Reimagining ELT through Locality, Inclusion, and Critical Engagement

In this editorial note, we want to underscore this imperative by exploring how local knowledge is often exported to global academic forums without due attention to the sociohistorical contexts in which it is produced. Our emphasis lies not only on the importance of contributing to international academic discourse but also on preserving the cultural and pedagogical integrity of local practices. Around the world—and notably across Latin America—teachers, researchers, and local publishers are challenging the ELT statu quo. They insist that ELT must speak to the lived realities of communities, draw on diverse ways of knowing, and foster social transformation rather than mere linguistic proficiency. We deem the role of local journals to be worth highlighting in sustaining alternative narratives—those rooted in teacher experience and shaped by community engagement—which often go unrecognized in dominant models of knowledge production.