Experiences Around EFL Teaching of the Multigrade Teachers at the Rural Educational Center “Los Cedros” in the Municipality La Esperanza, Norte de Santander

Abstract

This research is conducted within the framework of the Bachelor of Foreign Language English and enrolled in Research Field: The Use of the English Language and its Contexts within the Research Subproject: The Voices of the LLEI Realities: Life Stories and Experiences of Santo Tomas University. The study aims to interpret the experiences of the participants regarding their learning and teaching experiences in rural education and EFL. This research is carried out with the teachers in charge of the rural schools of Vega de León and Las Vegas in the municipality of La Esperanza, Norte de Santander. The purpose of this research is to share the experiences of participants 1 and 2 with more than 15 years of experience in multigrade schools through the implementation of previously designed instruments and whose analysis seeks to understand the reality of other contexts, as well as the strategies they use in their teaching process and the relationship of social factors in the English teaching-learning process. The story is analyzed and built from the pedagogical reflection of the experiences of the teachers, resulting in an investigative report that gives identity to the rural educational process in Colombia. The research design emphasizes the collection of data through surveys, semi-structured interviews, and narrative frames that collect information related to the main facts and photographs that reflect the rural context. The data analysis process accounts for the interpretation of the narrative and identification of the themes, together with the discussion generated by focusing on the research question.

Key words: narrative inquiry, multigrade teachers experiences, multigrade classroom, EFL teaching, elementary school in rural contexts.