Embodied gender/sex identity and English language teaching: Two narratives and dissident identities from Colombia

Harold Castañeda-Peña, Diego Ubaque-Casallas
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia
Jonathan Delgado-Ochoa
Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana: ÚNICA, Colombia

Little is known about the professional identities of teachers of English in terms of how their gender identity is related to teaching practices. This study discusses how teachers of English narrate their gender identities and how embodiment influences their teaching principles, beliefs, and experiences. The study draws on a critical and decolonial understanding of gender/sex as embodied and its relation to embodied teaching practices. This narrative study is based on interviews with two gay Colombian teachers at a Bogotá (Colombia) private language centre. Findings reveal that the participants' teaching practices are permeated by gender performativity, indicating that orthodox pedagogies do not consider the influence of factors like gender, age, race, social class, and level of knowledge.
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Authors: Dr Harold Castañeda-Peña is associate professor in the ELT Education Major at the Doctorado Interinstitucional en Educación at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia. He is interested in identity, gender, information literacy and videogaming related to language learning and teacher education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6828-8712 Email: hacastanedap@udistrital.edu.co Mr Diego Ubaque-Casallas is an English language teacher and teacher-educator who currently works at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia. He holds an MA degree in Applied Linguistics to TEFL. He is interested in identity, gender, narrative studies, translanguaging perspectives, and new approaches to comprehending English language pedagogy. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8116-9163 Email: dfubaquec@udistrital.edu.co Mr Jonathan Delgado-Ochoa is an English language teacher-educator at Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana (ÚNICA) in Bogotá, Colombia. He has been a professor in several universities in Bogota, and his research interests revolve around gender in ELT, the decolonial turn, and assessment. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3827-9409 Email: j.delgado@unica.edu.co Please cite as: Castañeda-Peña, H., Ubaque-Casallas, D. & Delgado-Ochoa, J. (2022). Embodied gender/sex identity and English language teaching: Two narratives and dissident identities from Colombia. Issues in Educational Research, 32(3), 906-924. http://www.iier.org.au/iier32/castaneda-pena.pdf