Community-based pedagogies and cultural awareness: An EFL class project from rural Colombia

Yimmy Alexander Hoyos Pipicano
Secretaría de Educación del Huila, Colombia
María Fernanda Jaime Osorio
Universidad Surcolombiana, Colombia

This article reports the results of a qualitative, community-based research study that aimed to analyse the incidence of community-based pedagogies on the development of local cultural awareness at a rural public school in Colombia. We designed a pedagogical intervention drawing on community-based pedagogies and blended learning. We collected data from six EFL students through interviews, students' artifacts, reflective logs, and questionnaires during a four-year period. The main findings show that the pedagogical intervention helped them re-imagine local places and reflect on community and personal values. In the long-term, they strengthened their cultural worldviews and reconstructed others. Therefore, community-based pedagogies can enhance cultural awareness development holistically and longitudinally. The academic community can explore this sociocultural approach across diverse settings to aid the global issue of teaching culture in a way that acknowledges and dignifies learners' realities.
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Authors: Yimmy Alexander Hoyos Pipicano holds an MA in English Didactics from Universidad Surcolombiana and is part of the ILESEARCH research group ascribed to the same university. He received a BA in English Language Teaching from Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Currently a full-time high school teacher at a public school in Colombia, he is interested in exploring ELT areas that contribute to education for social justice. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8743-8651 Email: yimmy.hoyos@sedhuila.edu.co, alexhos19@gmail.com María Fernanda Jaime Osorio received her MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana. She is interested in understanding and improving pedagogical practices of in-service teachers, and the use of the ICTs in ELT. She is currently Vice Provost for academic affairs at Universidad Surcolombiana, Neiva, Colombia.v ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8938-8248 Email: mariafernanda.jaime@usco.edu.co Please cite as: Hoyos Pipicano, Y. A. & Jaime Osorio, M. F. (2025). Community-based pedagogies and cultural awareness: An EFL class project from rural Colombia. Issues in Educational Research, 35(2), 632-652. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/hoyos-pipicano.pdf