Professional subjectivities in ELT & the dichotomy inclusion-exclusion

Abstract

Most Education systems propose policies in pro of the benefit of society. However, successful application of these is unknown in consequence considering teachers voices is needed to understand the situations in the classroom. This study analyzes some English language teachers’ stories that served the purpose to construct themselves as professionals of language education facing the dichotomy of inclusion and exclusion placed by the mandates of the Colombian education system. The theme of Language Teacher Subjectivities, in this article, is conceptualized and discussed as the alternative’s teachers have within their reach to use their own theories regarding language teaching and learning. Reflecting retrospectively and prospectively on meaningful school experiences related to the language teaching activity to tackle the dichotomy, the research question that guided this study was: What do language teachers’ narratives portray about their professional subjectivities in relation to inclusion? From a narrative perspective, narrative interviews and a professional life history timeline was analyzed using short story analysis focusing on when, when and who as meaningful in the data and finding that the participants comply with the multidimensional view of the subject. The narratives depicted that the corporal dimension, social-affective dimension, cognitive dimension, and ethic-moral dimension are part of the teachers’ professional subjectivities in the frame of Colombian inclusion policy.