Before talking about the subject of my doctoral research, I would like to mention my professional background, so that my readers will have a better understanding of my ideas about foreign language teaching. I have taught English for more than 15 years at schools and public and private universities in Bogotá. In 2003, I graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where I was enrolled in the Philology and Languages program, with a major in English. In 2007, I obtained a Master's in Applied Linguistics in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Finally, in 2017, I obtained a Ph.D. in Education from Los Andes University.

These working and academic experiences were useful for my doctoral research into methods of teaching English to students and trainee teachers. However, within my doctoral research work on gender and teachers’ methods, I found out that the curriculum for training pre-service teachers focused on models for effectively teaching a foreign language (Pennycook, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 2001, Castañeda, 2009) this has led to the idea that it is only a technical education and such teachers are instructors rather educators (Cárdenas et al., 2010; Viera & Moreira 2008 cited in Fandiño Parra et al., 2016; Zafra & Borbón, 2006). This poses a difficulty for future English teachers who regard themselves as playing a key role in securing peace in Colombia and instilling democratic principles found in The Law of Education 115 [article 2].