Читать книгу Understanding the Complexities of Self-Image in an EFL Rural Setting - Bertha Ramos Holguín - Страница 3

INTRODUCTION

WHAT WE CARRY IN OUR LUGGAGE

Twelve years ago, when we created the research group TONGUE (Teaching on New Grounds Unexplored English Possibilities), we were interested in exploring students’ identities and self-images. We firmly believe that individuals, as human beings, are the most valuable part of society. Likewise, each student represents a whole world. One which is independent and unique. As teachers, we have strived to understand, interpret, see, and live our students’ worlds. In other words, we believe that we are called not only to teach, but to also to interpret our students’ contexts to better understand who they are as people. It is only after exploring our students’ lives that we can proceed to teach and learn.

We see the process of teaching and learning English as a symbiosis, in which students and teachers can learn and grow with each other. Time and time again, we have noticed that teaching and learning a language come second to understanding our students. Comprehending and connecting to our students’ realities have aided the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) process, in which students have become protagonists of their own learning. Because of this, we urge the need to listen to, amplify, and echo our students’ voices.

In Colombia, rural areas often lack opportunities in all aspects of life, including education. Children who have the opportunity to graduate from high school are faced with the reality of a limited job market. For some graduates, working in the countryside with their father and older brothers is their only option, while women must help at home and raise families at a young age. Nevertheless, farm and housework are physically exhausting and not well paid, which is why we continue to see that 70% of the rural population is under the poverty line (Ramos & Aguirre, 2016).

Given the situation, we wanted to explore eleventh graders’ self-image and understand how they build their image and how it informs about their imagined life after high school.

The Colombian high school educational system finishes at eleventh grade. Talking with eleventh graders in rural areas has revealed that they are full of energy and dreams. Some want to continue studying and go to college to move up the socio-economic ladder. Others want to pursue their dreams and shape their lives. While others are aware of the limited economic resources that will ultimately affect their decisions. Without a doubt, eleventh graders in rural areas are faced with many challenges that will determine their future, which is why understanding their self-image was crucial for us.

In this book, we looked at self-image from a humanistic approach. We see it as a dynamic and complex process that compromises self-respect and self-confidence. As a complex process, self-image is influenced by the community in which the individual interacts (school, neighborhood, home, etc.). All in all, self-image is a continuous process that begins from childhood (Rijavec, 1997; Bognar, 1999; Yahaya & Ramli, 2009; Simel, 2013). Furthermore, a positive self-image can generate many benefits. Heatherton and Wagner (2011) mentioned that having a high self-esteem helps people cope with cognitive and social challenges to live a better life.

We were also aware of the fact that the protagonists of this story were adolescents, who are in search of their selves and identities as human beings. As narrators of the story, we wanted to explore, analyze, and interpret how these adolescents perceived their self-image through their life stories. By telling their narratives, the students could reconstruct and re-signify their reality, while showing us who they are in relation to other people and their contexts. Therefore, life stories offered us the possibility to explore students’ inner and social worlds.

In order to explore the adolescents’ self-image, we needed to understand their life stories as a thoughtful practice as opposed to a technical one. Doing so helped us increase our sensitivity to how the adolescents saw themselves as part of their rural contexts, as well as how this might affect their futures. In addition to understanding the students’ self-image, we also wanted to make sure this book echoed their voices. Therefore, we will be sharing the stories of a group of eleventh graders from a high school in Samacá, one of the 123 towns in the state of Boyacá, Colombia. The students come from a rural area since this is largely an agricultural state.

This book is divided into five chapters that describe a journey. In this trip we made some stops. In the first chapter, The Trip that we Planned, we narrate where and how this trip began. We contextualize the reader with our understanding of rurality as well as with the initial concerns of the research group.

In the second chapter, Our Fellows in this Trip, we present the authors who theoretically support our concerns. We discuss the concepts of self-image and its connection with life-stories. All these within the framework of the rural specificities in Colombia.

In the third chapter, Our Rest Area to Reflect upon in this Trip, we present the protagonists and the context in which this qualitative research study was carried out. We introduce the reader with the social subjects and their life-stories. We also illustrate the rural context that shaped those stories. We describe narrative inquiry as a method to rely on to comprehend self-image construction.

In the fourth chapter, The Experiences we Encounter in our Journey, we describe, interpret, and comprehend what the self-stories reveal about eleventh-graders self-image. Finally, in the last chapter, The Photo Album we End Up with in this Voyage, we summarized the findings and we open the window for future comprehension in regards to EFL rural teaching and learning processes in Colombia.