Defying Culture Hegemony through Teacher Generated EFL Materials

Book excerpt: Defying Culture Hegemony through Teacher Generated Materials contributes to the growing literature on the critical analysis of English language teaching and learning materials used with students in local contexts. This research draws on contextualised teacher generated materials that contest decontextualised and standardised cultural content present in generic and commercial EFL textbooks. Six in-service teachers developed contextualised EFL materials (workshops and worksheets) for the pedagogical interventions of their qualitative action research (five teachers), or case studies (one teacher) to be used in state-funded and private schools, two private universities, and a non-formal public institution. Two full-time professors of the emphasis conducted a qualitative documentary research whose main purpose was to critically analyse the cultural content of EFL materials generated by these in-service teachers. These sociocultural mediations correspond to local realities of those who learn and teach English with these mediations in state-funded and private educational institutions in the Colombian context. Besides being designed from a critical stance and being implemented with students of varied English proficiency in state-funded and private educational institutions, these contextualised materials counter conventional resources used in EFL education, make up for their absence, or complement the existing ones. EFL materials proposed by the six in-service teachers create reflective, meaningful, and constructive learning environments. They also challenge the long-term cultural hegemony of commercial and instrumental EFL textbooks produced by foreign publishing houses or their local branches in our country. Furthermore, the study explores the role of contextualised teacher generated materials in fostering the development of students' cultural awareness, self-esteem and self-concept, and inquiry skills such as observation, prediction, interpretation, and communication. Additionally, it enquires into students' inferential reading and speaking in a blended learning setting, and in-service EFL teachers' oral interaction. This volume portrays a dimension of English teachers that reclaims their role as critical researchers and materials developers and invites them to envision themselves as autonomous and prospective educators and ponder their renewed identity.