Expanding Our Horizons

Featured Plenary

When Language Teacher Educators,
Language Policy Makers, and Politicians Meet:
Lessons from the South

 

Abstract

Language policies play a role in the education and professional development of language teachers and challenge teacher educators’ beliefs, practices, and skills. González explores issues of power, status and local knowledge construction analyzing critically agreements and tensions that have risen among Colombian language teacher educators, policy makers, and politicians in the implementation of the National Program of Bilingualism. She presents some lessons learned in this dynamic encounter that may enlighten further discussions in language teacher education and professional development.

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Adriana González Moncada
Associate Professor, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia

Dr. González obtained her doctoral degree in Linguistics (TESOL) from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1995 and her M.A in Language Sciences from Université de Nancy II (France) in 1991.  She is presently an associate professor at the School of Languages at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. In the B. Ed program in Foreign Language Teacher Education and in the M.A. program in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning she teaches courses in EFL Teaching and Learning, Classroom Research and Teachers Professional Development.  Her research and publications focus on EFL teaching and learning, teacher education, professional development and language policies. Besides her academic work in Colombia, Dr. González has presented papers in the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, and Spain. She has been s a member of the editorial teams of the Colombian refereed journals IKALA, PROFILE, and Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal. She has served as the secretary of the Colombian Association of Teachers of English (ASOCOPI) for the last five years. She is also a member of the National Committee for Quality in Higher Education of the Colombian Ministry of Education.