KANKURUBA: The use of Second Life for English Language Teacher Education

Portada del libro Technology in ELT: Achievements and challenges

In order to understand educational practice(s), it seems paramount to understand praxis within teacher education in the context of pre-service English language teachers. Kemmis (2010) claims a philosophical ground where practices are comprehended as ways of living in any field being teacher education one of them. In that sense, and inspired by the Aristotelian perspective, praxis should not be claimed as merely action. Praxis “is action that comes together and coheres in the context of a way of life, in a way of orienting ourselves in any and all of the uncertain situations we encounter in life” (Kemmis, 2010, p. 418).

The end purpose of such idea of praxis is to contribute to the good of humankind. This noble aspiration implies that praxis interrelates logic (sayings), physics (doings) and ethics (relatings) where they inform each other. These interrelations shape practice architectures which “are the densely interwoven patterns of saying, doing and relating that enable and constrain each new interaction, giving familiar practices their characteristic shapes” (Kemmis, 2009, p. 466). This means that practices are organized nexuses of actions (Schatzki, 2002). Consequently, “practitioners are co-habitants of sites along with other people, other species and other objects, and ... are in interdependent relationships with these others, not only in terms of maintaining their own being and identities, but also in and through their practices” (Kemmis, 2012, p. 788).

A good number of studies in the Colombian scholarship have dealt with pre-service English language teacher education published in specialized local journals like Profile, such as Journal, Íkala, Lenguaje, Gist, Voces y Silencios and CALJ. In a research review, Viáfara (2011) identifies two foci of study reviewing the intersection between foreign language teacher education and technology. The first one relates English language teachers’ attitudes and educational effects of technology use in language teaching. The second one focuses on teachers’ interactions with colleagues. However, few studies have ever been conducted focusing on the interplay of Second Life and pre- service English language teacher education. Far less is known about how this intersection could promote the (co)construction of practice architectures. This chapter interrogates practice architectures within Second Life environments where future English language teachers are educated aiming at narrowing the literature gap that characterizes the field at least at the local level.

Datos
Titulo: 
KANKURUBA: The use of Second Life for English Language Teacher Education
Autor(es): 
Harold Castañeda-Peña
Titulo del Libro: 
Technology in ELT: Achievements and challenges for ELT development
Pais: 
Colombia
Editorial: 
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
ISBN: 
978-958-787-055-8
Paginas: 
95-109
Año: 
2018