Perspective on Social Justice

Education and Leadership in Glocalization : What does “think globally, act locally” mean for education around the world? 21-24 2014 306 access and use of ICT have increased in recent years, they are still major disadvantages in rural institutions see Fedesarrollo, 2011; MEN, 2010. In these circumstances, rural EFL teachers count on less resources and more difficult conditions to try to meet the learning goals described above. In terms of professional development, rural EFL teachers, especially those who work in remote locations, find additional constraints to have access to the opportunities of professional development offered by the MEN 2 . Even if they do, as suggested in a previous study Bonilla Medina Cruz-Arcila, 2013, they might not find training in mainstream language teaching methodologies as useful as alternative modalities of professional growth oriented to understand and get involved in the local community. This is certainly true in the case of Jaraba Ramírez and Arrieta Carrascal 2012 who through ethnographical approaches could reach a better understanding of cultural practices of a group of rural indigenous EFL students; and based on that, device their own methodological strategies to make learning English more meaningful in their school. To make things more problematic, at least in my view, although the language policy is aimed to have a nation- wide coverage, the complexities of the rural EFL classroom have remained invisible. In the national context, public discourses on bilingualism or foreign language teaching hardly ever include or address the rural classroom. Perhaps, due to the urban- centeredness of the country, attention and awareness of what happens in the rural classroom have proved to be insufficient. Even local researchers seem to have fallen into the mainstream dinamics of urbanism and the real complexities and opportunities of the rural classroom are still to be visibilised. The idea that in the current language policy local teachers are invisible has already been pointed out by Guerrero 2010, who, in her critical discourse analysis of the document of standards for teaching English and other public documents, argues that not only are Colombian teachers invisible but also given the role of clercks and technicians 3 . However, I also argue that rural teachers, in particular, have been hitherto excluded from academic discourses. In a review of publications of research reports of well- known local journals in the field of ELT in Colombia, reference to the rural reality is limited to exporadic allusions to how more difficult it must be for teachers in these locations to successfully teach English. The study by Jaraba Ramírez and Arrieta Carrascal 2012 mentioned above represents, to the best of my 2 Currently the MEN offers opportunities for professional development in the form of inmersion courses, English or methodology taught courses, and training in the use of virtual resources See MEN, n.d. 3 In her study, Guerrero 2010 points out that local EFL teachers’ knowledge and voices have been knowledge, one of the very few research studies conducted in a rural milieu in this field up to 2012.

3. Perspective on Social Justice

In the particular case of the fields of foreign language teaching, bilingualism, multilingualism and language teacher education, concerns of social justice have been discussed mainly from the perspective that there are marked differences and unbalanced opportunities as well as statuses between the languages spoken within a nation or region Hawkins, 2011; Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson, Mohanty, Pan, 2009. In this frame, issues such as especial teacher training needed to teach languages to minority groups Hawkins, 2011, linguistic discrimination Mohanty, 2009 ; tensions between linguistic diversity and dominant English Phillipson, 2009 and the mismatches between neoliberal and social justice ideologies in teacher education Clarke Morgan, 2011 have been explored. Taking the case of Colombia, however, in my critical review, I draw the understanding of social justice mainly on the ‘politics of recognition’ and ‘redistribution’ Fraser, 1997; Fraser Honneth, 2003. In Fraser’s framework, social justice is necessarily related to socioeconomic affairs in society the politics of redistribution. She explains that in the socioeconomic realm injustices may take the form of, for instance, ‘economic marginalisation’ or ‘deprivation’ that directly affect the standard of living of people. Fraser further asserts that social justice is also a matter of cultural recognition the politics of recognition. She maintains that in this realm injustices take place when there is ‘cultural domination’ or ‘non recognition’. Fraser’s theory represents, thus, a good framework to examine how economic marginalisation and deprivation evident in the socioeconomic constraints of rural areas, underequipped schools, lack of opportunities and poorly remunerated teachers as social injustices that do not escape the EFL classroom. Similarly, regarding the sociocultural dimension, Fraser’s work serves as a point of reference to understand the “lesser esteem and prestige [awarded to local knowledge and teachers] compared to other groups in society” Fraser Honneth, 2003, p. 14 and the misrecognition of rural realities, classrooms and EFL teachers in the implementation of the NPB as further problems of social injustice in the Colombian context. ignored and undervalued. She also stresses out that teachers are considered clerks since they are expected to ‘just follow orders’. Similarly, she found that teachers are expected to perform as technicians whose aim is to ‘create a marketable product’. Education and Leadership in Glocalization : What does “think globally, act locally” mean for education around the world? 21-24 2014 307

4. Conclusion