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Though language education and research have pushed back against traditional, hegemonic ways of teaching, they continue to exclude conversations on spirituality. Moreover, a deficit lens in language education perpetuates a focus on what needs to be improved rather than on our students’ assets. In this pedagogical intervention, we begin by weaving the work of feminists of color to discuss what asset-based, desired-based research and feminist pedagogy can contribute to understanding children’s spiritual activism. We worked with 31 fourth graders in a private school in Duitama, Colombia. As the study took place during the pandemic and mass mobilizations, the children shared their spirituality to cope with reality. Furthermore, the children’s spirituality demonstrated their belief in a higher power, positive emotions to comfort others, hope for a better future, and an understanding of equity based on race and gender. We invite language educators and researchers to create spaces for children to share their spiritual activism through the integration of feminist pedagogy focused on asset and desire-based approaches.

The following literary works were presented at the "Read with me: Celebrating our Local Litercies" event held by Enletawa Journal on August 27, 2021. When discussing literacy, Freire gave us a look at the depth of the concept when he said, "If we think of education as an act of knowing, then reading has to do with knowing. The act of reading cannot be explained as merely reading words since every act of reading words implies a previous reading of the world and a subsequent rereading of the world" (1986, p. 18). Therefore, literacy is much more than the act of reading and writing words. It is the act of conciously reading the World. If litercy involves reading the World, then it also includes understanding our history and culture, and if possible, contributing to its negotiation and transformation. As Nieto-Gómez and Clavijo-Olarte (2020) mentioned, "Teachers and students can become researchers that use language to question and produce texts informed by their own reality" (p. 31). Hence, literacy gives us the power to become creators of our own World.

A poem by Anna Carolina Peñaloza Rallón.

In the preliminaries, you can find information about the editorial committee, page numbers, and journal.

In today’s world, there are strong pressures to dehumanize education. Educative institutions tend to use vocabulary that is more related to the industrialized world. Concepts such as methods, standards, effectiveness, competences, models are being naturalized. It seems to be that in education, day by day, institutions accept the criteria of efficiency without a question. In spite of this, teachers echo their voices to show that what educative institutions should focus on is increased humanism. In this volume of the Enletawa Journal, we acknowledge the voices of those teachers who want to understand their students' lives and their socio cultural realities. In other words, our authors in this volume are more interested in the who of teaching instead of the what of teaching.

This case study sought to understand how 17 undergraduate students in the humanities and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors positioned themselves in terms of gender in relation to their leadership and risk-taking skills. For this study, I used students’ artifacts, semistructured interviews, and focus group discussions, which tied into the objectives of the Academic Writing for Professional Development course that the participants signed up for at a public university in Colombia. To analyze the data, I used aspects of the grounded theory method. The results revealed that the division of labor and social gender roles supersede the students’ initial positions. Because of this, women’s leadership and risk-taking abilities are invisible, an assertion which continues to perpetuate social gender roles, gender stereotypes, and the patriarchy.

In the preliminaries, you can find information about the editorial committee, page numbers, and journal.

In Enletawa Journal we have been fortunate to come out of strong professional networks that have nourished us over the years. Thanks to all the reviewers and authors that have worked with us over the past several years, we have been able to flourish as an academic journal that presents articles of teachers who have realized that writing is a possibility to act autonomously and echo their voices in the development of the pedagogical experience. In this volume, we share stories from diverse corners of Colombia. Thanks to the many teachers who care about their students and who work tirelessly to make publishing happen. We are glad you wanted to share your experiences with us because, without any doubt, teachers are an important part of the teaching processes because what teachers say and do impact students’ lives.

The following pedagogical proposal seeks to understand what types of reflections Modern Languages students reveal about educational issues when analyzing artwork within their context. We worked with twelve Modern Languages students in their fifth and sixth semester at a public university in Colombia. The students began by analyzing four murals located within the university. Then, they created their own artwork and provided reflections on each other’s pieces of art. The findings showed that the students first began analyzing visual aspects of the murals and artwork, followed by the educational issues represented in each piece. As a common theme, the students reflected on the idea that working together yields a diversity of solutions. Finally, the students demonstrated that they could benefit from reflective practices despite not having started their teaching practicum.

In this pedagogical proposal, we utilized Feminist Pedagogy and narratives to reveal women’s skills that they had silenced in their cover letters for employment. Five females’ narratives were analyzed using aspects of the grounded theory method to answer the question: What do women’s narratives reveal about their personal skills otherwise silenced in their cover letters? The results showed that women find strength in their spirituality, as well as demonstrating loyalty, flexibility, respectfulness, and resilience. All of the women wrote about their decision-making abilities, which included organization, responsibility, and problem-solving. Finally, the stories revealed that women’s ability to make choices defined their freedom and their future.

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Preliminaries

As academic writing teachers, we are often faced with the challenge of teaching writing as a system or emancipating from its structures. In this reflective paper, we begin by examining our own experiences with writing for academic and creative purposes using co/autoethnography as a method of self-reflection. In addition, we invited three modern language students at a public university in Tunja, Colombia to share their reflections about their writing processes and the role creative writing could play in the academic writing classroom. Our reflections were a first step in rethinking our classroom from a critical sociocultural model, which revealed that students’ individual writing processes, motivation, feedback, and creative writing could help boost students’ self-confidence when writing for academic purposes.

The following case study describes and interprets pen pal letter exchanges between medical students and rural elementary school students. This study was carried out with three third and fourth semester medical students at a public university in Tunja, Colombia. In addition, we also worked with a group of five elementary school girls from a rural community located 20 minutes from the university. Both groups participated in exchanging pen pal letters in English as a way to foster the sociocultural competence in communication. In order to analyze the communication established between the participants, we used students’ artifacts, field notes, and reflective discussions. The findings revealed that the students’ fostered authentic communication based on the language they wanted to convey. As the communication between the students developed, instances of affiliates, advice giving, imitation, modeling, and empathy appeared. The pen pal letters showed that both groups are in a crucial period of identity construction, for which pen pal letters can help empower students and model positive behavior.

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It is time to face the facts. Every day we are asked to write more and more in English. Our academic existence is dependent on whether we can publish in English or perish (Mauranen, Pérez-Llantada, & Swales, 2010). English has become the lingua franca of science and knowledge, but what happens when the structures and rules of standard Academic Writing seem to be against us? Well, writers learn to adapt. We use translators, copy model structures, look for outside help, hire proofreaders, and talk to teachers. Despite our efforts, only a few writers become successful. What if we could find a solution within our own context? What if these successful writers had a secret to share with the rest of us? After all, every individual has been through a “writing process”, a series of events that have shaped the writer. By looking at the events that made successful writers who they are, we could understand how to better improve teaching practices in writing, develop efficient writing strategies, and promote individual writing styles all within our own context.