Violent discourses and the (co)construction of gendered identities in an EFL classroom

My undergraduate research project had a twofold purpose. First, it looked into violent discourses in EFL classrooms and their relationship to the construction of the gendered identities of students. Second, it studied the possible impact of these discourses on the teaching and learning of foreign languages. This violence is not always direct violence (e.g., physical and verbal) but may also be the result of structural violence which permeates discourses in many social systems using tacit systems (Galtung, 2003). I used the method of participant observation, with an ethnographic focus, (Vasilachis de Gialdino 2006) to pinpoint such violent discourses in an EFL kindergarten classroom in Bogotá (Colombia).