Facing neoliberalism in education: How English language teachers enact their critical identities

Abstract

In the 1990s, Colombia embraced neoliberalism, and as a result, all public and private institutions and organizations have adhered to its principles. Following this ideology, the national government implemented an educational quality policy intending to standardize processes and measure outcomes to position the country favorably in the global market. These policy actions directly impact schools, further entrenching neoliberalism in education and consequently influencing the practices and identities of teachers. This article centers on the personal experiences of two female English teachers pursuing a master's degree in English teaching. Through semi‐structured narrative interviews and analysis using a narrative‐based analytical framework, the accounts of these teachers reveal the challenges they face due to neoliberal practices, which tend to belittle, exploit, and discredit them. Nevertheless, the narratives also highlight how these teachers overcame their fears and openly expressed their ideas, asserting their critical identities and aligning their actions with the knowledge they gained through their master's studies. Therefore, it can be concluded that despite the disparity between the critical emphasis in teacher education, particularly in public universities, and the expectations placed on educators, the critical identity of these teachers is effectively manifested.

EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Enactment of Agentic Capacities in their Online Pedagogical Practicum

“…Inquiring about the agency of language teachers is essential in the face of the widespread colonial influence on knowledge and existence within the English language teaching (ELT) field (Canagarajah, 2023) the standardisation and accountability in FL pedagogy, as well as institutional neoliberal discourses entails the marketization of education at a global level (Guerrero-Nieto & Castañeda-Trujillo, 2023;Pennycook, 2021;Van Lier, 2010), all of which are internalised and reproduced by institution administrators or teachers themselves and that aim at constraining teachers' epistemes and autonomy, maintaining thus the status quo and fulfilling neoliberal agendas such as thorough uses of mandated textbooks and canonical methodologies. These discourses, norms, and power structures influence language teachers during their careers and force them to perform in the classroom in the ways they establish (Flores, 2014;Kumaravadivelu, 2012;Moore et al, 2002), depriving them of adopting an agentic positioning; restraining their agentic capacities by reducing their control and autonomy in their FL teaching practices.…”