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Wilson Hernandez, Ph.D. Concordia University Department of Education

Teaching in the Vortex: Everyday Violence and the Stories of Colombian Teachers

Positionality

Why conversaciones?

Index

Teachers and violence in Colombia

A theoretical approach of violence

How teachers constitute subjectivities among violence

Index

What were the goals of the study?

How to analyze conversaciones?

How did these conversaciones happen?

Las conversaciones

Reflections and conclusion

Safari

This was the violence I thought the teachers I'd meet would tell me about: armed violence.

Number of teachers threatened and/or displaced between 2022-2024.

Teachers and violence in Colombia

Research questions

What does it mean to teach and live amid violence?

Zizek, 2009

Background

Systemic Vio

Symbolic Vio

Subjective Vio

A theoretical approach of violence

Who has listened to the teachers in Colombia

Focused on teachers' experiences amid armed conflict

Focused on teaching historic memory and developing peace-building resources

Explored how political violence influenced teachers and their unions

Info

What were the goals of this research study?

“I realized that plática to me is hikaya, which means both weaving and crafting a story in Arabic” (Flores et al., 2018, p. 41).

Enacts solidarity

Collective for learning

Active listening

Co-produces knowledge

Vent

Evoke

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What is conversar?

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Why did I choose this method?

Violence

Ignored teachers' knowledge

Collaborate

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[conversar is] “a dialogue of knowledge among equals, sharing and carrying alternatives of change through a reflection together” (Ortiz & Arias, 2019, p. 14).

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How to analyze conversaciones?

Phenomenology. Precisely “the method of phenomenological attitude” (van Manen & van Manen, 2021).

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How did I prepare myself to have these conversaciones?

Prepare to interview people who experienced trauma

Be aware that research can cause violence

Know when to stop interviewing

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Las conversaciones

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He stands at the door of my classroom and smacks me, he tells me, "You are not welcome here" (Celeste, p. 87)

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Surviving this, the schedules, the routines... that control mechanism that always has to do with schools. It bores me. I mean, I, I am one of the people who gets desperate with such a strict schedule... You never change your routine: You see the students at the same time every Monday; The breaks are always at the same time; and you do the same thing and even almost have the same breakfast every day! C’mon! (Clio, p. 121).

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Celeste: And I am coming to face such a reality without tools, because that is the relevant aspect of what I am telling you, I had no psychological tools to face such a reality again. Wilson: When, when you say “psychological tools”, what are we talking about…? Celeste: Emotional management. (Celeste, p. 87)

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... they took her from her house. I remember so well that it was a Friday, May 13. No, I’m lying, it was on a Thursday, May 13. On the 14th they were looking for her and found her dead, [...] wrapped in a garbage bag. They found her... It was very hard for everyone [...] I had just lost my baby, and now I had to lose a student. That was very hard. It was like losing another child (Celeste, p. 89)

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When I first saw that man, I looked at him, and I knew he was coming for me. I wasn’t afraid, but I knew. So, I asked him, “Are you picking up any of the students?" Then he made a face at me. I went on, “Are you coming for me? Why do you need me? Who sent you?” At that point, he accelerated the motorcycle. I went out to the street, and I said, “Who sent you?” ... So, when I got the letter, I said, “Well, maybe things can escalate, and others can get caught in this too.” (Sandra, p. 114)

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So, all those things that we do not achieve and that go unnoticed generate particular hostility towards the teachers. And probably if the teachers decide to go on strike, then what people are left with is the fact that they are on strike, protesting just to not teach and do nothing. That is like the, the image that we have within society. (Jagomo, p. 135)

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Nowadays, society thinks that the teacher has other roles more in line with taking care of, watching over students, and not really educating...(Jagomo, p. 132) ... according to the media and some political sectors, what we teachers do is to dogmatize and that that has been our job in recent times: to set civil society against others. (Jagomo, p. 134)

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Celeste and Pedro Pablo

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Lack of violence training

Resistance is fragmented

Teachers FrictionSubjectivities

Zizek's paradigm is insufficient

This problem goes beyond armed violence

Reflection

Emotional saturation

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Lack of training on how to face violence

Informal support networks

Forms of violence, yes; AND conditions for violence

The definition of violence needs to be updated

Conclusion & Contributions

Wilson Hernandez PhD Candidate Concordia University Department of Education

Thank you!

Recomendaciones para entrevistar a personas afectadas por el conflicto Trauma- and Violence-Informed Interview Strategies in Work with Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

However, despite these efforts, it remains unclear how teachers reflect on what it means to be a teacher and teach amid violence. These projects did not allow a co-construction of the meaning of docente nor discussed ways (e.g., pedagogies) to prepare teachers to deal with forms of violence.

Who are the research collaborators?

• 7 teachers (4 women, 3 men)
• Cities: Santa Marta/Chipa Viejo, Bogotá, Medellín, San Vicente
• Over 10 years of teaching experience
• Open invitation to talk about violence

“examining and sharing our inner selves with each other, moving beyond self-reflection and self-inquiry toward an engagement of our life journeys” (Flores et al., 2018, p. 44)

"Nothing that you see in a bachelor’s degree, and I think all teachers agree on this, nothing that they teach you in a bachelor’s degree helps you face everyday situations in a classroom. Nothing, nothing! There is no such a subject" (Clío, p. 124)

Examples:

• Racial discrimination
• Racial profiling
• Ethnic cleansing
• Discrimination in housing and employment

"Nothing that you see in a bachelor’s degree, and I think all teachers agree on this, nothing that they teach you in a bachelor’s degree helps you face everyday situations in a classroom. Nothing, nothing! There is no such a subject" (Clío, p. 124)

“phenomenological inquiry proceeds through an inceptual process of reflective wondering, deep questioning, attentive reminiscing, and sensitively interpreting of the primal meanings of human experiences” (van Manen, 2017, p. 819).

My role in co-constructing understandings of violence took place in the conversaciones and reflections.

The key was emotional saturation, not data saturation.

To develop principles for trauma-sensitive pedagogies valuable to teacher education programs and policies in contexts affected by violence.

To describe the contexts of the teachers who experience violence in Colombia.

To gain insights into their experiences as teachers and advance critical dialogues to co-construct meanings of their roles in connection to the violence experienced in Colombia.

1. Interviews 2. Analysis of information 3. Conclusions

To encourage critical dialogues about living and teaching in areas amid violence.