INTRODUCTION
Based on the need to improve education in Colombia and to comply with certain of the objectives established in the Colombian development plan 2014- 2018 “Todos por un Nuevo País” (Everybody for a New Country), the Colombian Ministry of Education, issued education act 02041 dated February 3rd 2016. This act establishes the specific characteristics pre-service teachers’ programs must fulfil to obtain “el registro calificado” (the quality assurance register), a document that aims to verify the quality conditions a teaching program should have.
Education act 02041 establishes, among various aspects, that teaching programs in Colombia must adopt one of the names provided in the document. For the specific case of foreign languages, six names were considered: teaching program in Spanish and English, teaching program in Modern languages, teaching program in foreign languages, teaching program in Spanish and foreign languages, teaching program in philology and languages and teaching program in bilingualism. Additionally, the resolution indicates that the curriculum needs to have the following constituents: a general component, a specific and disciplinary component, a pedagogical component and a didactics component. The contents for each of the above-mentioned components are explained in detail below.
Further, teaching programs must guarantee that pre-service teachers are acquainted with the basic standards established by the government as well as with the national curriculum guidelines. Institutions are asked to develop more in-situ teaching practices and to develop research projects to improve teaching practices. Finally, future foreign language teachers must achieve a high level in English.
What this panorama presents is that, although in the Higher inclusive education policy guidelines (2013) the understanding of diversity and the inclusion of the community in educational processes as part of an intercultural dialogue are central aspects in the teaching-learning process, the new education act contradicts these ideas because it looks for homogenization in the teaching programs. In line with certain other education policies such as the National Bilingualism Plan and the Basic Standards for Competences in English as a Foreign Language, it attempts to give priority to purposes related to standards instead of working towards intellectual, cultural and language development objectives (Robayo Acuña & Cárdenas, 2017).
Hence, this article aims to show that the indications suggested in this education act tend to homogenize foreign language pre-service teachers’ education and make invisible cultural diversity. This article also aims to propose an approach based on an intercultural perspective so that foreign language pre-service teachers’ education can be thought about from a social perspective, considering cultural diversity. To achieve these objectives, the article has been divided into three main parts. The first relates to homogenization in education and the way the 0205 education act tends to perpetuate homogenization in foreign language teaching programs in Colombia. The second part presents some ideas in regard to an approach that considers cultural diversity from an intercultural perspective. The last part of the article provides some conclusions and recommendations in regard to foreign language teaching programs in Colombia.
HOMOGENIZATION IN EDUCATION
In Latin America and specifically in Colombia, education has been influenced by the economic interests of foreign countries. According to Díaz-Barriga (1993), beginning in the twentieth century, education started to be seen as an economic system that needed to be valued based on efficiency and productivity. Education was seen as a way to work towards developed societies. In this sense, there were instrumental tendencies that accounted for economic needs instead of the needs of the subject. Indeed, Kanpol (1999) maintains that, “It has been argued in many educational journals and books that historically the primary function of schools has been an economic one to prepare students for the work force” (p. 1). Education in Colombia was not an exception, and it has been conceived from a technical and functional perspective.
In the case of Colombian foreign language pre-service teaching programs, Cárdenas (2009) reports a study describing trends in the education of foreign language teachers in Colombia. The author asserts that foreign language teaching programs have attempted to work less towards mechanical and transmission-oriented models to begin developing proposals focused on the individual and the society. In the same line of thought, Fandiño-Parra, Ramos-Holguín, Bermudez-Jiménez, and Arenas-Reyes (2016) suggest that foreign language teaching programs have moved from a skills-based model to a sociocultural one. Indeed, Cárdenas (2009) further argues that in the national context, pre-service teaching programs are influenced by the standards set by the Colombian Ministry of Education, and in this sense there is a tendency to train for the test. That is to say that some of the components of the foreign language teaching programs are solely based on the need to meet national standards.
In this regard, González and Quinchía (2003) assert that the components in foreign language teaching programs have focused on knowledge about the language, knowledge about how to teach that language, experiences with research and contact with local realities. In the same line of thought, Richards (1998) proposes six basic components for foreign language teaching programs: theories about teaching, skills related to how to teach, communication skills, knowledge about the language (pedagogical reasoning), decision-making and contextual knowledge. All in all, Cárdenas and Nieto (2010) state that pre-service foreign language programs should work towards a comprehensive education in which pre-service teachers are able to use the language, analyze it, teach it and do research about it in real contexts.
What the aforementioned authors present are general guidelines for foreign language teaching programs. Based on this scenario, each program can make decisions in terms of the contents, the time allotted for each session, the organization of activities, etc. In sum, those components make teaching programs flexible according to the sociocultural needs of the context.
Now, the new regulation stated by the Ministry of Education (education act 02041) proposes that all teaching programs must include the following components: a general component, a specific and discipline component, a pedagogical component and a didactics component. The general component includes communicative competencies (reading, writing and argumentation), mathematical competencies, research competencies, citizenship competencies and competencies in the use of ICTS. The discipline component includes the epistemological foundations of the discipline’s area, knowledge about research methods in the field and the development of attitudes towards academic work and teacher development. The pedagogical component and the didactics one embrace knowledge about traditions and pedagogical tendencies, the understanding of the context as well as the sociocultural characteristics of the context, knowledge about how children, adolescents and adults learn, the importance of students´ human and cultural development in teaching practices, the understanding of the importance of teachers´ professional development, the connection between pre-service teachers practicum and educational institutions and the competence to be able to evaluate students in schools.
This education act also stresses the need to increase teaching practices in situ. Indeed it establishes that fifty credits should be devoted to this practicum. If we take into account the fact that Colombian teaching programs have a number of credits that oscillates between 120 and 160, what this education act proposes is that one third of the credits should be allotted to the teaching practicum. Hence, the credits that are left are just sufficient to cover contents in a superficial way, given that most universities teach various subjects as parts of the general component. Those institutions have a general area that includes aspects such as ethics, philosophy, values, etc. and those subjects take up at least ten further credits.
Nonetheless, at first glance, the previous components seem similar to the ones proposed by Colombian researchers. However, this new regulation recommends the contents as well as the time allotted for each component. This issue disregards that “we are living in a world in which schools are patently unequal” (Spatii-Amerikaner, 2012, p.1). In other words, educational institutions are not equal because they are filled with populations that are culturally diverse. Such diversity conditions the way people live, behave and relate as well as the way science, arts, politics and education take place.
In our case, it is a fact that Colombia is a diverse country and because of its diversity, each educational institution gives priority to different components. By providing institutions with so many specifics, teaching programs might fail due to the fact that the emphasis on each of the components does not correspond to the needs of the population. For example, the needs of a foreign language teaching program in San Andrés Islands, Colombia, might not be the same as the needs of a teaching program in Boyacá, Colombia. In the first case, the population is already bilingual while in the second, most of the population comes from rural areas where English teaching is scarce.
From this perspective, this new document continues to perpetuate homogenization in foreign language teaching education programs. As a matter of fact, what is stated in the document, first, disseminates the idea that teachers must follow a traditional outcomes model. Second, curricula are considered from a static perspective because they are pre-conceived and minimize social realities. In this sense, education is perceived as training. Third, there is the tendency to favor just one kind of knowledge.
The way this new act sees education implies that teachers-educators follow what experts have dictated. This law imposes on the teacher-educator a traditional outcomes-based model that does not engage the community but instead follows a state-mandated curriculum. In this regard, Spady (1994) acknowledges that, “A system based on outcomes gives top priority to ends, purposes, learning, accomplishments, and results” (p. 14). That is to say results are perfectly defined for all students and they are not seen as individuals. This is clearly seen in education act 02041 when it states that “Foreign Language teaching programs must evidence that students reach level C1 in English, according to the Common European Framework” (p.8). In this case teacher-educators are responsible for making sure that students learn predetermined knowledge. This is to say that teacher-educators are passive receptors instead of main actors in the teaching-learning process. In this respect the assumption is also clear: if scores improve, Colombian education will improve as well.
When teaching is based on pre-conceived curricula that are usually developed by authorities, the differences between the theories, state-mandated curricular guidelines and what actually goes on in the EFL classrooms are even larger. Foreign language teaching programs that follow standards and work on pre-conceived contents tend to belittle the complexity of culture and society (Zuluaga, Echeverry, Martinez, Restrepo & Quiceno, 1988) as they perceive human beings as homogenous entities with the same characteristics. Matters such as cultural issues, social concerns, the disadvantaged and the advantaged were not given enough space in the contents presented in the document.
Although the document suggests the need to provide pre-service teachers with sufficient spaces for them to learn and reflect on the context, the emphasis is on having future educators teaching classes. As a matter of fact, the act emphasizes the need for teaching programs to have at least fifty credits dedicated to the teaching practicum. On this subject, Nieto (2013) argues that many years of experience are inadequate “if not accompanied by consistent and relevant experiences at school” (p.25). In the same vein, Akcan (2016) suggests that to improve pre-service teachers’ education it is not merely necessary to augment the practicum during their teaching preparation. Issues such as separation between pre-service teacher preparation and in-service teacher development are also a key aspect. Once pre-service teachers become novice teachers they do not receive support from teacher educators. In addition, Akcan (2016) further asserts that pre-service teachers need sufficient meaningful experiences that provide them with opportunities to construct and reconstruct knowledge. Nevertheless, some of the contents that are projected in the document attempt to provide prospective teachers with a set of strategies to deal with discipline problems, and prepare lesson plans with clearly defined steps and objectives. Thus, if the document is taken for granted, pre-service teacher will be given recipes to be able to teach successfully.
In the same line of thought, foreign language teaching education should be understood as a dynamic, complex and continuous process that gives future teachers the autonomy to transform their realities. In accordance to this, foreign language teaching education must be personal, situated, cultural, political and negotiated so that it works towards the construction of cultural intellectuals able to understand and transform their realities. Nevertheless, as the document states, the view of education it holds relates much more to training. Vergara, Hernández and Cárdenas (2009) suggest that “Training processes generally respond to a pressing need, to the spur of the moment; the time devoted to the activities is short and the activities do not usually go beyond the level of skills development” (p. 173). This can be corroborated in the document because it specifies the contents that need to be covered in each of the components. Most of them relate to skills development. For instance, the didactics component should include the best methodologies to teach the language, training in learning strategies and the incorporation of ICT, among others.
This education act also gives priority to only one kind of knowledge in terms of research. As part of the document, it is proposed that pre-service teachers as well as teacher-educators develop research projects that directly improve teaching conditions. This kind of research can be an effective way to deal with social realities teachers face at schools, but it should not be the only source of knowledge in teaching programs. In other words, pre-service teachers should be able to make decisions about the kind of research they want to embark on. Literary research and translation research help pre-service teachers to understand otherness, to be critical readers and to contextualize realities. However, education act 02041 favors research studies that solve only short-run problems.
Because of the social complexities extant now, foreign language teaching education cannot be thought of from a homogeneous perspective based on developing skills and on teaching for the test, as observed in education act 02041, but on transforming realities. This is to say that education needs to be thought about based on social dynamics and not economic ones. That is why in the following paragraphs I attempt to present some ideas for teaching language programs that consider cultural diversity from an intercultural perspective. These ideas are conversant with what the resolution proposes in the sense that teaching programs can follow the main parameters of the document but they definitely need to guarantee a more inclusive agenda.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING PROGRAMS AND INTERCULTURALITY
Rojas and Castillo (2007) argue that interculturality does not merely refer to a way of establishing relationships among diverse kinds of knowledge, but instead it implies a political project that questions the places and the people that state what is and what is not knowledge. In this sense, interculturality, more than a tangible reality, is a normative framework, a must be (Cruz, 2013). In the same line, Walsh (2010) indicates that interculturality should be understood as a permanent process among people, groups, knowledge, traditions, etc. aiming at the construction and development of each individual. In this scenario, cultural diversity is perceived as an asset.
Pre-service teachers´ education based on interculturality implies the capacity of the community to produce knowledge. It assumes that knowledge is unfinished and is reconstructed through dialogue. It also implies the building of new spaces for the legitimation of knowledge from and with the community. This as opposed to education that uses instruments to measure knowledge and subjects (Rojas & Castillo, 2007). From the same standpoint and addressing critical interculturality as a de-colonial option, Granados (2016) affirms that “this de-colonial option implies several actions reconsidering teacher education programs in such a way that future and current teachers become producers rather than consumers of knowledge” (p.173).
In considering the preceding premise, the creation of intercultural dialogues is required in pre-service teachers’ education that allows for real interactions and mutual enrichment between cultures. In this way teaching programs do not pursue uniformity but rather cultural diversity. These dialogues can be stated alongside the components of any foreign language teaching program.
Based on the principles of interculturality, foreign language pre-service teachers’ education should aim at making several kinds of knowledge visible. This is, according to De Sousa Santos’s categorisation (2010), a project that promotes the ecology of wisdoms; “Ecology because it is based on the recognition of the plurality of heterogeneous knowledge” (de Sousa Santos, 2010, p.32). Therefore, this view will have to take into account that there are not a unique wisdom and knowledge, but that, on the contrary, all kinds of knowledge are relevant to everyone. For instance, when addressing the research component, teaching programs ought to understand that there are different ways of doing research and all of them are equally useful for educational purposes.
An intercultural perspective in foreign language pre-service teachers’ education understands that education is a social and situated construction. That is to say, it is a dynamic process built not only in the pedagogical space, but in and with society. From the social and situated perspective of education, this should be understood as a process that implies the participation of all society in a dialogue that promotes the understanding and encouragement of consciousness with regard to the cultural, political and economic aspects in which people live their lives. This, in turn, will allow the same community to implement proposals that transform its context.
In this sense, an intercultural perspective in foreign language pre-service teachers’ education sees learning as situated. This implies not only working within school spaces, but with the community, taking action in determined spaces and times, creating communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) so that individuals converse and analyze diverse perspectives that allow them to recreate their reality and approach projects that are “projects of local lives” (de Sousa Santos, 2010, p.49). Considering that human beings and their relationships change constantly, the interpretation of reality, then, cannot be static. The actors in society are not merely passive receptors; on the contrary, they are active producers that construct a social reality based on interactions with others. This understanding happens not only in the teaching practicum. As a matter of fact, it happens wherever pre-service teachers have the possibility of establishing respectful dialogues with others.
Interculturality, seen as a process of cultural diversity and understood as more than a diversity of ethnic race and language (Nieto, 2013), aims to be dynamic, productive and to have connection with intervention projects. This type of interculturality emphasises the need for “listening, dialogue, a common pursuit, active methodologies, and participation and cooperation techniques” (Besalú, 2002, p.38), from a distal-performative perspective (Martínez-Cortes, 2014) that promotes social transformations within the same community. It recognises that subjects should establish processes in which they act autonomously, demonstrating their capacities and which allow them to develop their own knowledge. From this perspective, teaching programs should not be given too much specificity in terms of the contents to be addressed. Teaching programs must provide pre-service teachers with sufficient educational spaces for them to reflect about their own sociocultural context and act upon it autonomously.
DISCUSSION AND FINAL REMARKS
By following the principles established by education act 02041, issued by the Colombian Ministry of Education, foreign language pre-service teachers’ education neglects local cultures and subjectivities; cultural diversity is apparently invisible. Only a particular knowledge seems to be incorporated into the teaching programs.
Based on the previous panorama, pre service teachers’ education should be based on the construction of new forms of interaction that provide solutions to the current sociocultural complexities, adopted beyond the traditional spaces in order to involve themselves with the entire society. Thus, the curriculum must be negotiated with the participants and, in this way, integrates their communities into these processes.
Cultural diversity is a human and social reality that helps us to potentiate creativity, progress, and mutually grow (Molina, 2002). The preceding implies thinking of foreign language pre-service teachers’ education from spaces of cultural diversity. The curriculum cannot be thought about from a systemic structural stance but from the logic of a critical and emancipatory curriculum, in other words from social logic. For this purpose, it should be understood that a curriculum for a foreign language teaching program is not a mere anecdotal sum of subjects that guarantee short term results. It cannot rely on recipe books, but a broader analysis framework is needed, because pre-service teacher education is of great theoretical and practical complexity.
If teaching programs follow the rules dictated by the Colombian Ministry of Education without any reflection, they might end up forgetting that many pre-service teachers become teachers not only because of the benefits the profession could bring but because they wanted to change their realities and thus, make a difference. As stated by Sierra-Piedraita (2016) “we need to prepare in-service and pre-service teachers to be open to working from a social justice perspective that will allow them to understand the political purposes of education” (p. 215). Thus, teaching programs must empower pre-service teachers to become intellectual. In Giroux’s (1988) words, this might mean:
Thus, teaching programs must empower pre-service teachers to become intellectual. In otherr words, as Giroux (1988) asserted, teachers are called to be intellectuals who transform their realities through reflection and action. In such a way, they would be able to adopt critical perspectives and work towards social justice.
Finally, it is important to highlight that although teaching programs are expected to guarantee that all pre-service teachers learn at high levels, to propose changes in any teaching program requires a deeper knowledge about the reality inside each institution. Merely the application of administrative schemes is not enough to improve quality in teaching (Villamil, 1993). Thus, there is no single correct and unique way to improve education. There are diverse ways of transforming the world and in turn, they might positively affect education.