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This article presents the life story of Profile. The story is based on an ethnographic case study that aimed to understand the viewpoints of Profile’s new writers and reviewers regarding the role of scientific journals in fostering communities in the knowledge society. To gather information, I relied on personal reflections from my experience as the creator and editor of the journal, along with documentary evidence (published issues, regularly collected statistics, editorial workflows, and communications with editorial teams and various bodies of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which funds the publication). The story illustrates the inception, development, and primary challenges that need to be addressed to ensure its continuity.

This exploratory case study analyzes Colombian university students’ experiences as English users during international mobility. Data collected through surveys and interviews were examined based on content analysis and principles of grounded theory. The students’ self-perceived English proficiency and communicative performance before and during international mobility were analyzed, while challenging areas were identified. The results evidence that mobility students have insufficient levels of English proficiency to engage in academic and social activities due to inadequate production skills and a lack of practice. The students also perceive university academic English opportunities for practice as basic, and they underutilize practice spaces. Nonetheless, they highlight that active engagement in autonomous language exposure and developed interpersonal skills positively impact their perception of language performance.

Scientific or academic publications have become the best accepted media for scientific and academic communities—mainly established in universities or research centers—to share the knowledge they create and give it greater visibility worldwide. That is, these journals are at the core of scientific communication, which requires permanent assessment of the editorial work and careful planning bearing in mind the responsibilities and needs of the stakeholders that are involved in the production and use of these periodical publications. In this article, I share an improvement plan for the Profile journal, whose purpose is to strengthen the journal’s editorial management and, thus, support the generation and consolidation of communities of teacher researchers.

In the 2020 report of the SJR (published in May 2021), the Profile journal moved from Quartile 2 to Quartile 1 in the category of linguistics and language. Within this area the journal is now Number 229 of the 997 journals classified worldwide, Number 2 in Latin America, and Number 1 in Colombia.

Last February we held the XV PROFILE Symposium, an annual local event aimed at inviting teachers of English from different backgrounds to reflect on our profession, to share research results and innovations, and to highlight the importance of doing research. We also took the opportunity to encourage the participants to share their findings through publishing.

Educational institutions, particularly those for higher education, seek to ensure their visibility and valid indicators for institutional accreditation processes through the publications of their teachers. Their projection is intimately associated with the circulation of their production in accredited publications whose reputations depend on their positions in prestigious rankings, databases, and indexing systems. That is why Colombia, in recent years, has experienced an increase in the number of scientific journals published in the country. This phenomenon was a reaction by academics to the obstacles for publishing in renowned journals, generally edited in hegemonic or central contexts, where it is presumed that knowledge is disseminated for the whole world. In this article, I analyze the role played by locally edited journals in the decolonialization of knowledge. I base my analysis on studies carried out in the fields of the English teacher as researcher and writer, academic writings, and the publication of scientific journals. I identify the contributions, suggestions and challenges for publications in the English Language Teaching area. I also stress the importance of strengthening professional communities, encouraging greater participation by professors in the dissemination of their work, and the need to value knowledge generated in peripheral contexts, without ignoring links with the global world.

In 2019, we completed 20 years of continuous publication of the Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development journal. With this first edition we feel more committed and happier to continue this publication effort. To carry on in this endeavor, we have reflected on the journey we have traveled and thus, wish to share with you what it has meant to us.

Profile was created as a forum to bring to the forefront the attempts of practitioners in doing action research. This was also an initiative promoted by scholars from different Anglo speaking contexts, in some cases, with different names and definitions—teacher research, exploratory action research, and exploratory practice, among others. All of them, in one way or another, highlight the fact that teacher education and educational policies confer importance to integrate research to the teaching profession.

This article reports on a descriptive study carried out in articles published in the Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development journal that deal with inclusive education in English language teaching in Colombia. The study embraced documentary research and critical discourse analysis which helped us identify trends in pedagogical approaches in foreign language instruction and research approaches employed by the journal’s authors. It also allowed us to examine how such approaches show the presence or absence of inclusive education both in public policies and pedagogical interventions by institutions and individuals. We hope that the outcomes derived from this study nurture further discussion, encourage research, and motivate pedagogical practices that foster inclusive education in foreign language teaching and teacher education.

We have reviewed the characteristics of Profile to try and decide whether it is a mainstream or a peripheral journal. We have analysed the parameters under which it operates and we can say that these correspond to a high-quality journal, a journal from the periphery that is putting forth its best effort to produce science that is validated by local and international communities.

The Editors briefly discuss the implications of the latest model for the ranking of scientific journals issued by the Colombian research agency, Colciencias.

We have gathered thirteen articles in this edition; two of them come from Mexico, one from Chile, one from the United States, and nine of them are authored by Colombian scholars. . . . The articles present in our current issue depict the voices of academicians from Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and the United States. They reflect and act upon their realities and findings in specific contexts. Their very presence in our publication is a demonstration that we, as language teacher-researchers, have our own vision that merits the acknowledgment as active actors in the creation of local understanding that can be shared with and compared to the material and ideological experience of the West.

La publicación de artículos en revistas científicas o académicas ha alcanzado gran preponderancia en las comunidades académicas y en los indicadores de calidad, principalmente de las instituciones universitarias. Presentamos las razones que llevaron a un grupo de docentes de inglés a enviar sus trabajos para publicar en una revista editada en Colombia. La información se recopiló mediante un cuestionario utilizado en un estudio de caso exploratorio. Analizamos los resultados desde la perspectiva de las lógicas del razonamiento científico-social implícitas en las opiniones de los autores y señalamos algunas implicaciones para la circulación de distintas voces en revistas editadas en países periféricos.

This article reports on a study aimed at exploring inclusive policies in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Colombia, as evidenced in the articles published in the PROFILE Journal by Colombian authors. The use of the documentary research method and critical discourse analysis showed that some policies—mainly The National Program of Bilingualism and the Basic Standards for Competences in English as a Foreign Language—contain issues closely related to the logic of discriminatory and segregation attitudes in English language teaching. We hope that the results of our analysis will generate more interest in scholars to examine language policies and work further to eradicate inequalities in education.

Publicar artículos en revistas científicas o académicas es un gran reto profesional y constituye actualmente un requerimiento para los docentes universitarios. Este artículo se centra en las dificultades de algunos docentes de inglés para publicar en una revista editada en Colombia, según se encontró en un estudio de caso exploratorio tendiente a conocer sus experiencias durante la evaluación de sus manuscritos. Los datos se recogieron mediante un cuestionario que respondieron 73 autores y 17 formatos de evaluación de artículos rechazados o con observaciones referidas a revisiones requeridas por los árbitros. La información se complementó con notas registradas en el flujo editorial de la revista, respecto a esos artículos. Los resultados muestran los problemas experimentados por los autores, la forma como los solucionaron y los aspectos críticos hallados por los evaluadores. También permiten identificar implicaciones para la carrera docente y para los procesos editoriales de las publicaciones periódicas o académicas.

We are pleased to present the second issue of our twenty-fourth volume. This edition comes with the conviction of both the HOW journal and ASOCOPI that no matter what interests prevail in one’s getting published or in the classification system that rules Colombian academic or scientific journals nowadays, it is worth it to persevere in sharing knowledge with our ELT (English language teaching) community within the country and overseas.

Educational institutions, particularly those for higher education, seek to ensure their visibility and valid indicators for institutional accreditation processes through the publications of their teachers. Their projection is intimately associated with the circulation of their production in accredited publications whose reputations depend on their positions in prestigious rankings, databases, and indexing systems. That is why Colombia, in recent years, has experienced an increase in the number of scientific journals published in the country. This phenomenon was a reaction by academics to the obstacles for publishing in renowned journals, generally edited in hegemonic or central contexts, where it is presumed that knowledge is disseminated for the whole world. In this article, the author analyzes the role played by locally edited journals in the decolonialization of knowledge. She bases her analysis on studies carried out in the fields of the English teacher as researcher and writer, academic writings, and the publication of scientific journals. She identifies the contributions, suggestions, and challenges for publications in the English language teaching area. She also stresses the importance of strengthening professional communities, encouraging greater participation by teachers in the dissemination of their work, and the need to value knowledge generated in peripheral contexts, without ignoring links with the global world.

This article gives account of the results of an action research project that focused on how students develop decision-making processes in the creation of collaborative work plans by using their portfolios in English classes. The study was carried out in a Colombian public school located in a deprived area, and involved eighth grade students with low English competence. Data were collected through students' portfolios, interviews, field notes, and surveys. The results suggest that students can develop their autonomy if they are involved in collaborative decision-making practices and if awareness-raising processes take place.

El objetivo de este estudio es describir las percepciones que docentes y estudiantes de la Licenciatura de Filología e Idiomas con especialización en inglés, francés o alemán de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia tienen sobre el papel de las tutorías en el desarrollo de las competencias en lenguas extranjeras, según se encontró en encuestas y entrevistas de grupo focal empleadas en un estudio de caso de tipo exploratorio. Los resultados indican que la mayoría de los docentes se han desempeñado como tutores; lo han hecho de manera intuitiva, lejos de cualquier paradigma institucional. Por su parte, los estudiantes, prefieren las tutorías presenciales como una forma de apoyo, no obligada pero necesaria. Con todo, los participantes concuerdan en una "percepción de progreso", indispensable en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera.

I am delighted to present the first issue of our twenty-third volume. It comes with good news regarding the presence of our journal in international scenarios. First, it is a pleasure to share with our affiliates and readership the indexation of our journal in CLASE (Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades) and Dialnet. This accomplishment can guarantee a wider visibility of the works we publish and adds positive points to the evaluation processes carried out by Publindex-Colciencias, the national indexing system for journals edited in Colombia.

Welcome to this edition of the PROFILE Journal, which contains twelve articles with a variety of issues and perspectives. As we can see by its contents, all of the articles have had a steering force: The authors’ commitment to share what they know. Their knowledge derives, in turn, from what they have studied, and what they have learned as a result of teaching, research and reflective processes.

In this edition we have gathered ten articles whose authors are spread over seven countries, namely: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States. This diversity evidences not only the coverage of our readership, but the increasing interest of academic communities in the kinds of works we promote in PROFILE.

Resumen En la actualidad se promueve la formación de redes de docentes para trabajar en agendas construidas de manera colaborativa, continua, flexible, y conforme a sus necesidades. Reportamos una investigación cualitativa con cinco profesoras de inglés de colegios públicos de Bogotá participantes en un programa de formación permanente. Los profesores conformaron grupos de estudio para realizar un proyecto de investigación-acción. Al concluir dicho programa, las docentes iniciaron un trabajo en red, tendiente a continuar su desarrollo profesional. La información recolectada a través de diarios, cuestionarios y entrevistas, permitió determinar los factores que se asocian a la continuidad de los grupos de estudio que surgieron en el programa de formación permanente, así como algunas implicaciones para el trabajo en red.Abstract Nowadays the development of networking on the part of teachers is promoted in order to work with agendas built in a collaborative, continuous, and flexible way, as well as in accordance with teachers' needs. We report on qualitative research of five English teachers in public schools in Bogotá. They took part in a professional development programme and met in study groups in order to conduct an action research project. At the end of the programme the teachers started working as a net with the intent to continue their professional development. Information gathered through journals, surveys, and interviews allowed us to identify factors associated with the continuity of the study groups which emerged in the professional development programme as well as some implications for networking.

This paper is based on the analysis of the nature of monograph projects undertaken by pre-service teachers at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It will examine the main factors that, according to the participants of a case-study, favour or limit the development of those projects. On the basis of our findings, we highlight the conditions associated with the successful fulfilment of what students are required to do in monograph projects.

"Colombia Bilingüe" ha propiciado el crecimiento de programas de desarrollo profesional -PDP- para los docentes de inglés en ejercicio. En este artículo, los autores presentan conceptos básicos en el análisis de la formación continuada de los docentes; analizan los modelos de desarrollo profesional de Richards & Farrell (2005) y James (2001); los autores también resumen los principales conceptos elaborados por académicos colombianos sobre el desarrollo profesional de los docentes de inglés, y proponen un marco conceptual para el país. Las conclusiones sugieren la inclusión de la estrategia del desarrollo y no la del entrenamiento, las perspectivas individual y social del aprendizaje y de la enseñanza, la teoría post-método, la creación de conocimiento en los contextos escolares y sociales y el aprendizaje y la práctica significativa del inglés entre los docentesBilingual Colombia has promoted the growth of professional development programs -PDP- for English teachers. In this article, the authors present some key concepts in the analysis of the continuing education of teachers; analyze the models of professional development proposed by Richards & Farrell (2005) and James (2001); summarize the main concepts elaborated by Colombian scholars on the professional development of English teachers; and propose a conceptual framework for the country. Conclusions suggest that professional development programs should use teacher development and not teacher training; include the individual and social perspectives of learning and teaching; embrace post-method approaches; promote the creation of knowledge in school and social settings; and promote meaningful practice of English among teachers

The increasing interest in learning English has had an impact on the alternatives students are offered to study the language as well as on the particularities of classroom management teachers have to be aware of nowadays. Hence, our conceptualizations about a classroom have to include different kinds of learning and teaching settings such as traditional face-to-face work; virtual-learning spaces to allow the learners to build a study path while tutors monitor and assist students when necessary; faceto- face study periods combined with alternating tutoring sessions; and mentoring sessions to support autonomous, semi-autonomous or self-instruction learning. This, in turn, opens doors to questions concerning a variety of issues that are born in the midst of the complex realities we face in such teaching and learning scenarios.

Learning styles research has given educators new directions for making changes in their classrooms. The single most widespread change has been to open classrooms to more than one approach to intellectual work. Different social groupings, alternative activities, more complex projects have all been introduced as attempts to create opportunities for students to use their various strengths in dealing with course material.

Teachers' professional development programs should fulfill three key requirements: updating, innovation and research. Therefore, universities should make plans to respond to those parameters. In addition, a common concern among teachers and educational authorities nowadays is the develpment of students' competencies. In view of this, classroom teachers and universities have stressed the need of thinking about teachers' competencies and ways to facilitate or bring about teacher change and better teaching performances. In this article, I will refer to teachers' communities or teacher study groups as a way to foster teacher development and teacher research.

Welcome to the eleventh edition of our journal. As you might know, our journal is interested in promoting the publication of teaching experiences, theoretical issues, research results, and projects led by Colombian teachers as well as by peers from other countries.

La investigación-acción es una forma de cuestionamiento auto-reflexivo que conduce a la interpretación de las prácticas educativas, a su mejoramiento y a la comprensión de las situaciones en las que aquellas ocurren. En este artículo abordaremos la definición de este enfoque investigativo y los principios que lo caracterizan. Asimismo, y con base en experiencias con docentes de inglés en formación y en ejercicio, señalaremos aspectos metodológicos que podemos emplear para asumir los retos que supone su aplicación en el aula.

A teacher development programme (TDP) for teachers of English at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá has incorporated the research element as a means to motivate practitioners to widen professional knowledge. Based on the assumption that research findings gain real value if shared with other people, teachers have been challenged to establish a dialogue with academic communities by writing formal reports required by the University and articles describing the research processes they have accomplished. This paper examines the experiences of teacher researchers as writers as revealed in a research project in progress. I start by providing some background information about the TDP and then refer to the criteria that helped us to complete the writing tasks. Difficulties and strategies used to overcome them are also pointed out. Finally, I mention the benefits teachers identified after publishing their research reports in the PROFILE journal as well as some pedagogical implications.

“Colombia Bilingüe” ha propiciado el crecimiento de programas de desarrollo profesional –PDP– para los docentes de inglés en ejercicio. En este artículo, los autores presentan conceptos básicos en el análisis de la formación continuada de los docentes; analizan los modelos de desarrollo profesional de Richards & Farrell (2005) y James (2001); los autores también resumen los principales conceptos elaborados por académicos colombianos sobre el desarrollo profesional de los docentes de inglés, y proponen un marco conceptual para el país. Las conclusiones sugieren la inclusión de la estrategia del desarrollo y no la del entrenamiento, las perspectivas individual y social del aprendizaje y de la enseñanza, la teoría post-método, la creación de conocimiento en los contextos escolares y sociales y el aprendizaje y la práctica significativa del inglés entre los docentes.

En la actualidad se promueve la formación de redes de docentes para trabajar en agendas construidas de manera colaborativa, continua, flexible, y conforme a sus necesidades. Reportamos una investigación cualitativa con cinco profesoras de inglés de colegios públicos de Bogotá participantes en un programa de formación permanente. Los profesores conformaron grupos de estudio para realizar un proyecto de investigación-acción. Al concluir dicho programa, las docentes iniciaron un trabajo en red, tendiente a continuar su desarrollo profesional. La información recolectada a través de diarios, cuestionarios y entrevistas, permitió determinar los factores que se asocian a la continuidad de los grupos de estudio que surgieron en el programa de formación permanente, así como algunas implicaciones para el trabajo en red.