Journal 3

In this class, I learned a little more about the importance of being critical, especially in educational aspects. I have to continue thinking who I am as a teacher and if I am doing a good job at being critical in my teaching practicum. Today, there were two questions that called my attention: What does it mean to be a professional? What are the differences between being trained or being educated?

Those questions seem to be easy to answer but in the end, they are a little difficult from my perspective. Since I was a child I have always been taught that going to school, learning, and in the future getting a good job is the goal, so when I started studying my degree in English my only goal was to get a diploma. However, throughout the process, I learned many important aspects since I am not studying to be trained but to be educated. Now, I understand that the teaching task is a multidimensional activity; besides linguistic - personal, social, cultural dimensions should be included in our practice of teaching.

Besides, I learned about the importance of evaluating my teaching cultural beliefs to improve my teaching practices. We as teachers have to look for critical incidents and problems in the classroom in order to find a solution for each skateholder. Also, we have to try to localize learning and coursebooks since students feel more interested in topics related to their contexts. Likewise, I want to focus that not only teachers' cultural backgrounds but students' ones are important in order to be successful in our teaching practices. Finally, I would like to emphasize the importance of reflection in teaching since it helps to encourage teachers to tolerate changes, open minds, and try new strategies that break with common and traditional thoughts. 

Glossary: 

Education: It goes beyond simple knowledge on some topics. It consists on developing different dimensions in people such as personal, cultural, and social.

Technicality: To train and program somebody to reproduce something.

Eclectic approach: mix different approaches. 

Globalization: Hegemony way to see the world. Teach the same to everybody.

Teaching cultural beliefs: What teachers use to think about the teaching practices, the methods implemented, and the myths about teaching.

Questions about the reading:

1. Why myths about education are so persistent if currently education programs teach about tools in order to evaluate our teachers' practices?

2. Do you think reflection is a successful tool to change our teaching cultural believes or do you know any other tool in order to do it? 

3. From your teacher experiences. What have you done in order to erase the myths about TL?

Journal 2

 In this second session of the seminar, I learned many interesting aspects and features of the critical theory. One of them is that we constantly are subjugated in different aspects by our gender, race, sex, and economy. We usually dream of being emancipated at all but this is something almost impossible because when we get freedom on something there is still another factor in which we continuing being subjugated. However, it is important to keep working on our empowerment and emancipation. Yet something more interesting is the fact that we as teachers have the power or the role not only to empower ourselves but have others to be empowered or make others to be emancipated. That is, we as teachers can become critical activists. 

Another interesting fact that I learned during this session is the concept of instrumental or technical rationality, which specially focuses on we as humans choose the power and materialistic goals over the values and moral. That does not matter if we hurt someone in the process of accomplishing what I want. This instrumental rationality is also presented in educational settings since the positivist framework is reduced to technical issues that focus on testing and measuring teaching practices and students' knowledge. Likewise, in education, aspects like values and the moral are in a second or even last place after many other things. All mentioned is important for me and for my profession because it is useful to learn and identify all these sources of power in our educational context in order to make a change in my future teaching experiences. 

Glossary:

Enlightenment: To erase the power that some people exercise people over others. Being able to think without any change.

Empower: Have control over something. Be able to propose, have ideas, etc.

Habitus: The culture defines us as to how we are as persons. The values, moral, knowing, those things are constituted our own habitus.

Subordinated culture: It is not allowed to be a part of society. It has no power.

Democracy: To have the power to make decisions about what we want and how. 

Positivist system: It especially focuses on testing and measurement the quality of our teaching, our research, and student learning.

Journal 1

 In the first class of the seminar, I realized that when I am asked to define "critical" I think about critical thinking. However, today I learned about a completely different concept which is "critical theory", it highlights the importance of the emancipation of humans, democracy, and the moral realm; that is, everybody should be seen as equal. Besides, it focuses on the social world and his need for reconstruction. 

 I consider this is important for me and my profession because although the "new left" was created a long time ago in order to help us emancipate ourselves in many social fields, we are is still subjugated in our educational settings, especially by the educational system of our country. It is important to unveil in what ways they are subjugating us, and what we can do to change it.

Glossary:

Critical theory:a method of temporarily freeing academic work from forms of power such as capitalism and positivism.

Emancipation: Freedom. Not being subjugated.

Democracy: It is a system of government that bases its legitimacy on the participation of the people

Moral realm: Moral actions and decisions that might be derived from or own explorations.