The quality of early childhood programs plays a crucial role in improving outcomes for children. Play-based practices are considered a vital component in early childhood development as they offer opportunities for children to learn and grow. Despite this, the field is still trying to understand the role of teachers in facilitating play and their…

It is essential to revise how political discourses and the administering of politics, not precisely within the school context but outside as well, interplay with the constitution of teacher subjectivities particularly in countries where education is highly influenced by sociopolitical factors without conscious acknowledgment from teachers.…

The present research paper reports the results of a subjective needs analysis applied in a foreign languages institute at a private university in Colombia. For these students, it is mandatory to take English classes and to pass all the required English courses. In that sense, and after some years of teaching English, the foreign languages…

This multiple case study explored the influence of English teachers' methodological practices over undergraduate students' learning processes in two English as a foreign language mandatory courses for different majors, at Universidad de Pamplona (Colombia). Data were gathered through non-participant observations, field notes, stimulated recall…

Playful experiences provide us with the opportunity to engage with others and learn in enjoyable ways. Recognising and building on the power of playfulness and play can be a way to support more meaningful educational experiences for all, life-wide and lifelong. This "Trends Shaping Education Spotlight" touches on gamification as a…

This paper reports the findings of a narrative study with two pre-service English language teachers (PELTs) who have dyslexia. The main objective of the study was to understand how this condition of having dyslexia was present in becoming an English language teacher. The two PELTs participated in a life history interview as part of the data…

The authors investigated to what extent teachers' practices and school characteristics can influence students' civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and future participation in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and how this can be related to their specific curricular structures and educational content. It uses data from the International Civic and…

This research seeks to analyse and propose a solution to support classroom-based teaching in the Department of Chocó, Colombia, which is located in a rural area and has been the subject of many social projects for the development of its people. Due to the disparities in different regions of the country, the education sector is forced to look for…

This paper presents the experience of going to scale of "Escuela Nueva," an educational innovation that started in Colombia and has influenced educational policy in several countries around the world during the last 30 years. The paper is based on the experience of the leaders of the innovation and its expansion over time. As an…

The challenges of ensuring the right to education are numerous, especially when working with marginalised populations in fragile contexts. Despite having the legislation, strong constitutional support, and even educational innovations designed to guarantee the right to education, a major gap exists in Colombia between political intentions and the…

Although interculturality has been the focus of several studies which reveal a tendency to include an understanding of students' home culture and cultures around the world in the English language classes, few studies focus on the inclusion of an intercultural component in a class different from the English one. This article aims to share a…

Using both data from my dissertation and ideas from my most recent research and academic projects, this paper will discuss some challenges and potential opportunities that the inextricable links between literacy and technology pose for second language educators in this decade and beyond. In the first part of this paper, I will describe a series of…

In this article we present the results of a qualitative research study on the pedagogical factors that influence English teaching in four public schools of Medellín, Colombia. Twelve teachers were interviewed regarding three linguistic principles: communicative competence, native language effect, and interlanguage. The data analysis led to the…

This reflection paper attempts to show how we foreign language (FL) teachers can help our students develop their visual literacy concerning the use of grammar charts to help them to make better sense of the grammar information presented in their textbooks. In the first part, this reflection overviews the concept of visual literacy (VL), its…

This document states the general philosophy behind curriculum planning and improvement in Colombia. Topics covered are recognized educational needs and objectives, the role of the school, curriculum structure and development, teacher and student roles, factors that need to be considered for educational improvement, and steps for carrying out that…