Paulina Sepulveda Escobar
University of Exeter, UK
In Chile, the national policy English Opens Doors (Programa Inglés Abre Puertas, PIAP) was established in 2004 by the Ministry of Education as a plan to stimulate the learning of English as a foreign language providing support for learners to enhance their communicative skills, and opportunities for teachers to engage in continuous learning (Ministerio de Education, n.d. a). Throughout the year, an extensive range of workshops are offered for English Language (EL) public school teachers, however, the professional needs that have prompted these initiatives have for long been overlooked and unheard. This critical exploratory study aims to provide the participants a voice to question these current professional development activities and to raise awareness of their particular professional needs. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 6 EL public school teachers who have actively participated in PIAP activities. The findings show that the workshops do not cater to teachers’ professional needs generating frustration within the profession. Further, as there is not a solid needs analysis process that shows the basis for these initiatives, an inaccurate public school context that perpetuates the social and economic inequalities among educational establishments is presented through these workshops. Some collaborative initiatives that put teachers at the heart of the process in order to design and enact meaningful professional learning activities are suggested.
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Fourth Annual International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.TLLL.IR), 1-2 February 2020, Ahwaz.
