This article shares a reflection based on the relations found between the partial findings of two ongoing projects in a BA program in bilingual education. The first study is named Critical Interculturality in Initial Language Teacher Education Programs whose partial data were obtained through interviews with four expert professors of Licensure programs across Colombia. The second project is Estado del Arte de los Trabajos de Grado 2009, which involved an inventory of the theses done by students as graduation requirements for the BA program. Based on these data, the article urges a re-assessment of criticality in research at the undergraduate level by problematizing the hegemonization of action research, the instrumentalization of language and research, and the subalternity for those being researched.Key words: Action research, critical theory, decolonial option, research in English language teaching, undergraduate programs.Este artículo es una reflexión acerca de las relaciones entre los hallazgos parciales de dos investigaciones en curso en una licenciatura en educación bilingüe. En el primer estudio, La interculturalidad crítica en los programas de formación inicial de docentes de lenguas extranjeras, parte de los datos surgieron de entrevistas con cinco profesores expertos de licenciaturas de distintas zonas de Colombia. El segundo, Estado del arte de los trabajos de grado 2009 -2016, es un inventario de las tesis desarrolladas como requisito HOW Vol. 25, No. 1, January/June 2018, ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages: 174-193 175 Revisiting the Need for Critical Research in Undergraduate Colombian English Language Teaching de grado para la licenciatura en educación bilingüe. El artículo insta a una re-evaluación de la criticidad en la investigación en los pregrados en enseñanza de inglés al problematizar la hegemonización e instrumentalización del método de investigación-acción y la subalternización de los investigados.Palabras clave: investigación-acción, investigación en pregrados en enseñanza de inglés, opción decolonial, teoría crítica.
IntroductionThe purpose of this article is to share a reflection exercise emerging from a comparison between two sets of data obtained from two on-going research projects in a BA program in bilingual education. The first set was obtained from a group of four expert professors from licensure programs across Colombia interviewed for a doctoral project entitled Critical Interculturality in Initial Language Teacher Education Programs. The second set was obtained from Estado del Arte de los Trabajos de Grado 2009, which accounted for the theses developed by students in the BA program in bilingual education. This paper urges a reassessment of critical approaches to research in the field of English language teaching (ELT) in undergraduate programs in Colombia to better respond to the current situation of the world and the country, to national language policies, and to the kind of research most commonly promoted in teacher education programs at undergraduate levels.
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