Agency, identity and imagination in an urban primary school in Southern Mexico

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnographic study of two studentteachers in a Mexican public primary school in a fifth-grade English-asa-Foreign-Language classroom. Typical of classroom ethnography, this study incorporates systematic observation, description, micro-analysis of events, and discourse analysis. Utilizing a sociocultural perspective as a theoretical framework, the activities created by the two student-teachers are contrasted to the exercises and tasks prescribed in the official textbook. The analysis reveals that although the official textbook reflected a traditional, transmission-oriented pedagogy, the two student-teachers were able to adopt a socio constructivist and transformative teaching approach. They created activities that enabled their learners to work together through a variety of modes and to participate in a wide range of tasks that were relevant to their worlds beyond the classroom. Key words: sociocultural theory, ethnography, identity, second language education.