The purpose of this study is to uncover the struggles English language teaching textbook writers experienced in producing English language textbooks and their influence on educational material in Colombia. The ELT textbook writers are considered individuals who create educational materials and play a crucial role in shaping language learning experiences for students and language teachers. These ELT textbook writers are subjects who have views on the content of teaching, pedagogical strategies, and cultural sensitivity to facilitate English language teaching and learning. However, the textbook industry is a hierarchical machinery with a top-down management approach, in which textbook writers have little space to resist and subvert hegemonical practices in textbook production. According to Jolly & Bolitho (1988, 2011), ELT textbook writers delve into the tension between embracing ideas of dominant cultural norms while challenging power dynamics during the editorial processes from both within and outside the publishing company. In this scenario, local ELT textbook writers struggle to provide their vision of English language teaching and learning, while hoping for a career in the industry, recognition, leading role, and better payment, among other aspects that are not clear in the literature.

The analysis can reveal positions of power within the industry. On the one hand, ELT textbook writers may adopt hegemonic practices in the production of materials, such as accepted teaching methods, language standards, or prevailing educational theories. To be published as trendy or in line with global trends, these writers must follow what the market offers (Gramsci,1971). On the other hand, ELT textbook writers may exercise resistance by adapting and implementing local perspectives. In doing so, struggles against imperial practices can be experienced in which negotiations and tensions are at stake (Bhabha, 1994; Said, 1978).

The analysis can also focus on the industry's preferences for expert ELT textbook writers as master authors, rather than considering novice writers as real authors in the creation of ELT textbooks (Mendez Lara, 2022). This may aid in comprehending the challenges faced by novice textbook writers in their quest to enter the industry. It is already a well-known fact that novice writers are considered part of the process of adapting, creating, and correcting the content within the textbook, but they are not acknowledged by the publishing houses as actual writers at the end of the process once the book is launched to the market (Mendez Lara, 2022). The study will also consider that the educational publishing industry tends to replicate the model of one culture-one language in textbooks, ignoring the critical cultural views, ideas, or thoughts of ELT textbook writers that should be included in a textbook (Mendez Lara, 2022). What ELT textbook writers might say about it could contribute to examining inner struggles that have not been problematized in the ELT field. Participants' voices are expected to challenge imperialistic practices that have been identified before, during, and after the publication process.

I will also depict the Colombian ELT textbook writer as a subject influenced by international markets and ELT policies in the process of learning a second language. It can be concluded that the Colombian ELT textbook writer might accept or reject what they believe should be included in the textbooks.

This is part of what the whole analysis will reveal after discussing the role of ELT textbook writers, who might be navigating between inherent or self-asserted identities, depending on their active or passive involvement in the editorial process. This research proposal aligns with the critical paradigm as it seeks to explore the ELT textbook writers' ideas of hegemonic practices in the industry. In so doing, it aims to question existing power structures, social and cultural norms, and inequalities in the production of ELT textbooks. Narrative interviewing can facilitate the dialogical and collective construction of knowledge (søderberg, 2006), where the ELT textbook writer participants of this research reflect on and are self-aware of their perspectives, backgrounds, and lived experiences. This will help to place participants' narratives within a broader social and cultural context, where the ELT textbook writers’ narratives provide a rich and nuanced understanding of the textbook creation and production in Colombia.