Decentring and Decolonizing material

Decentering and decolonising materials

Why do we need to know about it?

What do we know from research?

Decentering ELT in Argentinian education seeks to develop local materials (Ref 10)

English language teachers tend to prefer commercial materials over locally produced material (Ref 4), resulting in the unconscious reproduction of English language supremacy (Ref 12).

Decentering and decolonising ELT materials can provide spaces of liberation and agency for teachers.There are national and contextualised policies related to EFL teaching, yet local materials produced accordingly that help us understand our reality and challenge dominant ideologies are not widely spread. Teachers should have the knowledge and ability to produce local materials or locally adapt international ones to teach English.

The hegemonic ideas associated with ELT material products and resources reproduce Eurocentric ideologies and have economic foundations (Ref 11).

Even though some materials are locally produced, some may not represent national standards or address all local contexts (Ref 14).

A variety of local ELT materials can be beneficial to relate English language to students’ diverse contexts. However they continue to be used in peripheral contexts (Ref 4)

There’s still an increasing need of contextualised materials in our teaching contexts (e.g., rural education, higher education, and other teaching modalities and levels of education context- related) (Ref 5)

What does TEACHER research suggest to support local EFL teaching and learning?

• To have a proper development of local ELT materials, we need to make a balance between our culture and the English culture that will be presented.
• It'll be necessary to encourage teachers to do a proper adaptation and contextualisation of foreign ELT resources as a way of producing meaningful knowledge according to the students' needs and interests.
• Teachers need to identify and reflect over the colonising discourses exposed in ELT materials and resources.
• Local ELT materials need a higher exhibition among the education institutions. Teachers should implement, recommend and encourage the use of local resources.
• To have a proper development of local ELT materials, Initial Teacher Education should foster collaborative work and communities of practice.
• Language professionals should acknowledge their political role as educators and support, join and cause an impact on communities of practice all throughout their Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

List of articles consulted

WHAT PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS CAN WE MAKE FROM THIS?

Reference list

Glossary List

Project team bios