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The emergence of Indigenous poetry to the public domain has represented a milestone in their struggle to voice their communities' past and present experiences despite the ongoing ostracizing discourses from societies as the ones residing in Indo-America. In this sense, the present paper will offer an analysis of selected poetry by the Colombian indigenous poet Fredy Chikangana in the light of the transitivity system informed by the Systemic Functional Linguistics theory to unveil their experiential meaning construal. To attain this goal, a descriptive quantitative and qualitative research method approach was applied through which the different process types, participants, and circumstances arising from the corpus were systematically identified, calculated, and analyzed. Findings indicated that among the six transitivity process types, the material processes (47%) dominated his poems, followed by the relational realizations (27%) whereas the verbal, behavioral, existential, and mental processes were relatively low altogether, representing an overall occurrence of 26%. This reveals that the author's primary goal was to employ poetry as an agentive act of resistance that originated from the context of the situation in which his Yanakuna community has been and is immersed.

The aim of this research is to assess the internal structure and reliability of the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) in a sample comprising 739 students (64% of them women), attending second-half classes at a private university in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The SACQ is a 67-item self-report that evaluates four aspects related to university adjustment namely, the academic, institutional, social, and personal-emotional areas. To fulfill its goals, different measurement models were assessed through various confirmatory factor analyses, and the results indicate that the Peruvian model (four dimensions, 27 items) has the best statistical adjustment, presenting evidence in support of its internal structure. Similarly, high reliability indicators were obtained, both with regard to the construct and scoring. In conclusion, the SACQ's psychometric properties are satisfactory as regards its internal structure (tetra-factorial model) and reliability, enabling its use to evaluate adjustment to college life.

The introduction of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the educational sphere is becoming more and more essential due to its potential as a pedagogical tool. This study aims to evaluate some factors that facilitate and hinder the pedagogical use of ICT in the context of learning English as a second language (L2) at preschool education levels. Through the methodology of Design Thinking, it is possible to structure the characteristics that a playful interface should have in order to support this educational process and, especially, to satisfy the needs of an environment that intends to make the most of the technological resources it has. To this end, this methodology takes into account the experience of direct users (children), indirect users (teachers) and the socio-economic dimension of educational centres, headed by managers. In this sense, two "ad hoc" questionnaires were completed by the school executives and teachers, respectively, in a specific educational context of Barranquilla, Colombia. The questionnaires were administered to 25 schools. Data analysis showed the importance of ICT in improving the teaching and assessment process. At the same time, it shows the levels of frustration of some teachers who use technologies with low levels of training or with self-generated content that limit the use of ICT in an appropriate way. These results will outline a number of characteristics that should be considered when implementing actions to improve the teaching of English in the classroom using digital tools.

This paper investigates pre-service English teachers' perceptions on their online teaching practice during pandemic times, focusing on issues related to technology, materials development and gamification. Accordingly, a qualitative narrative research approach was implemented to deeply inquiry pre-service English teachers through interviews and artifacts. It is concluded that even though pre-service English teachers had to face different concerns related to their online teaching practice, such as students' lack of commitment, low motivation and connectivity issues because of the pandemic, still they were capable of understanding and reflecting upon their role as teachers and used technology and gamified activities to overcome their concerns.

We performed an innovative STEM outreach project. High school students from the Colombian robotics' designed a prototype of a Lunar Loo named Tech Lunar Toilet (TLT) that was part of the international HeroX-NASA Challenge. These experiences were possible thanks to a wonderful network of collaboration. As a result of this program, the students that participated were able to cultivate their curiosity, strengthen their scientific skills and increase their interest in pursuing careers in STEM fields. Simultaneously, they were able to contrast visual and instrumental data obtained from the robotics and new technologies that can be performed in the microgravity environments for future space explorations. The efficient TLT suction system will guarantee proper operation in both microgravity and lunar gravity. Most of the structure can be built in a 3D printer using PLA as a raw material. This polymer made from renewable resources with mechanical properties comparable to the petroleum-based ones will allow reducing the weight of the structure. We recognized that our project-based education is a powerful engine for development. We share our methodology for the construction of our TLT that can be used in microgravity. We also show the progression and impact of this innovative project of scientific dissemination.

As part of an unprecedented collaborative outreach effort, we implemented an innovative STEM outreach project, where more than 80 middle and high school students from different traditionally underrepresented school districts in Colombia--with no previous knowledge on material science or photovoltaics--created Last Generation Solar Cells (LGSCs) that were part of several suborbital spaceflight missions. As a result, the students were able to contrast visual and instrumental data obtained from the solar cells and modules that were launched to space with similar samples that remained on earth to measure the degradation that occurs during spaceflight conditions. At the same time, the students that participated were able to cultivate their curiosity, strengthen their scientific skills and increase their interest in pursuing careers in STEM fields. These experiences were possible thanks to an extraordinary collaborative network between public and private entities and the use of project-based education as a powerful driver of development, especially for low-to-middle-income countries, such as Colombia. Here, we share our methodology for constructing photovoltaic devices in rural settings, and we show the progression and impact of this novel scientific outreach project.

Several studies have been published on disengaged test respondents, and others have analyzed disengaged survey respondents separately. For many large-scale assessments, students answer questionnaire and test items in succession. This study examines the percentage of students who continuously engage in disengaged responding behaviors across sections in a low-stakes assessment. The effects on calculated scores of filtering students, based on their responding behaviors, are also analyzed. Data of this study came from the 2015 administration of PISA. For data analysis, frequencies and percentages of engaged students in the sessions were initially calculated using students' response times. To investigate the impact of filtering disengaged respondents on parameter estimation, three groups were created, namely engaged in both measures, engaged only in the test, and engaged only in the questionnaire. Next, several validity checks were performed on each group to verify the accuracy of the classifications and the impact of filtering student groups based on their responding behavior. The results indicate that students who are disengaged in tests tend to continue this behavior when responding to the questionnaire items in PISA. Moreover, the rate of continuity of disengaged responding is non-negligible as can be seen from the effect sizes. On the other hand, removing disengaged students in both measures led to higher or nearly the same performance ratings compared to the other groups. Researchers analyzing the dataset including achievement tests and survey items are recommended to review disengaged responses and filter out students who are continuously showing disengaged responding before performing further statistical analysis.

This research uses a three-phase method to evaluate and forecast the academic efficiency of engineering programs. In the first phase, university profiles are created through cluster analysis. In the second phase, the academic efficiency of these profiles is evaluated through Data Envelopment Analysis. Finally, a machine learning model is trained and validated to forecast the categories of academic efficiency. The study population corresponds to 256 university engineering programs in Colombia and the data correspond to the national examination of the quality of education in Colombia in 2018. In the results, two university profiles were identified with efficiency levels of 92.3% and 97.3%, respectively. The Random Forest model presents an Area under ROC value of 95.8% in the prediction of the efficiency profiles. The proposed structure evaluates and predicts university programs' academic efficiency, evaluating the efficiency between institutions with similar characteristics, avoiding a negative bias toward those institutions that host students with low educational levels.

Psychosocial factors have a direct impact on the academic achievement of university students, especially when they belong to diverse human groups. This article shows the results of a project developed in a Colombian university with the aim of finding out the identity traits, situations of discrimination, and risk factors faced by students belonging to diverse groups. The research is qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive, approached from a social and educational perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 students. The high level of identification with the group is visible in students with affective-sexual diversity, gender identity and ethnic-cultural diversity, considered to be the most discriminated-against populations. Risks in the labor, educational, social, and family spheres are the most frequent.

We present results of a research developed with first semester students from a Colombian Public University based on classroom intervention in a precalculus laboratory course mediated by an interactive mathematical software. We characterize and exemplify the cognitive skills of explanation, justification, argumentation and validation, using a methodological tool of analysis that integrates the ckç model of Balachef and Margolinas to Toulmin's model. This tool allows us to identify some elements that characterize each of these skills and allow us to offer a structure of analysis that we present as a proposal for the design of activities in research, based on classroom interventions that promote the development of demonstration skills.

Most education systems propose policies in pro of the benefit of society. However, successful application of these is unknown in consequence considering teachers voices is needed to understand the situations in the classroom. This study analyzes some English language teachers' stories that served the purpose to construct themselves as professionals of language education facing the dichotomy of inclusion and exclusion placed by the mandates of the Colombian education system. The theme of Language Teacher Subjectivities, in this article, is conceptualized and discussed as the alternative's teachers have within their reach to use their own theories regarding language teaching and learning. Reflecting retrospectively and prospectively on meaningful school experiences related to the language teaching activity to tackle the dichotomy, the research question that guided this study was: what do language teachers' narratives portray about their professional subjectivities in relation to inclusion? From a narrative perspective, narrative interviews and a professional life history timeline was analyzed using short story analysis focusing on when, when and who as meaningful in the data and finding that the participants comply with the multidimensional view of the subject. The narratives depicted that the corporal dimension, social-affective dimension, cognitive dimension, and ethic-moral dimension are part of the teachers' professional subjectivities in the frame of Colombian inclusion policy.

Professional growth of STEM teacher educators remains an underdeveloped topic in educational research. In the current study, STEM teacher educators representing six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and USA completed a survey, which addressed teacher educators' professional trajectories, practices, and challenges they face to meet tenure requirements. This study utilized convergent mixed methods design applying survey research format and as such integrated both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Descriptive statistics and meaning coding of the survey and interviews allowed identification of emerging themes in professional practices. The main findings suggest that there are common trends as well as country specific professional practices across professional trajectories reported by participants. The study results reveal that the lack of support during the teacher-to-teacher educator transition period was a common feature across the countries. It was also evident among participants that their professional journey begins with an assumption that as teacher educators they should primarily excel in performing teaching tasks.

The main aim of this paper was to analyze how medicinal gardens in secondary schools can improve teaching-learning processes in rural settings. The sample comprised 179 students (69.3% girls) from a rural public secondary school in the province of Huila (Colombia). The age of the participants ranged from 15 to 17 years with a mean of 15.86 years (SD = 0.86). Seeking school motivation strategies for rural students from a rural institution in the municipality of Guadalupe, teachers of the natural sciences designed didactic-pedagogical alternatives employing situated learning that would allow them to contribute to solving school problems and environmental issues affecting rural areas. The environmental phenomena included the loss of fertile soils and the harmful effects of the use of agrochemicals. Medicinal gardens together with situated learning activities proved a useful teaching tool in formal rural educational settings.

The relevance of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the Latin American university context requires an instrument that measures the conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal aspects that teachers consider having in their open educational practices. The purpose of this research is to describe the process of design and validation of the Attitudinal Scale of Open Educational Practices (ASOEP) Scale. Consequently, the methodological approach corresponds to a descriptive, transectional, instrumental design that has three components: scale design, evaluation by expert judgment and validation with the pilot application. The pilot test was applied to a random sample with 123 teachers at a university in Colombia. The results from the validation of the content had the participation of five international experts who were classified according to coefficient K in the range between (k: .80 and k: 1.00). From the pilot application, the ASOEP Scale presented a general reliability of ([alpha]: 0.943).

The various possibilities that social media offers to language learners and teachers have long been recognized by researchers within the field of language instruction, and many studies have been carried out in an attempt to address and unpack its potential contributions. This paper aims to review such research on the use of mainstream social media in language teaching and learning published in "Computer Assisted Language Learning," a top tier (i.e., Q1) journal indexed in major citation index systems (e.g., Arts & Humanities Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index and Scopus), between the years 2016-2020 inclusive. For the purposes of the study, a total of 23 articles that meet the selection criteria is reviewed and presented in five sections. The first section deals with the majority of the articles, which are found to be on the use of social networking in language teaching and learning. In the following sections, studies on the use of videoconferencing, wikis, blogging and forums are discussed. Collectively, the studies reviewed in this paper outline a critical role for the use of social media in language instruction and the study aims to provide valuable insights for researchers, teachers and learners.

There has been a continuing interest in defining what comprises English teachers' knowledge with the purpose of defining the boundaries of the English Teaching field and developing it as a respected discipline in education (Richards, 1990). The objective of this paper, shaped by the tenets of the Decolonial Turn, is to share some of the results of studying teachers' knowledge with a view of knowledge described by Anzaldúa (2000) as "an overarching theory of consciousness… that tries to encompass all the dimensions of life, both inner -mental, emotional, instinctive, imaginal, spiritual, bodily realms--and outer--social, political, lived experiences." (p. 177). Data were gathered by means of testimonial narratives, and their analysis followed some guidelines of Benmayor's (2012) framework of testimonial narratives writing and communal analysis. The study is also inspired by and grounded on the "Epistemologies of the South" (Sousa Santos, 2004, 2006, 2016, 2018) to think of knowledge beyond the cognitive experiences of teachers. Some of the results show that teachers' knowledge is something experienced by them not only in their cognition but also in their emotions and body. Not only do teachers rely on content, pedagogical or methodological knowledge, but also on emotion, as evidenced in a sample of teachers' testimonial narratives.

Language learning that is grounded on learners' sociocultural realities promises to be a meaningful experience they are likely to treasure when it comes to grappling with practical day-to-day matters. This article reports on a research study aimed at fostering socioculturally constructed language learning in a group of pre-service English teachers. This is a qualitative case study, grounded in a social constructivist paradigm, which draws on a pedagogy of multiliteracies through the Knowledge Process and the Concept of Design (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009) to embrace diverse modes of communication and to expand learners' possibilities of engagement with text and the social and cultural world around them. The findings indicate that while learners are provided with opportunities to explore, reflect and co-construct socioculturally driven knowledge, they are involved in a meaning-making experience that allows them to make sense of the language they are learning. In this way, participants embraced diversity and gained sociocultural understandings by engaging in a pedagogy of Multiliteracies.

This article reports on a mixed-methods research study in five English Language Teaching Master's programs in Colombia. The purpose was to identify trends in research techniques, curricular and pedagogical interventions that MA candidates and alumni dealt with in their theses. This study identified prevalent research methods, techniques, and instruments. The data collection methods included documentary analysis, four focus groups with students, four informal talks with the faculty, four interviews with the coordinators of the programs, and surveys with graduate students, professors, thesis advisors and administrators of these programs. Results suggest preference for action research on issues of language skills, curriculum design, cognitive and affective factors. Pedagogical innovations dealt with ICT, ELT methods, and language learning strategies. Another result indicates that program participants considered the master's programs as the most enriching professional development opportunity they have had. This study makes a call to local and national governments to continue funding continued graduate education and to make it a policy independent of partisan agendas.

The complex nature of contemporary challenges requires a culture of cooperation between academic disciplines. However, to what extent do educational systems prepare students to think beyond the boundaries of austerely defined and often entrenched academic fields? UNESCO has successively called for Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development, and Education for Global Citizenship to incorporate complex socio-environmental issues into mainstream education. Despite the presence of strong institutional support by governments and international organizations, the introduction of these interdisciplinary approaches into actual educational settings has been slow. With no intention to underestimate the pertinence and agency of strong political will in promoting educational change, we explore the presence of deeper, epistemological issues that may account for the generally slow progress of interdisciplinary pedagogies. To elaborate on this discussion, we focus on pragmatic solutions that can promote the integration of environmental, sustainability, and global citizenship education into the existing educational ethoi.

This qualitative interpretive study carried out with four EFL teachers in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia addresses the disconnect that exists between curricular content and the life of students in education. From our understanding of literacy as a sociocultural practice, we proposed a pedagogical approach that immersed teachers and students in community explorations to study local issues informed by different disciplines. Therefore, this study describes the ways teachers designed and implemented curriculum using community assets (Kretzmann & McKnight, 2003) to develop student agency. The issues addressed by students in their inquiries included improving civic practices in the cycling route; fostering river preservation; environmental issues with garbage in Bogotá; and possibilities to access higher education for young populations in Colombia. Using a grounded theory approach, we collected and analyzed data from class discussions, curricular units, semi-structured interviews and class observation. Findings reveal that community explorations fostered students' agency towards studying social issues and promoted the construction of context-embedded opportunities for learning using students' realities and topics of local relevance (Canagarajah, 2005). The target language was used to reflect, pose problems, produce texts and participate in social reflections within an academic environment.

Globalisation and policy transfer in education make it incumbent upon decision makers to prioritise among competing policy options, select policy initiatives that are appropriate for their national contexts, and understand how system-specific factors moderate the relationship between those policies and student outcomes. This study used qualitative comparative analysis and correlational analyses to explore these relationships with publicly available data on socio-economic, cultural, and education conditions, and their association with PISA 2015 results in 49 countries. Findings show that gender and income equality, human development, and individualism were outcome-enabling conditions for PISA 2015 results, and gender equality was the most consistent of these conditions. These factors significantly moderated the relationships between education policy and PISA results. Implications for the identification of meaningful peer countries for comparative educational research, policy transfer, and the future expansion of PISA are discussed.

This article analyzes the results of the Saber Pro, the state exam for students completing higher education, during 2007-2017 concerning the English language section. This analysis uses the reports and databases from the Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación (ICFES) repository and explains the policy in its historical context. The results warn of a quite worrying picture between the goals established by the Ministry of Education and the final achievements. The level of English of future Colombian professionals is not only very low but also without improvement from its beginnings in 2007 to 2017. As a conclusion, it would be necessary to review, from the universities' perspective, the language educational policy and propose bottom-up structural alternatives that allow a sustained impulse in teacher training, methodology, and curricular and pedagogical organization.

This article reports on an action research study about the exploration of local communities to enact agency and value rural identity. Thirty-three students from a rural public school in Colombia participated in the study. Our aim was to examine ways in which students enacted agency as a result of participating in local community inquiry to realize the predominant value of their identity as farmers. Data were gathered through a focus group, interviews, students' artifacts, and teacher journals. Results showed that when communities are linked with classroom practices and foreign language learning, English becomes a vehicle to explore their places, who they are as members of the community, and how to promote decision making to help others.

This multiple case study explored the influence of English teachers' methodological practices over undergraduate students' learning processes in two English as a foreign language mandatory courses for different majors, at Universidad de Pamplona (Colombia). Data were gathered through non-participant observations, field notes, stimulated recall interviews, and semistructured interviews. Findings revealed that teacher-centeredness, the grammar-translation and audiolingual methods dominated the lessons; textbook-oriented classes with an emphasis on listening and writing characterized the courses; teacher and peer correction were encouraged; and classroom tasks and evaluation mostly focused on grammar and vocabulary. Although teachers had methodological practices, these influenced students' learning processes differently.

This paper reports an exploratory and descriptive qualitative study on speaking assessment approaches in a teacher education program at a Colombian university. The study aimed to explore how four in-service English language teachers approach the assessment of students' speaking skill. The data were gathered through classroom observations, interviews, and documentary analysis. Results revealed teachers' preference for summative assessment practices to determine students' progress regarding speaking. As a conclusion, teacher professional development in terms of language assessment may be seen as an alternative to develop significant assessment processes where students, teachers, and the institution can be benefited.

In this reflection article I examine language assessment literacy initiatives and their possible impact on teachers, and I discuss the connections that exist between language assessment literacy and teachers' professional development. I explain that training for language assessment literacy may primarily foster teachers' knowledge and skills and, secondarily, principles for language assessment (e.g., fairness). In conclusion, existing language assessment literacy initiatives, while limited in number, have the potential to advance teachers' language assessment literacy overall and contribute to their professional development. Thus, this article may be useful to language teacher educators, particularly in the Colombian context.

The personal experiences of three of the authors of this document as Au Pairs in the United States exposed some issues related to social justice and discrimination that made the participants reflect on their identity as speakers and future teachers of English. This article shares, analyzes and interprets these reflections collaboratively in search of the contributions of this intercultural exchange to the construction of the identity of the participants, and how these experiences contrast with those lived as pre-service English teachers in a public university in the southeastern region of Colombia. Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, the participants exposed situations of discrimination and inequality for not being native English speakers or for being Latin American. They analyzed them in the light of the theory on linguistic identity, raciolinguistics, and English varieties. The findings showed that the participants' negative experiences helped the participants consolidate their identity as teachers of English, allowing them to see the inequalities and injustices that exist within the English program and empowering them to propose changes within their immediate contexts in their country of origin. The article is intended to be a useful resource specifically, but not exclusively, for English teachers in training who plan to do cultural exchanges abroad but who also project themselves as English teachers.

Many educational institutions had to move their face-to-face modality to online modality in a sudden way due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Following the principles of qualitative research, on this reflection a foreign language teacher describes his social experience in an Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) when he moved his face-to-face classes to online ones. Based on Rourke et al.'s (2001) and Swan's (2019) social presence, three elements were found on his online experience: cohesive teaching strategies, affective teaching strategies, and interactive teaching experiences. Asking about students' mental health, giving advice, and keeping the video on were some of the strategies used. Conclusions suggest that it is vital to present people as human beings and touch their own realities during pandemic times. Recommendations involve not only including evaluation practices such as take-home exams, self-assessment and peer-assessment, but also monitoring the ongoing process during emergency times.

This paper establishes the determinants of professionals' postgraduate training needs. A quantitative survey of a sample of 492 professionals from Valle del Cauca, Colombia was conducted. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to verify the research hypotheses. The results show that the factors affecting the need for postgraduate training are individuals' perceptions about their level of skill development and about the benefits of professional development. The findings suggest that career advancement is the most valued outcome of postgraduate training. Fieldwork was conducted with a sample of professionals located in the Valle del Cauca in Colombia, so it is important to continue validating the hypotheses in other regions to enable a comparison of results from different contexts. The study contributes to an understanding of the relationship between the variables and the explanation of the determinants of professionals' perceptions of the need for postgraduate training. It also provides elements for decision-making in the strategic design of postgraduate training offerings. Considering the scarcity of research on the variables that determine the need for postgraduate training, this study provides one of the first theoretical and empirical validations of a perceptual measurement scale of professional training needs in Latin America.

Research literature on the role of mathematics teachers during the COVID-19 crisis shows that teacher preparation for emergency situations is required. In reporting on this exploratory study, we present and analyse lesson plans created by seven future teachers for mathematics classes during the pandemic. Data were collected between April and October 2021 from 16 four-hour class sessions in a Mathematics Degree Program at a public university in Medellín, Colombia. The notion of Humans-with-Media and the Learning by Expanding theory were used as frameworks to understand what roles prospective mathematics teacher (PMTs) assign to technologies for teaching in pandemic conditions. The PMTs' uses of technology for teaching mathematics during a pandemic were categorized. The results show that technology was used to reorganize and reproduce mathematics teaching practices. This report addresses the impact of technology on the activity system, and we conclude with a discussion of opportunities and limitations of students' conceptions about teaching and technology during a pandemic.

Empirical research has explored the relationship between professors and the academic capitalist regime. Nevertheless, this literature has mainly focused on fields heavily engaged with industry at top-ranked research universities in English-speaking countries. In this paper, we analyze the link between faculty promotion policy and professors as agents who introduce (or resist) the academic capitalist regime in the Colombian context. In order to cover heterogeneity among professors and higher education institutions, we consider two dissimilar academic departments at one public university. This multicase study examines how Colombian professors translate faculty promotion policy into actions on both intra- and inter-department levels. The findings indicate that the unique context of each academic department fostered or hindered professors in moving toward "the ideal professor," as promoted by the analyzed policy. In terms of academic capitalism, regardless of the academic department, professors did not internalize the inclusion of profit motive as part of their research activities. However, some professors were guided by prestige behavior through (but not limited to) the academic journal publishing market. This article concludes by highlighting the need to incorporate prestige behavior as part of the theory of academic capitalism.

The field of physical education (PE), sport, and forced migration studies has grown considerably in recent years. Although we have seen an increase in publications in the field, no reviews of pedagogies regarding people with refugee backgrounds in PE and sport have been published to date. The purpose of this review is to critically examine pedagogies implemented with young people with refugee backgrounds in PE and sport. Using Freirean critical pedagogy as an analytical lens, we identified two themes: (a) the need to overcome cultural deficit perspectives by engaging in dialogue with the young people and (b) the need to move from assimilationist to co-designed ways of working with the young people in PE and sport. We outline directions and critical challenges for future research on the relationship between young people with refugee backgrounds and pedagogies implemented in PE and sport.

This practitioner inquiry article examines the role that multimodal literacy plays in the organizing of Latinx immigrant youth in the U.S. Co-written by two of the youth who participated in this research, alongside the fellow immigrant activist who designed and carried out the year-long study, this paper analyzes a subset of qualitative data from the research and argues that young Latinx immigrant organizers are organic intellectuals who, as grassroots educators, mobilize their coalitional multimodal literacies to critically examine the common sense, meaning the dominant and taken-for-granted assumptions, of the immigrant rights movement in the U.S., and transform it into one that is inclusive, intergenerational, and challenging of colonial logics that separate oppressed and racialized communities from each other. Implications include conceptualizing socioemotional relational intuition as a component of multimodality and engaging young Latinx immigrants as grassroots educators whose coalitional multimodal literacies envision and enact a decolonial world.

In recent decades, a global consensus has emerged that acknowledges that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) requires systemic, cross-sectoral approaches. In this context, integrated early childhood approaches are flourishing in South America. Although these policies have been successful in many aspects, ECEC provision in the region continues to be fragmented. In this exploratory article, we analyse the role of ECEC curricula in the conceptual integration of ECEC systems in South America. We focus on the 'regulative intent' of curriculum frameworks to explore the extent to which these policy instruments support systemic change. Our analysis draws on an extensive revision of documentary sources and interviews with key local informants in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. We reconstruct the institutional architecture of ECEC provision in each country and examine curricula against this background. Our findings highlight the emergence of a new curricular wave in the region that contributes to integrated approaches. Recent curriculum frameworks move away from sectoral intents and towards more comprehensive and cohesive regulative intents. We call for a reconceptualisation of ECEC curricula from a whole-systems perspective that supports the holistic nature of the education and care of young children.

This study sought to examine how professional identities of English Language Teacher Educators (ELTEs) evolved considering current socio-political factors surrounding Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) in Colombia. This in-depth research examined how a group of 5 non-native ELTEs constructed and transformed their identity in an English Teacher Education programme. It is framed by an interpretive paradigm and a critical action research approach. Interviews, a series of small group study events, and ELTEs' reflective reports were the three approaches employed to collect the data. The main finding of this investigation showed a certain degree of change in participants' professional identities.

Virtual reality (VR) is gaining momentum in language education thanks to technological advances and technology at a cost that is affordable for deploying a learning experience. However, there is a need for more research to identify the topics that are most suitable to be taught using VR in English as a foreign language (EFL) courses. In order to close part of this gap, this article reports on the results of a comparative eye-tracking study conducted with 80 university students on the effectiveness of a VR system and a desktop application for learning English prepositions of place. The results show that students using the VR system significantly outperformed those using a 2D application for learning English prepositions of place. However, students spent more time and made more mistakes in the VR system. The easiest English preposition was "on" and the most difficult one was "below" for the desktop application, and "behind" for the VR system. Some implications and recommendations for teachers are provided based on the results.

The purpose of this research is to investigate prospective teachers' learning in the statistical modeling process. To reach this goal, we position the study in a socio-critical perspective of modeling that informed the design of a statistical investigation. Participants were 10 prospective teachers from a state university in northwestern Colombia who were taking a methods course in statistics. They worked out a statistical investigation inspired by a news article on global warming. The main source of data was fragments from prospective teachers' speech while working out the statistical investigation. The information was complemented with prospective teachers' narratives in which they reflected on their experience with statistics. The results reveal that the prospective teachers' discourse offers indications to suggest that the participants were in the process of developing statistical knowledge as well as developing awareness as critical citizens. Prospective teachers used statistics tools to (1) make sense of a crisis of society while progressing in the development of their statistical knowledge and (2) reflect on the critical issue while showing signs of social awareness development.

For decades, research has made children be known mostly through adults' observations, powers, and narratives. However, during the last years, the recognition of children as social subjects with their own rights has led to the advent of child-centered research approaches that intend to grant relevance and validity to their voices. Some of those initiatives are the Mosaic approach, the creative-participative techniques, and the arts-based approach. This article offers a multimethod research proposal based on the draw-and-tell conversation technique and the principles of Mosaic approach, both applied to tackle children's social representations toward childhood education. This is part of a research project aiming to explore the representations of childhood and education within different educational actors. This article presents the designed instruments, the protocol, and the results obtained from the application of the methodological proposal. It is concluded that this multimethod design is a valuable tool to carry out future studies on young children within the frame of recognition of children's rights, as well as children's agency and participation capacities in the social construction of reality.

This article examines the case of women full professors in a gendered and neoliberalised context to propose the concept of "complex reflexivity." This concept refers to an internal conversation and accounts for the practical way in which people may ponder their ambiguities and contradictions. This paper presents the concrete experiences and practices of some women professors in relation to the institutional structure. The research is based on fieldwork conducted between November 2018 and December 2020, which includes interviews with 24 professors, as well as an ethnographic study. Their complex reflexivity combines adapting to the precarious conditions, "rebuscar" (unusual ways of getting resources), perceiving envy from their peers, and, at the same time, dealing with the administration, reducing the time dedicated to academic tasks, and developing caring and careful practices. With their actions, the professors navigate the shortcomings and conflicts in the university, but they also modify these supposedly immovable conditions.

Addressing learning poverty requires a multi-faceted approach, including investments in early childhood education, improving the quality of teaching, providing access to learning resources, and addressing social and economic barriers to education. Since 2017, Fundación Carvajal has implemented "Aula Global" (Global Classroom), a diverse, flexible, and inclusive educational intervention strategy. The objective of this strategy is to reduce learning gaps in Colombian public schools by strengthening basic skills in language, mathematics, and socioemotional learning for learners in grades 2 through 5. "Aula Global" contributes to the reduction of school dropout, grade repetition, and learning poverty through the implementation of meaningful and challenging strategies that incorporate students' different learning rhythms and multiple ways of learning.

With the purpose of ending wars, international organizations and governments promote reintegration projects that seek to transform combatants affiliated with illegal armed groups into citizens through education. The assumption behind these efforts is that through education, ex-combatants will become economically independent, overcome marginalization, experience personal transformations, and integrate into communities. This paper questions this optimistic narrative of education by highlighting the differentiated meanings of education for ex-combatants reintegrating in urban Colombia. Listening to the voices of ex-combatants who have engaged in technical and vocational education programs, this paper compares policy narratives with ex-combatants' narratives regarding the role of education in the reintegration process. The analysis reveals how for ex-combatants, education is a complex social practice that redistributes resources and contributes to positive psychosocial and empowerment transformations. At the same time, it is a process of insertion into an individualistic system and adaptation to unequal participation within the country's socio-economic hierarchy.

This paper explores the complex relationship between academic researchers working in the area of 'International Development and Education' and foreign intervention in the Global South. I make the case for stronger definitional links between 'colonialism' and 'development'. In this, I pay attention to how 'soft' and 'hard' sides of colonial strategy operated symbiotically and evidence parallel occurrences in Post 9/11 Western-led military/development activities. Drawing on 'education' examples, I reflect on our fields entanglements in the messy politics, partnerships and funding regimes of our unequal global order and the ways that we, as both researchers and practitioners, become 'implicated'. I also explore sites of counter-hegemony that span similar timeframes, including my engagements with popular education in social movements in Colombia, and make the case for a radical educational internationalism.

This paper describes some indicators of the Colombian educational system considering the effect of the pandemic and assesses the causal effect of an alternation plan between face-to-face and remote education, conducted in 2020, on the results of an achievement test. Indicators reveal that the pandemic caused a greater demand for education services in public schools, increased dropout, and repetition rates, and widened the gaps in academic performance. The causal empirical exercise indicates that the students who participated in the experiment obtained, on average, better results in the achievement test compared to students who remained in the non-face-to-face scheme.

This article thinks through a practice-as-research exploration of facilitating active listening to the testimonies of female victims/survivors in Colombia, bridging a theoretical gap between applied theatre and performance studies by extending understanding of theatre's impact in contexts of transitional justice beyond visibility to an affective register. Rebuilding relationalities torn by war requires collective healing to overcome widespread trauma, disconnection and apathy. By "moving-with" recorded testimonial performances, sharing visceral responses via Zoom, witnesses feel more "implicated" in histories of violence. Fomenting shared "response-ability" in this way -- through listening from the body -- offers a form of resistance to the normalisation of violence.

This article focuses on "Atarraya," a participatory performance piece by Carolina Caycedo in collaboration with a group of social organisations affected by hydroelectric and mining megaprojects in Colombia. It argues that oral history-informed art practices offer an alternative space to communicate painful experiences and demand better futures, engaging broader and more diverse audiences. By analyzing the performative elements of "Atarraya," such as the inclusion of human and non-human voices, the article shows how in the face of the transitional justice system in Colombia, it is necessary to understand "listening" as a critical component of oral history-informed performance.