an attitude of reflection with a critical spirit, they acknowledge education as a process to awaken their critical awareness. In addition, a critical spirit implies that people question relations of power and inequality. Therefore, education creates opportunities to approach social, cultural, and political domains. According to Lankshear and McLaren (1993), critical is “the idea of liberal.

(33) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 22. education to promote the intellectual freedom” (p. 21). In other words, it allows students to discover truths by using literacy practices, instead of providing all of the information and limiting their possibility to observe their world with their own eyes. Similarly, I understand the idea of critical literacy as the process of interacting with the world, reflecting on its situations, and setting a critical stance regarding its social problems. Nevertheless, it does not stop here. Humans need to act in order to improve their life and environment. In addition, if people wish to see real changes, they should consider becoming more aware about their world. That is why people need to have a critical position and moe from a passive to a critically conscious attitude. fact, Freire (1974) called this Conscientização 3, “a process where the subject interprets the reality to move from the state of ingenuity to a criticism” (p. 16). Indeed, if people want to assume that critical position, they must first understand their social and political responsibility against injustice and inequality. “We might say that critical here means taking social inequality and social transformation as central to one's work” (Pennycook, 2001, p. 6). Hence, Conscientização invites the individual and community to internalise the process and contribute critically to humanizing society. Correspondingly, society implores for an education that helps students recognise Conscientização as a process against power relationships that legitimise human passiveness, such as indifference to the destruction of nature, violence, stealing, and corruption. Likewise, “It is a process which ties pedagogical practices in different spheres of social life to configurations of power” (Mayo, 1995, p. 363). In this case, being. 3. This word has been used to respect its original sense given in Portuguese by Freire (1974)..

(34) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 23. conscious of reality is the first step to transforming the state of adaptation that humans have legitimised. Furthermore, education through critical literacy encourages students to assume an active role in transforming reality and deeply understanding social problems. Therefore, education allows students to take the step from naivety to critical consciousness, which sees nature and humans as democratic relationship with the same rights and responsibilities for every species. Additionally, students can imagine what life is like outside of the classroom. Pedagogical practices based on Conscientização transforms literacy into a socio-political act and approaches students to the world. Namely, when the school involves students to feel part of their world through its practices, they will be able to transform reality as an essential part of that world. “In other words, there is a dire need to develop pedagogical practices, in the first instance, that brings teachers, parents, and students together around new and more emancipatory visions of community” (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 4). Consequently, critical literacy implies reading and understanding the world beyond words. To do so, students discuss social problems with a reflective mindset, and they write about it from a critical point of view. Accordingly, this transformation demands a process of inquiry that allows students to acknowledge their local context, experiences, and discourse of power relations to transform them into opportunities for equality and social justice. Even though the roles of the oppressor and oppressed have changed during the last 50 years, the binary relationships of power have remained. We continue to see how the oppressors decide on the laws that favour their conditions, while the oppressed fail to react to these decisions. Because of the violence, injustice, and incoherence this creates in.

(35) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 24. society, it is crucial for people to act instead of letting these problems continue. Therefore, this project promotes reflection and resistance as a way to empower students. In order to resist, students must also be critical. Based on Freire's words (1970), ‘critical’ means the same as ‘resistance’; it is a resistance of the rules imposed by the oppressor. This resistance requires awareness of the world and a critical stance in order to break practices of oppression. In addition, being critical permits students to analyse unequal social relations to understand why humans have perpetuated social injustice, which limits the same opportunities for everyone. For instance, every human deserves a quality education that allows them to reflect on their experiences to understand their world, which up until now has been absent. Lankshearr and McLaren (1993) emphasised on “a way of thinking about the world where students require to connect their experiences to larger, oppressive social patterns” (pp. 93-94). This is possible if we acknowledge the real mission of education, which in this case is to awaken those who are indifferent about social problems instead of monetary gains. It is evident that there are institutions that are more concerned with increasing their capital than promoting critical reflection. Such recognitions as being a bilingual school or having the highest test scores have become more important than preparing students to be the main actors of their world. In this sense, if students wish to transform the world, the first step is to begin with their closest context: their school, house, or spaces of daily interaction. Therefore, the school should motivate students to connect with their local realities, investigate their needs, and propose solutions for social equality..

(36) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 25. Besides, critical literacy proposes an equilibrium of power between the oppressor and the oppressed. Unfortunately, people’s lack of knowledge comes from having a passive role, which ends up in accommodating to the others’ oppression. To provide an example, right or left political parties can discriminate and control people who have accepted the imposed rules out of fear or ignorance. Likewise, it is common to see illegal organizations and politicians manipulating the residents, who voted for them, in distant municipalities. The problem increases when people prefer comfort over a quality education, competent jobs, and possibilities of progress. However, it is my belief that if people were better prepared to face these issues critically, they would not depend on those in power. That is to say, they would be free. Because of this, people need a new education, “an education which would lead men to take a new stance towards their problems, that of intimacy with those problems, one oriented toward research instead of repeating irrelevant principles” (Freire, 1974, p. 32). However, I ask myself if people are oppressed by force or by will. Currently, we are exposed to social problems and their causes and effects through social media, television, and radio. Thus, the problem is not just ignorance, but also a sense of indifference. Therefore, education prepares us to react against the origin of these social issues, as a consequence, humans need to cease their fear, ignorance and passiveness against the oppression and prohibit injustice. As a result, passiveness and conformity have perpetuated power relationships, such as rulers and peasants or illegal organizations and victims. Therefore, society demands that we stop talking about literacy as an ideal (what education should do) and change the.

(37) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 26. reality. To transform, we need to transcend from mere texts and discussions, to real actions. As Morgan (1997) explained, the pedagogy of the oppressed “has two aspects: first, students learn to perceive social, economic and political contradictions in what they know and what they are told. Second, they learn to act against the oppressive and dominant elements within those contradictory situations” (p. 6). Given the previous, this project intends to recognize students’ reflections on their realities, as well as their engagement to social transformation. At the same time, I wish to identify the reasons why these situations have not changed despite humanity’s need for transformation. Under those circumstances, the terms “critical” and “democratic” become linked practices to promote literacy and the subjects’ participation. Therefore, it is relevant to become aware of how the dynamics of socio-political relationships. Moreover, Lankshear and McLaren (1993) explained that “reading and writing enable human subjects to understand and engage the politics of daily life for a more truly democratic order” (p. xviii). The modern age fought against the mighty becoming mightier and the weak becoming weaker. In contrast, democracy aims to foster equity and equality, the balance between leaders and followers, and equal rights and privileges for all citizens. For that reason, the first step is to identify the causes of the social problem through analysis and reflection. Nowadays, practices in the classroom have encouraged students to recognise their world and raise their voices as a resistance against injustice and discrimination. Consequently, the school is required to create spaces for students to discuss and analyse their world in order to experience the dimension of democracy. Furthermore, pedagogical.

(38) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 27. practices orient students to understand political dynamics from a cultural dimension. “Another instance of a cultural politics whose signifying practices contain not only the logic of legitimation and domination, but also the possibility for transformative and empowering forms of pedagogy” (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 11). However, education is still restrained by institutional policies and testing practices. Education should transcend from the current political ideology and the role of today’s democracy as being right or left. It should be a support that fosters dreams of freedom and social balance. In other words, having a critical attitude as an act of resistance becomes a step in the process of liberation. Consequently, resistance, as a form of defence, rejects oppression by wrestling ignorance and illiteracy. Furthermore, “Such resistance should be seen as an opportunity to investigate the political and cultural conditions that warrant such resistance, not as unqualified acts of conscious political refusal” (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 9). So, action demands informed and critical decisions about problematic situations. However, it cannot be a mere act of rejection. It must have a connection with critical literacy and knowledge construction as processes to search for reflection and analysis of the world inside of the classroom. As a result, approaching students’ experiences allows them to understand their reality, as well as the ways people are controlled and accept subjugation by those in power. For instance, students can become aware of who established academic policies and laws and their intentions. Unfortunately, educational policies tend to standardize knowledge without paying attention to the students’ need and realities. One clear example of this is a lack of an educational plan that accounts for improving malnutrition in La Guajira or illegal.

(39) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 28. mining in Santander. Thus, “the new literacy program needs to move away from traditional approaches, which emphasize the acquisition of mechanical skills while divorcing reading from its ideological and historical contexts” (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 108). Therefore, society needs an educational system that connects knowledge constructed in classroom with the reality of their world. Such an education will awaken our students’ critical consciousness and resistance to inequality without adapting and legitimizing passiveness. In essence, tenets of critical literacy, such as reflection, transformation, critical consciousness, and resistance, demand that students have an active role in society. Nevertheless, policy makers, educators, and society should also accept responsibility for transforming the world. To take on responsibility entails reading, analysing, understanding, and reflecting with our students in the classroom. Cassany and Castellà (2010) emphasised that criticality was the ability to judge and decide in light of a problem, rather than accommodate or act indifferently. Ideally, people practice this through education and in transforming the way others see the word. Whereas Freire (1974) affirmed “if men are unable to perceive critically the themes of their time, and thus to intervene actively in reality, they are carried along in the wake of change” (p. 6). Unless every single human assumes their role to understand their local reality, it will be difficult to transform the problem, so people must act as subjects and not merely objects. However, a person cannot transform what he or she does not understand becuase she or he might commit the same mistakes. For this reason, the tenets of critical literacy are a way to move the discussions and analysis from the classroom to the local context. Thus, students can analyse the problem.

(40) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 29. and propose transformative actions. For the purpose of this project, local is seen as the places where the participants’ daily routines happen. Hence, “the local literacies study is concerned with identifying the events and texts of everyday life and describing people’s associated practices” (Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2000, p. 9). In other words, local constitutes where the students’ experiences take shape through events and practices of everyday life. In this case, it could be their house, neighbourhood, school, and other places of interactions. It also includes other areas where students identify a problem that concern them. For this study, local has been defined as the starting point to transform their reality. Namely, our closest place will become the first problem to understand. Later on, this could be transferred to a wider context. Pennycook (2001) explained that local literacies understand the codes, discourses, and forms communities give to the language, according to the life or history of their own settings. Therefore, students’ inquiries are related to the places where they live their experience and construct knowledge. Based on their knowledge, they can raise their critical consciousness in regard to their local realities. With the intention of awaken the students' critical stances, the principal purpose of this project aims to move students from a passive role to a constructivist one. Similarly, students are required to demonstrate their abilities in becoming active agents of their world, as well as how they relate their language with their context. Namely, “we found that literacy was used by people to make sense of events in their lives and to resolve a variety of problems, such as those related to health, to their jobs, to their children’s schooling and to encounters with the law” (Barton & Hamilton, 1998, p. xxiv). Therefore, the students' experiences.

(41) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 30. become useful to understand their reflections in context and the meaningful transformations they wish to make according their locality. In this way, the first step of transition comes from the students’ experience as the base of knowledge of their context. In other words, what a person understands about their background and cause and effects of the issues help the individual comprehend their local context and assume a position. The school is a crucial place where these interactions take shape since students share their local experiences to create new, social, and constructive knowledge. Indeed, the knowledge that emerges from classrooms becomes a way to reject external control and oppression of an imposed education. As Dewey (1938) mentioned, “the older education imposed the knowledge, methods, and the rules of conduct of the mature person upon the young” (p. 7). In this case, Dewey reflected on traditional and progressive education insisting that both have failed. On the one hand, the learners have never been asked what they think. On the other hand, the progressive school should strengthen the students’ reflections on social problems to transform society without abandoning the values that the old school has promoted. However, the critical discussion regarding school will continue until education takes on the role of helping its students socially construct knowledge. In essence, the social construction of knowledge moves us to reflect on how the school could promote a real transformation. Freire insisted on the necessity to change passive attitudes to critical awareness as a way of resistance, “this can be done only by means of the praxis” (Freire, 1970, p. 49). In consequence, we must transcend from discourse to action to a real transformation. Once again, we see that schools need to create spaces that encourage students to discuss and reflect about their experiences and concerns.

(42) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 31. to awaken their critical consciousness. Likewise, the language becomes the vehicle that allows students to raise their voices as a tool to transform social injustice and improve their local world.. Language as Local Practice In the first part, I demonstrate how language learning has had to respond to governmental and institutional policies that are more concerned with testing than the students’ experiences, knowledge, and positions in light of social problems. In this part, the discussion focuses on two views of language. On the one hand, language is a limitation because there are people who lack the opportunity to learn a second language. So, their possibilities to find work, study, or receive a higher wage are negatively affected by not having access to the language. For instance, language education at a public school is much different than at a private one. For the most part, private schools have more resources to spend on English. So, public school students might find themselves at a disadvantage when competing for scholarships and employment opportunities. On the other hand, language, as a vehicle of social interaction, becomes an essential element for expressing, communicating, and constructing relationships among humans and cultures. In addition, my view of the language is a mixture between a requirement to succeed professional and economically and a wish to interact in the social and cultural world. In this globalised world, it is mandatory to use language as a tool to relate with others and our environment. If a person wants to become a professional, he or she must learn a second language as a requirement of the university and employment system. In general, if.

(43) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 32. a person wishes to interact in cultural exchanges or business, he or she must speak a second language. Under those circumstances, language is relevant for this project since it is the means students have to communicate and raise their voices against social injustice. “This critical version operates with its focus on the role of language in reproducing inequitable social relations. But it also operates with a very particular critical framework, with its talk of distortions, impositions, oppressed and oppressors” (Pennycook, 2001, p. 37). Therefore, the language becomes an instrument for students to talk for themselves and for others. Likewise, reading and writing are transformed from simple language skills into social practices that allow students to assume a role in the process of being critical humans. Moreover, these practices encourage students to take a stance, which is supported by their knowledge about real problem situations. In this way, participants should integrate reading and writing, inquiry and voices, to choose their position about their world. As a result, students develop their critical awareness by incorporating literacies, language, and inquiry practices. The classroom cab help by providing spaces to encourage discussion, analysis, and reflection of their world. Learner (2001) invited teachers to transcend from reading and writing processes in order to promote skills with a more lively and vital purpose. So, classrooms should be spaces that allow students to question and discuss why the things happen and how they can improve. This reflection demonstrates language dynamics and how they adapt according to the need of the context and sociocultural interactions. Accordingly, language needs to transcend from a controlled knowledge to a motivation to become more active. Classes should be developed in a way.

(44) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 33. that reassess the purposes of language and helps students improve their language use based on their contexts. For example, students could use the language to discuss, report, and speak up about issues in their contexts, such as traffic, displaced migrants, and environmental impacts. With this in mind, the language becomes the vehicle for students to act as dynamic and critical agents in classrooms. Hence, its use mediates in their interactions, while they share their experiences and construct their own knowledge. Consequently, academic relationships are transformed to cooperative and critical ones. Pennycook (2001) stated that “It is the students' own languages and lives that form the stuff of critical” (p. 100). If the language allows students to interact through the construction of knowledge, their experiences will be the foundation to understand others’ situations. In turn, they can feel that they can lead others toward change. Once students understand others’ perceptions of the world, they will receive new perspectives to enrich their knowledge about their contexts and to be critical about them. Additionally, the construction of knowledge inside the classroom fosters the recognition of power relationships and their effect on the world. According to Pennycook (2010), we can “view language as an activity rather than a structure, as something we do rather than a system we draw on, as a material part of social and cultural life rather than an abstract entity” (Pennycook, 2010, p. 1). Students can look beyond the instrumental use of language to liberate their thought as active subjects of transformation. It is not to say that language should not be taught with books, tasks, and test. However, language should also involve discussions, reflections, and analysis of the local and national context. Many times,.

(45) AWAKENING THE CRITICAL STANCE. 34. students are taught from language books that only present other cultures without exploring the reality of the world. Nonetheless, students should “understand the language practises in context – clothing, eating, hygiene, reading – and how the language ideologies make sense of language use” (Pennycook, 2010, p. 106). Using language as a tool to reflect on local problems is a process that requires research, understanding, and feeling the issue until it becomes part of who we are. For this study, language is used through reading the world in order to comprehend it and writing to visualize one’s own and others’ points of view. Today’s world demands that we acquire new knowledge and interact with different cultures while understanding one’s own culture through the language. Indeed, this study proposes teaching language as a social practice and as a way to express feelings, thoughts, emotions, and reflections related to the students’ social contexts. “Such a view is more promising, but without a larger vision of social critique, it remains only a version of the critical that attempts to correlate language with social context” (Pennycook, 2004, p. 329). Therefore, students should recognise the role of language as the vehicle that allows them to move through an emancipatory discourse to empower themselves as protagonist of the world. In this sense, students can interact with their classmates and teachers to expand their critical view of reality, and the language emerges as the means to state their opinion and awaken a social sense of construction based on justice and equality. Similarly, students possess different tools to communicate their ideas, opinions, and reflection. However, the language is the principal mediator between the speaker and listener or the writer and reader. From this point of view, language should be interactional in order to construct a balanced relationship between the participants to allow everyone to express.

Figure

Figure 1 Design of the Literature Review
Figure 2. Inquiry Cycle
Figure 3Inquiry Cycle Adaptation
Figure 4. Identifying Social Issues
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