Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas School of

EFL STUDENTS' SENSE OF COMMUNITY VIRTUALLY 1

Understanding EFL Students’ Sense of Community in Virtual Environments

Angélica Torres Obando

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Science and Education

Master’s Program in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Bogotá, D.C., Colombia

2021


Understanding EFL Students’ Sense of Community in Virtual Environments


Thesis director: Yeraldine Aldana Gutiérrez, M.A.

A thesis submitted as a requirement to obtain the Degree as M.A.

In Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Science and Education

Master’s Program in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Bogotá, D.C., Colombia

2021


Note of acceptance: Thesis director: __________________________

Yeraldine Aldana Gutiérrez, M.A.

Jury: __________________________ Yuly Andrea Nieto Gómez, M.A.

Jury: __________________________

Alber Josué Forero-Mondragón, M.A.


Acuerdo 19 de 1988 del Consejo Superior Universitario

Artículo 177. “La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable de las ideas

expuestas en este trabajo”.


Acknowledgment

My God, my heavenly father, my creator. Thank you for the miracle of my existence.

My dear parents, Julia Amparo Obando Montaño and Victor Torres Arias, thank you for my life.

My lovely mother, thank you for always trusting in me. My whole academic journey would not

have started if you had not believed in education and in me.

My lifelong teachers, especially to my master's professors, Amparo Clavijo Olarte, Álvaro

Quintero Polo, Clelia Pineda Baez, Ximena Bonilla Medina, and Sandra Soler Castillo. To them,

all my gratitude.

This thesis would not be possible without the guidance of my dear professor Yeraldine Aldana

Gutiérrez; thank you for your support, commitment, and generosity.

This knowledge construction during the master's program was also possible thanks to my

colleagues and classmates; thank you. It was a pleasure to walk this path with you.

My dear students, we met each other through the screen, and you are part of my life, thank you

for opening your heart, sharing your lives and communities during this study.

Outside the academic scenario, my beautiful sister Caterine Torres Obando was also there with

her wise words; thank you.

My lovely Alejandro Lombana Pérez, I am grateful for all your encouragement, love, and

patience at the beginning and end of this journey.

Finally, thank you to all my family, friends, Angels, and Archangels who were always there.

Thank you, thank you, and thank you.


Abstract

This thesis reports a qualitative netnographic study aimed at understanding students'

sense of community. The study involved a heterogeneous group of twenty-two students from a

language institute who reconstructed their sense of community in virtual environments.

Considering community-based pedagogies, students carried out a set of activities which helped

them to recognize their lives and their communities. Autobiographies, virtual community

presentations, community profiles, and interviews with community members were part of this

pedagogical intervention. The data included field notes, students' artifacts (autobiographies,

presentations, and interactions) and two group interviews. Data analysis results suggest that

community and place-based pedagogies enable students and teachers to become aware of virtual

communities’ potential; indeed, students acknowledge themselves and others as relevant assets.

These pedagogies strengthen their sense of belongingness as members of different communities.

Furthermore, students build their sense of community, being aware themselves as human beings

who are part of different communities. At the same time, they were aware of those community

members around them, valuing the learning process they have forged throughout their

relationships and knowledge. Finally, those emotions such as love, gratitude, empathy, and

compassion for the members of their communities emerged.

Key words: Sense of community, community-based pedagogies, critical literacies, English

language teaching


Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………6

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………11

Chapter I………………………………………………………………………………………...14

Statement of the problem………………………………………………………………………...14

Research question and objectives…………………………………………………..……………20

Justification………………………………………………………………………………………21

Chapter II……………………………………………………………………………………….24

Theoretical framework…………………………………………………………………………...24

Engaging in critical Place-and Community-based Pedagogies………………………………….25

A Sense of Community to Connect People………………………………………………………32

Critical literacy through virtual environments…………………………………………………...35

Chapter III………………………………………………………………………………………42

Research Design……….…………………………………………………………………………42

Type of study…………………………………………………………………………………….42

Field notes………………………………………………………………………………………..43

Students’ Artifacts……………………………………………………………………………….44

Group Interviews………………………………………………………………………………...45

Piloting Stage…………………………………………………………………………………….46

Setting……………………………………………………………………………………………46

Sampling Technique and Participants……………………………………………………………47

Ethical Considerations Research design…………………………………………………………48

Chapter IV………………………………………………………………………………………49

Instructional Design……………………………………………………………………………...49

Vision of Language……………………………………………………………………………....49

Vision of Learning…………………………………………………………………………….....50

Didactic Choice……………………………………………………………………………..........50

Learners’ Role ……………………………………………………………………………...........51

Teacher’s Role …………………………………...………………..…………………….............51

Role of the Materials…………………………………...…………………………………...........52

Type of syllabus…………………………………...…………………………………..................53


Pedagogical intervention…………………………...………………………………….................53

Chapter V…………………………...…………..……………………........................................63

Data Analysis and Findings………...…………………………………........................................63

Data Management………...…………………………………...………........................................63

Data Analysis Framework…………………………………...………...........................................64

Data Analysis Procedure……………………………...…...………..............................................65

Findings……………………………...…...……….......................................................................66

Category 1. Acknowledging the self, members, and places in the communities from an EFL

scenario and subcategories……………………...…...……….......................................................67

Category 2. Learning as giving and receiving from communities and subcategories…...............78

Chapter VI…………………………...……………………………….........................................90

Conclusions………………………...…………...……………………..........................................90

Pedagogical Implications…………...…………...…………………….........................................92

Limitations and suggestions…………...………...…………………….........................................94

Further research.…………...………...……………………..........................................................96

References.…………...………...……………………...................................................................97


List of illustrations

Illustration 1. Curricular unit excerpt (outcome from seminar on literacy and social justice) ….17

Illustration 2. Nanito’s written reflection…………………………..………………..…………...18

Illustration 3. Pedagogical implementation’ stages. …………………………..………………...54

Illustration 4. Categories and subcategories emergence. ………….…………………………….67

List of tables

Table 1. First categories and subcategories emergence……………………………………….…68

Table 2. Emergent second category, subcategories…..……………………………………….…79

List of Figures

Figure 1. Theoretical framework constructs……………………………………………………..24

Figure 2. Emilia’s autobiography word file……………………………………………………...56

Figure 3. Andie’s video about autobiography Source: Edmodo platform. ……………………...57

Figure 4. Mariana’s virtual communities’ presentation………………………………………….58

Figure 5. Almo’s text about his virtual community. …………………………………………….59

Figure 6. Emilia and Natare’s interaction about virtual community...…………………………..60

Figure 7. Hipatia’s virtual community profile. …..……………………………………………...61

Figure 8. Tatiana’s community member interview report. …..………………………………….62

Figure 9. Juanchisti and Emilia’s interaction ………….…………………..………….................73

Figure 10. Clai’s Edmodo Artifact.....…..……………………………………………….….........77

Figure 11 Natara’s Edmodo Artifact.…..……………………………………………….…..........82

Figure 12. Andie & Lau’ interaction. …..……………………………………………….….........83

figure 13. Camila, Edmodo Artifact. …..……………………………………………….….........86


List of Appendices

Appendix A Consent Form Model………...………...…………………….................................104

Appendix B Pedagogical Intervention Timetable………………………………………………105

Appendix C Interview protocols………………………………………………………………..107


Introduction

Classrooms are small communities where people interact and create relationships and

knowledge. They are families; they are those seedbeds who help students construct themselves as

social beings. In turn, students are seeds that would not be able to grow without the individuals

who surround them. Considering that individuals are a valuable asset in communities (Medina et

al., 2019), and that students are already connected with their community members, I have

decided to understand that sense of community my students reconstruct through virtual

environments. In fact, this study is an opportunity to take to the classroom those community

members who are part of the students' lives.

This document is organized as follows. Chapter I presents the statement of the problem.

There, I will discuss three different sources from which this research emerged. This chapter also

states the research question, sub-question, and objectives. Furthermore, it justifies the relevance

of this investigation.

Chapter II frames this study in the light of theory-based and research-based literature.

This chapter proposes three constructs. The first one is engaging in critical place and

community-based pedagogies which points out the relevance of places and the communities as

contexts to teach, learn and act (Deringer, 2017; Gruenewald, 2003; Azano, 2011; Esposito,

2012; Demarest, 2015; Sharkey, 2012; Medina et al., 2019). The second construct is a sense of

community to connect people in which I will intertwine sense of community elements (Chavis &

McMillan, 1986; Rovai, 2002) and love dialogue (Freire, 2000) to understand my students’ sense

of community. Lastly, I will pose the construct critical literacies through virtual environments,

bearing in mind the fact that my students created their critical texts in virtual environments.


Chapter III describes the research design. In doing so, I will argue that it belongs to the

qualitative approach (Croker, 2009; Vasilachis, 2009) and characterize this type of research as a

netnography (Kozinets, 2002; Medina et al., 2019). Likewise, I will thoroughly describe the

instruments that permit me to gather the data, the research setting, and participants. Finally, I will

state some ethical considerations.

Chapter IV presents the instructional design of this study. In this vein, I will explain my

curricular platform which consists of a vision of language as self-expression (Tudor, 2001) and a

vision of learning through technology to construct and collaborate (Vygotsky, 1987; Wang,

2010). Moreover, I will pose my didactic choice: people-based pedagogies. Similarly, I will

describe the teacher's and students' role whose experiences (Hammer, 2007), emotions, values,

and researcher skills are essential during this pedagogical intervention. This chapter also tackles

the syllabus and the three stages of the pedagogical implementation, objectives, samples of

students' work, and pedagogical intervention timetable.

Chapter V encompasses the data analysis and findings. I will explain the process of data

management, the data analysis framework (Charmaz, 2006; Freeman, 1998), and the data

analysis procedure. Furthermore, this chapter describes the process by which the data analysis

gave raise to two categories. The first one is acknowledging the self, community members, and

places from an EFL scenario, related to students' recognition of community members. From this

category, three subcategories emerge. The second category is learning as giving and receiving

from communities. It regards learning experiences, knowledge, and emotions that the students

obtained from their community members, and they were acknowledged as a source for teaching

and learning. Three different subcategories make up this category. In constituting these


categories, students’ voices led me to construct knowledge and draw from theory-based literature

as an interpretive source.

I will finish this research study explaining the conclusions. In addition, I will present the

pedagogical implications in the light of the constructs from the theoretical framework. I will also

state some limitations that students and I had to deal with, which became an opportunity learn,

succeed, and provide some suggestions for further research.


Chapter I

Statement of the Problem

This chapter aims at presenting the problem statement of my research. In this sense, the

research problem identified is that throughout my professional path, I had overlooked the role

students’ communities in their English language learning process. This problem was identified

from three different sources. The first one corresponds to a self-narrative that allowed me to

reflect upon my teaching practice. The second source is from an application of a curricular unit

with two groups during the year 2019. Finally, I had the opportunity to listen to my students’

voices that portrayed their experiences during an exploration of community-based pedagogies

(Sharkey & Clavijo-Olarte, 2012) in the classroom.

Before referring to the problematic situation, I will describe the context of my study. It is

a language institute at a public university; the research population is a group of adult learners

who take a four-hour course on Saturdays. Due to the current global sanitary emergency, this

context has changed. The government is taking some measures to prevent people from getting

infected with the Covid-19. Therefore, teachers are giving their lessons online. We currently

have synchronous sessions through the platform Teams (80 hours), and the students work

independently using the platform MyEnglishLab.

Another important aspect to present prior to the problematization is the locus of

enunciation (Mignolo, 2000) from which I do this research. The voice heard here is from a

female English teacher who works in a language institute at a public university. Said voice

belongs to an alumnus from a private university who is pursuing a master’s degree at a public

university to become a teacher-researcher. At the same time, this locus pertains to a teacher who

is in the path of observing reality and considering it in the daily teaching practice. Indeed, I


intend to see what is hidden from the present because we think it does not exist, which is what

De Sousa Santos (2010) regards as sociologías de las ausencias and “it aims to transform

impossible objects in possible objects, absent objects in present objects” (p. 22). In other words,

community members seem to be absent individuals in my English language classes, and I want to

include them in the teaching and learning process. In this train of thoughts, I endeavor to

understand students’ relationship with people as assets, which sheds light on their sense of

community (Chavis & McMillan, 1986) through virtual environments.

Contextualizing my research setting and participants and stating my locus of enunciation

is the ground for arguing the research problem because my self is embedded here. For instance,

the research problem was firstly encountered thanks to a self-narrative. In accord with Mendieta

(2013), narratives are stories in which teachers make sense of their experiences and knowledge

to understand their teaching practices. In this sense, I started to take an in-depth look at my

teaching practice, describing my role as a teacher and the activities that I proposed to my

students. This introspection unveiled four relevant aspects in my teaching practice. First, I try to

understand how the learning process requires motivation, self-confidence, and commitment.

Another trait to take into account is that my teaching practice departs from my students’ needs.

Before starting a new course, I ask students what aspects of the language they needed to

improve, and I find out how to involve their interests in the lessons.

The introspective exercise in question also led me to see two aspects related to the

students’ context that I have not drawn from. I usually invite my students to make relationships

between their contexts and the topics studied in the English class. Additionally, I am a teacher

who respects and follows institutions' syllabi, and I add different activities to my lessons such as

authentic material. However, by the time this research interest emerged, I had not delved into


students’ acknowledgment and analysis of their communities. As presented before, this later is

what constitutes a genuine problem since communities are a valuable resource to consider in the

classroom bearing in mind that we are social beings who hold multiple affiliations.

The second source of the problem derived from implementing a curricular unit with two

groups in 2019. This pedagogical intervention provided evidence of the relevance of using

community-based pedagogies in the classroom. It is worth mentioning that my interest in critical

literacies (Freire, 1985) and community-based pedagogies emerged from the Masters' program I

am studying. Hence, along my graduate studies, I have realized that critical literacies raise

awareness and propose a change (Freire & Macedo, 1987). In this framework, I implemented a

four-day curricular unit (Illustration 1) to explore community-based pedagogies with two groups.

It revealed students' engagement and awareness of human and social realities surrounding the

classroom. Students did a community mapping1 where they identified different community assets

in their local context.

1 Medina et al. (2019) build on the concept of community asset mapping proposed by Kretzman and Mcknight (1993) who divide the community's assets into physical, associations, institutions, local economy, and individuals. Therefore, when students identify the communities' assets, they become aware of what they have in their communities, and problems would become an opportunity to teach and learn.


Illustration 1 Curricular unit excerpt

Source: My outcomes from the Seminar in Literacies and Social Justice of this master’s program

Students from group 1 presented pictures about the places where they live, work, and

study to identify some social problems in their communities. Some of the problems included

traffic jams, overcrowded buses, pollution, vulnerable Venezuelan people, lack of public safety,

children at risk, expensive food, and street vendors. Regarding this latter, I decided to connect

such a topic in the curricular unit since it was a topic that students reckoned a problem; indeed,

students had the opportunity to interview street vendors and presented their findings to the class.

In summation, the inclusion of that curricular unit in the English classroom let me weigh the

importance of including the community in the language learning process. It also triggered the

desire to continue working on pedagogies that provide a context where students can interact with

the communities' assets.

The third source from which the problem was identified was students’ perceptions about

their processes of working with community members. I had the opportunity to talk with my

students, listen and read their reflections on their experiences working with the community. The


students stated that they enjoyed interacting with the community members; they expressed that

these kinds of activities make them more sensitive toward street vendors and their efforts. In

addition, students’ stereotypes towards people who sell goods on the street were challenged due

to the interview that they carried out. As a result, the learners started to avoid stereotypes and

understand people and their dreams.

By the same token, during the focus group, the students showed a sense of community

(McMillan & Chavis, 1986): "a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members

matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met

through their commitment to be together" (p. 9). They showed traces of caring about the others,

they wished that people would fulfill their needs and there was a feeling of belonging (McMillan

& Chavis, 1986). In this vein, my students started acknowledging the importance of community

members.

On the other hand, students from group 2 wrote some reflections about their experiences

with their communities. Some of the students sent their reflections and sent them at the end of

the course. They decided to interview people from their communities that they wanted to know

more about. They chose a boss, a nurse, a police officer, an activist, a shoeshine, a community

representative, and a team member. The students expressed that these kinds of activities led them

to appreciate the people around them. To illustrate this, I will bring up the following excerpt is

from Nanito’s reflection after his interview with a community member:

Illustration 2 Nanito’s written reflection


"That day, I understood and valued all people that are around me, and since then I have tried to inquire about their values, strengths and how they can make my life more beautiful as it so far" (Nanito, artifact, Nov 29th, 2019, my translation.) Students' reflections after the curricular unit showed community-based pedagogies

relevance, particularly when individuals are deemed as an asset. This kind of pedagogies foster

critical literacies as students read their contexts (Freire, 1987). Furthermore, it seems to be

necessary to involve students with people from their communities to generate a sense of

connectedness. Vygotsky (1978) states those social relationships, tools, and artifacts mediate

human relationships with reality; we are constructing meaning with other people. At the same

time, if we see others as a part of ourselves, we can build meaning, transform, and understand

others, the world, and ourselves. In sum, pedagogies that deem the local play an important role in

the English language practice.

To illustrate this, Sharkey and Clavijo (2012) state that “community-based pedagogy is

an asset-based approach that does not ignore the realities of curriculum standards that teachers

must address but emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and

learning” (p. 2). Additionally, this approach keeps a balance between the curriculum and the

students’ needs, lacks, and wants considering the community (Nation & Macalister, 2010).

Besides, community-based pedagogy is an alternative to involve students in analyzing their

contexts and recognizing the assets in their communities. For example, as presented above,

students start valuing the individual as an essential member of the community.

Nowadays, we are facing a change in education and the way we communicate with each

other. Teachers and students are getting more involved in the new technologies to continue with

the language institutes, schools, and universities’ programs, coping with the current sanitary

situation. Therefore, students and teachers communicate through the internet, and they are active


members of different virtual communities. According to Rheingold (1993), “virtual

communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on

those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal

relationships in cyberspace” (p. 6). As we face this global emergency, virtual communities are

becoming an essential part of our lives.

The three sources discussed above helped me identify the problem of this study, namely,

that even though I had not looked at the community as a resource in the classroom, students can

be engaged and make meaning using pedagogies that involve communities and its members. In

fact, students are part of different communities and the EFL classroom is also a community of

practice, the sense of community is an issue to explore and analyze. When students explore their

communities, in particular the members as a resource, there is a need to understand their

interactions and sense of belonging in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, students

interact through virtual environments and are part of different virtual communities.

In line with the foregoing problematization, the following research questions and

objectives emerge:

Research Question

What sense of community do English students reconstruct when they engage in

community-based pedagogies through virtual environments where individuals are seen as assets?

Sub-question

What understandings do students create about other members of their communities while

they are interacting virtually?


General Objective

To comprehend students’ sense of community when using community-based pedagogies

in virtual environments where individuals are seen as assets.

Specific Objective

To analyze the understandings that students create about community members while they

are interacting virtually.

Justification

In this section, I will explain the relevance of conducting this study. First, I will describe

the meaningfulness of exploring the reconstruction of sense of community in the EFL classroom.

Second, I will discuss how this research contributes to both the investigative processes of the

master’s program where it is done and to specialized literature on this research phenomenon.

Lastly, I will account for the pedagogical potential of this netnography.

While students interact with their communities, they position themselves as active

members. Ramirez and Cerón (2019) propose that communities are a resource through which

students can see themselves as active agents of their school, their communities, and their voices

can be heard. This perspective also applies to virtual communities insofar as they are assets to

consider in the English lessons to teach, learn, and reconstruct a sense of community. I employ

the term reconstruct owing to the fact that students come to the classroom with a sense of

community. Thereby, it is relevant to understand how students reconstruct a sense of community.

This study will invite academics and language teachers the chance to analyze and carry out

research agendas to comprehend students’ relationships which lead to construct a better society.

This research study might also contribute to the master’s program in Applied Linguistics

from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, more precisely, to the research line literacy


process in two languages. This is because there have been studies about community-based

pedagogies in this program in which the researchers have engaged students in recognizing all the

communities' assets (Hernández, 2016; Nieto, 2019; Gutiérrez, 2020). However, they have not

gone in-depth in looking at people as an asset, nor have they stressed a sense of community in

virtual environments.

Similarly, this study will contribute to the specialized literature in Colombia and the

world. There is scarce literature on how students reconstruct a sense of community while they

are engaged in community-based pedagogies through virtual environments. There are studies on

how communities contribute to the construction of the sense of community. For instance, Gómez

and Cortés-Jaramillo (2019) studied the sense of community construction through community

inquiry and implementing a negotiated syllabus. They find out that it is necessary to listen to

students’ voices in the learning process and combine theory and practice. Moreover, they point

out that the communicative approach helps students to improve their confidence. Likewise, they

state that students acquire some of the premises of community-based pedagogies to build a

particular grade of sense of community. However, in this study, the researchers do not go in-

depth into students’ sense of community construction and they do not state how the sense of

community in students

Furthermore, there are research studies on the sense of community on virtual language

environments. For instance, Peterson et al. (2008) carry out a study where they work with a

supporting French course at university. Part of the students travel where the language is spoken,

and they have contact with the local communities. Therefore, the researchers aim to foster a

collaborative learning process through a blog among the students regardless of location. This

study shows that blogs are a tool to strengthen constructed communities rather than for new ones.


Still, researchers do not study the sense of community reconstruction in English language lessons

through community-based pedagogies. Therefore, this study would strengthen the theory in

English language learning, local communities, and students’ community reconstruction through

virtual environments.

At the pedagogical level, this study will inform teachers’ didactics because working with

a community sets a resource to learn and teach (Sharkey & Clavijo, 2012). In this vein, this

study's main contribution is that virtual communities also allow learners to interact with assets of

the community, specifically, individuals. Furthermore, reading this paper, teachers will recognize

the importance of knowing the communities of which students are part; consequently, teachers

may be able to understand and know their students better. Thus, they will improve their teaching

practices, by involving their students' needs, likes, and wants. In short, this investigation will

benefit how we teach and approach our students. Students and teachers will interact with

communities' assets and enrich the English language classes.

In sum, this study is meaningful for English language educational practices in three

aspects. First, it contributes to community recognition regardless if it is virtual or face-to-face.

Second, it informs students’ sense of community through virtual environments. Finally, it invites

teachers to deem people as an asset.

The following chapter states the theoretical framework that supports this research study. I

will propose three constructs that interwoven relevant concepts which shed light on my research

problem.


Chapter II

Theoretical Framework

This netnography seeks to comprehend students’ sense of community when using

community-based pedagogies in virtual environments where individuals are seen as assets. In

this chapter, I will state the theoretical framework of this research study through three constructs.

Engaged in critical place and community-based pedagogies is the first construct that considers

place-based and community-based pedagogies with a critical perspective. These pedagogies

involve members who interact in places and communities. Therefore, sense of community to

connect people, the second construct, unveils students’ knowledge construction and

relationships. Finally, in the third construct, critical literacies through virtual environments, I

present how students configure their reading and writing process regarding themselves and

others as assets online. Figure 2 illustrates how these constructs serve the general objective of

this study.

Figure 1

Theoretical framework constructs

Source: Own elaboration


Engaging in place-and community-based pedagogies

When teachers draw from places and communities in their lessons, students’ context

becomes relevant and the interplay between students and teachers is enhanced. These contexts

provide students with the possibility to tackle real situations and include valuable people of their

places and communities. Therefore, they learn from their immediate contexts and might engage

in social change. Freire (1970, 1972, 1978, 1985 as cited in Kincheloe et al., 2017) states that

critical teachers listen to their students, and in that dialogue, they realize the problems students

face in their communities. Teachers could guide and help students to find possible solutions. This

is why engaging in critical place- and community-based pedagogies is an essential construct for

my theoretical framework.

Places provide people with the opportunity to have a context where they can exist and

act. In this light, Gruenewald (2003b) manifests that critical pedagogy and critical pedagogy of

place identify spaces as the context where people perform activities and are aware of certain

situations. Besides, places promote critical consciousness and the possibility to read the world

before the word (Freire & Macedo, 1987). Students belong to particular environments, and from

the very beginning, they start analyzing and reading what surrounds them. Gruenewald (2003b)

highlight that reading the world enables students and teachers to read those places they know and

see them as political texts. Therefore, they can be engaged in reflection and action. It means that

those places that students and teachers read and belong provide them with the possibility to make

a social change.

In the same line of thought, Azano (2011) states that critical pedagogy of place “allows

students to see a place, its norms, limits, and possibilities” (p. 10). In other words, it permits one


to acknowledge each place as it is, understand that people have to follow some rules and face

some constraints in those places. Moreover, critical pedagogy of place invites students and

teachers to recognize and value places and communities' possibilities, avoiding a deficit

perspective. The challenges that students face inside those places and communities are sources to

explore and learn. A critical pedagogy of place provides students, teachers, and communities the

opportunity to have a more comprehensive view of the places they inhabit and use those contexts

to teach, learn, and grow. By critical I refer to a capacity to see the power relations (Freire, 2000)

and boost empowerment that we as teachers should promote in our students.

Place-based education connects students with their places and communities with a critical

view. Azano (2011) recognizes the importance of including critical pedagogy when we are

working with place-based education. Both authors Azano (2011) and Gruenewald (2003)

consider it relevant to see a place with a critical perspective to raise students’ critical

consciousness (Freire, n.d. as cited in Azano, 2011, p. 2). Additionally, as critical pedagogy of

place promotes critical consciousness on students, they can have an active role in constructing

society.

People are not only configured by the places they inhabit but also by their relationships.

Esposito (2012) explains that the places where we live and the communities we belong to shape

us as human beings. It means that places and communities play a vital role in students’

development since they are their immediate context. In accordance with this author, those places

are important in how students and teachers perceive and understand the world. Along this line,

Gruenewald (2003a) explains that “places make us: as occupants of particular places with

particular attributes, our identity, and our possibilities are shaped” (p. 621). Places are the setting

where students see, perceive, and understand themselves and what and who they are with.


Students are motivated towards the learning process when teachers value their needs,

lacks and wants (Nation & Macalister, 2010). In this case, students’ communities are relevant in

the learning process. Esposito (2012) points out that “place-based education engages students in

authentic learning” (p. 71), and students and teachers work with the places and the communities

in which they are interested. Furthermore, place-based education advocates for a real context

where students can interact with real issues that their places and communities offer. Indeed,

learning a language is not a decontextualized activity but a complex one that requires contexts

and issues with which students could interact. An example of this is Esposito’s (2012) research

in which he encourages students to write about their places and communities. This researcher

highlights that “community writing offers students a more dynamic engagement with the

audience, purpose, and context” (p. 73). In conclusion, places and communities are a resource of

motivation that permits students to engage in their contexts and tackle real situations. Therefore,

classrooms become the setting point to have a real dialogue with one another to construct

knowledge.

Each school has specific contexts, students, and teachers; therefore, they have different

interests, they face different challenges, and they have a different curriculum. Smith and Sobel

(2010) affirm that place- and community-based education consider schools and communities'

uniqueness, their social issues, and particularities. It is worthy to understand the singularity in

communities and schools. In doing so, we as teachers can tackle important issues that students

are coping within those places.

Furthermore, according to Smith and Sobel (2010), teachers who work with place-based

education do not rely on textbooks or workbooks, but they design their plans. This is a relevant

point to make here since books rarely include the students' local context and their interests. In


reality, "books become relevant when they address students' needs and wants in a particular

pedagogic setting" (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 255). Place-based education allows teachers to

work on what is relevant for students to take those issues and interests from their immediate

contexts to their classroom.

On the other hand, Deringer (2017) asserts that the term place-based education is not

new since it comes from different academics such as John Dewey, Pablo Freire, Gregory Smith,

David and Sobel, and David Gruenewald. Furthermore, the author presents some themes that

place-based education programs encompass. The first one has to do with critical thinking and

problem-posing education. Places’ issues become a source for students to ask questions and find

solutions. This means that students develop a sense of agency. The classroom is the setting

where students find solutions to tackle real situations in their communities. Therefore, they start

being active members of society.

Another theme Deringer (2017) presents is related to engagement through community

connection; through the community students access information by getting this from their

contexts. At the same time, there is a connection between “school and community partnership”

(p. 4). The third one is environmental justice; it is necessary to discuss the environment and its

implications in the natural environment. When students are aware of nature, respect it, and feel

part of it, teachers guarantee that students value life in all its forms and manners. Social justice is

another theme in which there is an awareness in students and teachers to understand others’

suffering due to a lack of justice. The English language classroom becomes the place to reflect

on values such as equity and empathy. Therefore, students see others with more compassion and

understanding (Deringer, 2017). This theme would provide students to recognize inequities and

work against them in their daily lives.


The foregoing discussion evidences that Gruenewald (2003), Azano (2011), and Deringer

(2017) agree that place-based education is a platform to foster critical pedagogy. Students reflect

on their communities and are aware of issues such as inequity and poverty. Similarly, critical

pedagogy of place positions students to see places as they are, and recognize their advantages

and disadvantages, and value their possibilities. Furthermore, critical pedagogy of place

encourages students, teachers, and community members to have critical consciousness. They

start reading places and communities as a political text (Gruenewald, 2003).

From my perspective, place-based education locates students and teachers in a particular

context where they can have an active and valuable role in the places they inhabit. In addition,

students and teachers can recognize places as they are (i.e., instead of perceiving constraints,

they visualize possibilities). Besides, since places shape us (Esposito, 2012), we belong to those

places, and we construct meaning there all time. Furthermore, places provide us with a real

context, and we do not need to consider textbooks (Smith & Sobel 2010), but we can take

situations and experiences from a real context. Place-based education allows students, teachers,

parents, and the school community to analyze their places and understand their main

particularities. When teachers are involved with place-based education, they make room for local

issues and possibilities in the curriculum.

In this study, students acknowledge people as a resource in the community. (Demarest,

2015) suggests that places offer questions that inform us. She proposes questions such as “who

am I? Where do I come from? Or what is my relationship with others and the community in

which I live? These kinds of questions can foster self-awareness” (p. 8). Consequently, place-

based education provides us with the opportunity to reflect on places but also on people. It also


leads to understand how students interact with those members of their community and create

bonds with them.

Physical environments are implied when we talk about place and community-based

education. However, this investigation also conceives place-based education as the relationship

between members and their interactions in those places. Echoing Demarest’s (2015) question

“what is my relationship with others and the community in which I live?” (p. 8), this study

acknowledges whom students interact with and how they do it. More precisely, it is intended to

comprehend the sense of community they reconstruct when they are engaged in place-and

community-based pedagogies.

As Kalman (2000) affirms, a community is not just a geographical space, but the people

interacting there. It has to do with relationships among people and a community's assets (Medina

et al., 2019). These authors present the concept of community asset mapping proposed by

Kretzmann and Mcknight (1993) who divide the community's assets into physical associations,

institutions, local economy, and individuals. As Medina et al. (2019) propose, a community is

the way that people interact with those assets. As for this study, I focus on individuals as assets.

Students conceive themselves and others as texts to read, write, understand, and a source of

learning and experiences. At the same time, I explore students' interactions in the classroom and

with people from their virtual communities and the way they reconstruct a sense of community.

On the other hand, "community-based pedagogies do not ignore the realities of

curriculum standards that teachers must address but emphasizes local knowledge and resources

as a starting point for teaching and learning" (Sharkey, 2012, p.11). Teachers belong to

institutions where they have to follow a specific curriculum, community-based pedagogies give

teachers hope to make students interact with their places and communities. As Kalman (2000)


suggests it, students consolidate their knowledge through participation and interaction with their

communities. In summation, community-based pedagogies do not overlook the curriculum and

students to interact with the community's assets.

Following the previous considerations, Rincón and Clavijo (2019) posit that communities

are a rich resource for students to approach and analyze their contexts. These authors esteem that

teachers play an essential role in the inquiry process by guiding students and identifying their

communities' relevant aspects. Furthermore, the dialogue among teachers and students would

help to unveil students' relevant issues (Freire, 2000). Rincón and Clavijo's (2019) study provides

us with meaningful insights about community-based pedagogies and inquiry in the local context

of EFL. It addresses critical pedagogy views to teach and learn. Students are invited to

investigate their barrios and identify social and cultural challenges to act and become part of

awareness raising and doing. Teachers and students perform an active role in their communities

and are agents of change to transform their lives and their communities.

In this train of thoughts, Lastra et al. (2018) affirm that community-based pedagogies

address aspects that community members share daily, for instance, their knowledge, beliefs, and

perceptions. As mentioned before, through interaction, people construct how they see the world.

Therefore, when teachers include community-based pedagogies in their curriculum, they include

what community members and students possess. Students have access to that knowledge, and the

interaction among members enables them to construct meaning.

From my perspective, community-based pedagogies provide teachers and students with a

broader panorama to perceive learning and the teaching process as real and valuable to grow as

human beings. In this modern society, students do not just belong to their neighborhoods; they

interact with different groups of people that become their communities. For example, they are


members of sports teams, church, educational institutions, or interests’ groups with whom they

share their hobbies, time, and lives. Indeed, those communities could be virtual as well. That is

why communities allow students to interact in different scenarios, learn, create new meaning and

be better human beings.

Because we are social beings, and we construct ourselves interacting with others, I will

discuss the construct sense of community to connect people in the next section. In these

challenging times, where every human being faces significant life changes, classrooms should be

places full of loving-kindness, compassion, and love. As discussed later, those places should

encourage values such as partnership (Deringer, 2017), friendship, and fraternity.

A sense of community to connect people

This section tackles the central concept of sense of community. It is important because

the general aim of this research is to understand students' sense of community reconstruction.

The discussion of this concept is underpinned by a psychological perspective (Chavis &

McMillan, 1986) and by an educational viewpoint (Rovai, 2002). Hereafter, I will interweave

both perspectives to pose the construct that titles this section.

The term sense of community was first used in psychology to understand how members

of different groups feel regarding their community (Chavis & McMillan, 1986). This term was

then used to analyze how teachers could foster a sense of community in learning communities

(Nieto & Suzanne, 2006). Moreover, Gusfield (1975 as cited in Chavis & McMillan, 1986)

presents community from two dimensions. On the one hand, from the territorial and geographical

perspective, i.e., physical spaces are communities. On the other hand, the community is also

relational, which does not consider places as communities, since they are human relationships.

Nowadays, because of the pandemic we are not allowed to interact in places that we usually label


as communities (schools, universities, workplaces, neighborhoods or cities). Consequently, we

can visualize the term community from these angles and recognize that a community is more

than a place.

A community refers to people who interact, share, learn, create, exchange knowledge,

and support each other. According to Chavis and MacMillan (1986), sense of community is “a

feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one and other and to

the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be

together” (p. 9). In other words, a sense of community is to feel part of a group, perceive that

each member is essential, and share values such as respect, love, empathy, and compassion.

Therefore, members of the group expect they will achieve their goals by sharing and interacting

with others.

Chavis and MacMillan (1986) define sense of community by conceptualizing four

elements. The first one is membership; it is a feeling of belonging and to be part of a particular

group, which might result in excluding practices. This concept has a relationship with Rovai

(2002), who studies the sense of community at a distance. He presents this element as spirit.

Membership and spirit are elements related to a sense of belonging to a group, the feeling to be

part of it. Gibbs (1995, as cited in Rovai, 2002) posits that students need to connect in the

classroom community; otherwise, they could feel “loneliness, low self-esteem, low motivation to

learn” (p. 4), and it would be difficult for them to be successful in the learning context. This

connection supports the idea that membership and spirit are elements of a sense of community.

They make students be part of a group, develop a sense of belonging, and feel motivated to

overcome difficulties in classroom contexts and life. When students are part of a group, they

develop values and grow as human beings.


The second element to define sense of community is influence. Chavis and MacMillan

(1986) indicate that members need to feel that they have an impact on what the group does. The

authors also state that members who care about other members’ values, needs, and opinions tend

to influence the group. This element is also related to trust Rovai (2002) to define the classroom

community. It means that the individual believes in what the members of the group express and

in the genuine motivation to help others succeed in their learning process. Hence, influence and

trust are elements related to those ties that community members construct with healthy

relationships.

Chavis and MacMillan (1986) also posit the concept of integration and fulfillment of

needs. It has to do with what members receive for being part of a group or community. These

authors manifest that “people are attracted to others whose skills or competence can benefit them

in some way” (p. 13). This element is very similar to what Rovai (2002) calls common

expectations which are another element of the classroom community. Students expect to succeed,

in this case, at learning. Learners feel that their active participation in the community allows

them to satisfy their educational needs.

Finally, Chavis and MacMillan (1986) propose the element shared emotional connection.

They affirm that each member has their life history, and not all the members need to live and

experience it. However, it is necessary that the group members feel identified with those histories

to strengthen their bonds. This element also has a relationship with what Rovai (2002) names

interaction to develop a community sense. This author remarks the importance of quality instead

of quantity of interaction. Through those interactions, members share their interests, ideologies,

feelings, values, and life experiences.


Sense of community is defined in this study an opportunity to understand students'

connection among members in the classroom and other communities. Students, teachers, and

community members create ties that lead to healthy relationships and "love dialogue" (Freire,

2000). Thereby, sense of community permeates the relations students have in and out of the

English lesson.

This study aims to include the community as a resource in the classroom to teach, learn,

and grow, these purposes being intersected by critical literacy. On account of the fact that a

community is a resource to promote critical literacy (Medina et al., 2019), students are expected

to read and write about their context critically. As individuals are the main source to learn, their

life experiences opinions, interests become texts that students interpret, share, and analyze during

the pedagogical intervention. Hence, students construct their critical texts about themselves and

others. In this line, the next section introduces the concept of critical literacies as a pedagogical

perspective in this theoretical framework.

Critical literacy through virtual environments

Students are engaged in a critical perspective of what they read and write to question the

world when they are aware of world social inequities. According to Freire (1985), “reading

words, and writing them, must come from the dynamic movement of reading the world” (p. 19).

This supports the idea that context is what shapes the reader. Thus, students start reading the

elements that surround them and construct meaning through interactions. As the author states, we

start reading the world before the word. This means that reading is not just an act of decoding a

written message but also of being aware of the elements immersed in our environments in which

curiosity is the starting point for critical reading. In sum, that connection and willingness to

understand the world is what sparks critical reading and writing.


In this line of thought, Dooley and Luke (2011) propose that “texts […] operate in an

identifiable social, cultural and political context. The aim is to develop learners capable of

critiquing and making text in their cultural and community interests” (p. 1, my edition). One

could say that the role of the teacher should be to engage students in a critical perspective, i.e.,

approaching texts and encouraging them to analyze thoroughly what they read and write, making

text part of their lives. In this sense, Luke (2000) points out that:

Critical literacy focuses on teaching and learning how texts work, understanding and re-

mediating what texts attempt to do in the world and to people, and moving students

towards active "position-takings" with texts to critique and reconstruct the social fields in

which they live and work (p. 7).

The foregoing implies that in critical learning practices, teachers and students analyze

texts and understand them in detail. They assume a critical position toward their purpose so that

students and teachers take “a coherent, distant and differentiate position which allows them to

read a text critically” (van Dijk, 2000). Following one local study in community-based

pedagogies, Nieto (n.d., as cited in Comber, 2018) asserts that communities are text for students

to read, I assert that people are also texts to analyze, recognize, value, and understand. Therefore,

community members are also assets to read critically.

In accord with Luke (2000), “when we place literacy in the visible domains of language

and social life, we can redefine the project of critical literacy as one of access and equity” (p.

14). As noted here, the art of reading and writing critically positions students in their contexts,

and they can reflect as active members of a society they constitute. In this vein, critical literacy

involves the politics of poverty (Comber, 2015), i.e., different types of conditions for certain

people, temporalities, and spaces. These, in turn, enact the canonical inequities because of class.


In short, critical literacies lead us to unveil social issues such as access, equity, and poverty,

while placing social justice in their agendas.

Schools and researchers could foster social justice in their agendas to empower students

towards a more fair and equal society. Dooley and Luke (2011) indicate that “the approach to

critical TESOL and literacy are activist interventions by students and teachers, teacher educators,

scholars, and researchers to disrupt and redress specific conditions of educational inequality,

political disenfranchisement, linguistic and cultural marginalization, social and economic

injustice” (p. 10). The immediate context provides students with the opportunity to reflect on

social and cultural aspects and to learn and interact with them.

Teachers used to see learners as passive receivers. Yet, critical literacies foster inquiry on

students and allow them to be informed about their contexts and their role as society members.

Freire and Macedo (1987) state that readers are seen as objects when teachers do not consider the

“social and political dimension” from the practice of reading (p. 145). Therefore, critical

literacies raise awareness and propose a change. According to these authors, literacy is not a

mere activity of decoding, but as a social practice in which readers and writers participate

actively in their contexts. This suggests that reading and writing are social and political acts;

students make their voices heard; they are interacting with the world that surrounds them.

Along these lines, Kalman (2000) affirms that the acts of reading a writing permit people

to be part of “the social world” (p. 8). Put it simple, literacy is constructed with the community

and the way people read and write with others. Reading and writing are social practices that lead

students to construct their voices. Freire and Macedo (1987) and Kalman (2000) claim that

critical literacies make students aware of the social and cultural problems and encourage them to

be active agents and propose changes. These authors add a political and social view of the


readers to interpret texts and inquire about these topics to foster critical consciousness.

Kalman (2000) carries out a study that analyses the written language in Mixquic, a town

in Mexico. She wants to explore women's written language practices as well as to understand the

relationship between their knowledge and the social world, written usage language to

communicative in different contexts. Findings reveal that there is a relationship between written

and oral language. Through oral interaction around a written text, people can build paths to

written culture. Moreover, students consolidate reading and writing practices as long as they

participate and use them in real contexts.

On the other hand, critical literacies are a human act, emotions and feelings are part of

them. Freire (2000) points out that "we must never provide people with programs which have

little or nothing to do with their own preoccupations, doubts, hopes and fears, programs which at

times, in fact, increase the fears of the oppressed consciousness" (p. 96). The author affirms that

teachers should be aware of students' vision of the world. In this light, the curriculum that

institutions propose need to be relevant for pupils. It should enable students to have a critical

view that empowers them to be aware and work against social injustice. In other words, teachers

need to be aware of their students' particularities (Kumaravadivelu, 2003) to build curricula that

include and at the same time make students conscious about the power relationships in which

they are immersed.

Along this line of thought, Janks et al. (2017) claims that “critical literacy practitioners

engage with the dialectic of dominations and emancipation, which requires an understanding of

power as discursive and material” (p. 186). This implies that reading and writing, students could

not only be aware of relations of power but also take a position toward them. Critical literacy

enables learners to have an active role in the world they live in.


Critical literacies make students aware of their social, political, and cultural contexts

(Freire and Macedo, 1987). These kinds of literacies foster participation in the world,

considering the social and political dimensions of reading practice (Kalman, 2000). Besides,

reading and writing critically invite students to understand what a text attempts to do and be

aware of power relations (Kumaravadivelu, 2003). In doing so, teachers and students are

responsible for using the textual practice for social analysis and transformation. Critical literacies

foster inquiry on how students read, write, perceive their world, and interact with it. In this way,

students recognize and inquire about issues that affect them, such as inequity, poverty, and

stratification in education. They are enabled to take a position towards oppression.

From my perspective, engaging students in critical literacies also encourages them to

recognize themselves and the other. According to Benveniste (n.d., as cited in Belsey, 1980), “it

is language which provides the possibility of subjectivity” (p. 49), i.e., human communication

permits people to see themselves as individual subjects. Additionally, Belsey (1980) points out

that differentiation of the I and the non-I, i.e., the you, establishes a recognition about the self. It

means the I cannot exist without the you. Therefore, there is a construction of the self through the

dialogue with the others. Being aware of community members would foster students to put

themselves in others' shoes, read the world that others have to face, and be compassionate

towards what they live, feel, and dream. Reading the world also means reading the other and

somehow understanding, respecting, believing, and valuing their uniqueness and humanity.

This research study aims to understand students' sense of community reconstruction when

they are engaged in community-based pedagogies, these latter being a means to foster critical

literacies (Medina et al., 2019; Kalman, 2000; Luke, 2000). This research enterprise has been

challenged by the current pandemic, though. Now, my students' critical literacy process take


place online, i.e., the virtual communities that students belong, and the English course itself are

the context in which they create their written and oral texts. What does this challenge imply?

Chui et al. (2006) state that “virtual communities are online social networks in which

people with common interests, goals, or practices interact to share information and knowledge,

and engage in social interactions” (p. 1873). In this framework, I place my current classroom as a

virtual community or community of practice; my students belong to a group of people whose

interest is to learn English. At the same time, they belong to other communities of practice that

became virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, those scenarios are the target point

to develop critical literacies on students. According to Wenger (2001), “all of us belong to

communities of practice; our family, job, students at school, a music band, they are part of our

daily lives” (Wenger, 2001, p. 23). Thus, people learn and position themselves as active

community members when they are part of those groups. This can lead students to interact with

their peers and other people from their community to reconstruct a sense of community.

In the light of the above-mentioned, Bickel et al. (2013) carry out a study to engage

students in self-reflection, collaborative discussion with peers, and civic engagement with their

home communities. They approach students through a content-based online English course

where they negotiate and construct concepts such as identity, community, culture, and social

change. This study illuminates how teachers could mediate an online English course, bearing in

mind the community that students belong.

I consider that this pandemic is an opportunity to explore other forms of writing and

reading critically online. Virtual communities are rich sources that enables students to develop

their critical literacies by exploring themselves and their community members. Consequently, it

is time to communicate through transformed communities and literacies.


This chapter aimed at presenting the theoretical constructs that guide the development of

this study. The discussion proposed here will serve as a toolkit for comprehending how my

students reconstruct sense of community when using community-based pedagogies in virtual

environments where individuals are seen as assets. The employment of this toolkit will give raise

to data analysis procedures as presented in Chapter V.


Chapter III

Research Design

In this chapter, I propose the research design that I followed for my research study, which

is guided by the question: What sense of community do English students reconstruct when they

are engaged in community-based pedagogies through virtual environments where individuals are

seen as assets? First, I will state the type of study that I used, which is a qualitative netnographic

approach. Afterward, I will present the instruments (field notes, artifacts, and interviews) to

collect my data and the piloting stage. There is also an explanation of the context where I

conducted my research study and the participants. Finally, I state some ethical considerations.

Type of Study

This research study is framed in a qualitative approach. According to Croker (2009),

qualitative studies focus on the social world; researchers try to understand how participants

interact and what is happening in specific settings. McMillan and Schumacher (2005) agree with

Croker (2009) when they state that qualitative research allows to study people in their settings

and understand participants' perceptions, thoughts, and opinions. In this scholarship, Vasilachis

(2009) explains that qualitative research focuses on people; therefore, participants are essential in

the inquiry process.

Netnography is the type of design that I used for my research study. This term comes

from ethnography; Creswell (2014) states that ethnography examines how members of a single

culture interact. According to Kozinets (2002, p.62), “netnography, or ethnography on the

internet, is a new qualitative research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques

to study the cultures and communities that are emerging through computer-mediated

communications”. Moreover, this type of study has been explored in the EFL classroom (Medina


et al., 2019). Due to the global issue that humanity is facing, the pandemic, I made some

important decisions. For example, the pedagogical intervention that I applied, and the

instruments used to collect the data via the internet. Therefore, netnography is the qualitative

research design that helped me to study my group of students as an online community.

Creswell (2018) presents four philosophical assumptions that researchers usually take

with them when they start a research study. He affirms that the researcher who carries out

qualitative research needs to be close to the participants since people's subjective experiences

allow the researcher to understand knowledge. Even though during this research, I did not meet

my participants face to face, I could know them through my pedagogical intervention and the

different instruments I used to conduct this research. That is why I consider participants valuable

members with whom I construct knowledge in this research.

According to Kozinets (2010), when researchers gather data using netnography, they

need to be connected and engaged with community members, instead of being immersed on the

web. There should be a human connection and interaction among the members, participants, and

the researcher. For this study, I used instruments that demanded members’ interaction. For this

reason, I collected field notes from class observations, students’ artifacts, and two group

interviews (See Appendix C).

Field Notes

Through field notes, I gathered the students class interactions for the data in this research

study. Lankshear and Knobel (2004) point out that the written record of observations are those

field notes that we take from what is happening in our lessons. Kozinets (2002; 2010) defines

field notes in netnography as an instrument that allows researchers to gather what they observe

within the community, its members, and their interactions. Moreover, this instrument permits


collecting information as conditions, personal emotions, the researcher’s participation, and sense

of membership. My field notes were obtained from computer-mediated communications.

According to Freeman (1998), “class observations or field notes are notes taken by the

teacher either as a participant (participant observer) or as an observer in another teacher’s

classroom (non-participant observer)” (p. 209). Therefore, my role was as a participant-observer,

since I was the teacher-researcher in that setting. I observed 11 sessions in total, and they were

semi-structured observations. I recorded the sessions and went back to the video recordings to

check for relevant information not gathered during the observation. Even though the sessions'

recordings were not from a physical environment but through video meetings, these video

recordings allowed me to complement the field notes that I took from each session.

Students’ Artifacts

Artifacts created by my students depict how they reconstruct a sense of community.

According to Lankshear and Knobel (2004), artifacts are the material that students create for

their classes. The students created different artifacts such as emails, videos with their

autobiographies, written reports, and PowerPoint presentations. Before the students created their

artifacts, I provided them with the guidelines to construct them. Each artifact aimed to find traces

of a sense of community on my students. I designed a grill to analyze each artefact, such as

videos and PowerPoint presentations. Following the netnographic approach, Kozinets (2010)

states that the researcher and the participants create elicited data through communal interaction.

During the pedagogical intervention, my students produced and shared their artifacts, and the

members of the group commented on them; it was constant interaction. Artifacts were a vital

instrument to collect data.

Group Interviews


Interviews were another instrument that I used in my research study (See appendix C).

Patton (1990, as cited in Freeman, 1998) explains that through interviews, the researcher gathers

information in an oral exchange with the participant; these interviews can be structured and

unstructured. Cohen et al. (2007) add that semi-structured qualitative interviews for individuals

and groups help the researcher collect data such as values, beliefs, problems, and assumptions.

Considering that I studied a group of EFL students’ reconstructing their sense of community, and

it is a complex phenomenon, I decided to conduct two semi-structured interviews. Cohen et al.

(2007) present the concept of an internet-based interview, in which participants communicate

through the Internet by a platform and have synchronous communication. Group interviews

permitted me to listen to my students’ ideas, perceptions, and meanings. Therefore, this

instrument helped me understand them better, analyze and interpret what they expressed.

I carried out the internet-based interviews with my students through the Teams platform,

which we use for our lessons. I did two semi-structured, internet-based groups interviews. The

first one had three main objectives and thirteen questions. The first interview was to identify

students’ perceptions about the activities we did during the early stage of the research. The

second interview was to identify traces of students’ sense of community. The questions were

constructed during the interview. It determined students’ ideas about how they make strong

bonds with the community members. It aimed at understanding students’ experiences when

working with members of their virtual communities.

Piloting Stage

Before the data collection, I piloted the instruments. The first stage was to create and

organize the topics for the curricular unit that I applied with my students. Thus, this preliminary

version of the topics had an expert validation in the research seminar from the Masters' Program


in Applied Linguistics in TEFL at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. I had the

opportunity to pilot some of the curricular unit's activities with my students and a group

interview in the year 2019 and the first semester of 2020. That piloting stage helped me to adjust

some details before using the instruments with my participants. For example, I became more

aware of the importance of the guidelines that I provided to my students to construct the artifacts.

Besides, I adjusted some interviews' questions to collect more relevant data regarding the

research question of this study. An expert checked the interview questions to create the artifacts

and the questions and objectives for the group interviews. The piloting process allowed me to

focus on this study's research question and make improvements to the instruments.

Setting

The institution where I carried out this study is a language institute of a public university

with branches in the north of Bogota. However, during the intervention, the lessons were given

through the internet due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The institution's mission is to contribute to

the development of the country and strengthen the Colombian educational system. It offers

Italian, French, German courses and there is a high demand for English courses. They are

available for children, teenagers, and adults. The institution follows a communicative approach

as a methodology. Moreover, teachers use the book Speak out from Pearson publisher. Besides

that, the institution includes a platform called MyEnglishLab where students practice the topics

presented in the book. The institution offers courses from Monday to Friday, and on Saturdays,

there are bi-monthly and semester courses. Those are some characteristics of the institutions

where this research study took place.

Sampling Technique and Participants


I used purposeful sampling, Merriam and Tisdell (2016) state that this sampling

technique enables the researcher to select participants to learn, discover, and understand the

inquiry issue. As a researcher, I wanted to understand how my students reconstruct a sense of

community in virtual environments. To make this possible, I invited my group of students from

intermediate II from the language institute to participate in this study.

The students who took part in this study were twenty-two students, six males, and sixteen

females. Their ages vary from 19 to 50 years old. The 27.7% of the students belonged to the 18

to 20 group age. The 18.2% were part of the group whose age was from 21 to 25 years old. 4.5%

were from 26 to 30 years old. The 27.3% were from 36 to 40 years old. The 18.2% belonged to

the group aged from 41 to 45 years old. Finally, 9.5% of the students were from 46 to 50 years

old. Moreover, the highest degree of education that my students had completed was also

heterogeneous. There was a high school student, ten out of twenty-two students achieved a high

school degree or equivalent; the others were doing their undergraduate studies. In addition, there

was a technologist. Four students did their bachelor’s degrees. Six out of ten did their masters’

studies, and two students completed their doctorate programs. Their occupations also vary; six

students were educators, and six were undergraduate students. Three students were engineers,

and two accountants. There were a high school student, a businesswoman-chef, a housewife, and

one student who worked in foreign trade. These features evidence that the group was

heterogeneous.

Ethical Considerations

As a teacher-researcher, I followed some ethical considerations during the whole

research. Creswell (2014) highlights that we need to consider ethical issues "at the beginning of

the study, during the data collection and data analysis, and in reporting, sharing, and storing the


data" (p.132). Before starting my research study, I informed my participants about the benefits of

the study. In the beginning, the language institute approved my pedagogical intervention. After

that, I let the participants know the study's purpose by telling them what the research was about,

and I obtained consent from them (See Appendix A). Twelve sent a signed letter, and eleven

agreed through a survey to participate in the study with the same conditions agreed and

discussed.

Teacher’s and students’ roles were also under specific ethical considerations. First, the

students knew that they could stop being part of the research study. Second, the relationships

among the participants and I, the researcher, during this study were based on human values; the

students and I commented, gave their opinions, suggestions, and asked their questions with

respect, kindness, and empathy. Finally, when I analyzed the data, I respected the privacy and

anonymity of my students, some of them chose a pseudonym, and I gave one to the others.

During the reporting, sharing, and storing of data, I avoided showing information that would

have harmed my participants.

The next chapter presents the instructional design; the curricular platform, my didactic

choice, the teacher's and students' role, the syllabus and the three stages of the pedagogical

implementation.


Chapter IV

Instructional Design

This chapter presents the pedagogical intervention that was carried out during this

research. It states the vision of language as self-expression and vision of learning, framed with

interactionism and collaborative approach. Afterward, I will present my didactic choice, which I

called people-based pedagogies. Moreover, I show the type of syllabus and lesson plan.

This pedagogical intervention allowed me, as teacher, and the students to be aware of

community members' importance as whole human beings. Students' activities were built through

the dialogue with their classmates, taking their own and their community members' life stories,

experiences, interests, emotions, and knowledge. Even though the interactions among students

and I were online, there was an opportunity to cross barriers and show ourselves as human

beings, holders of knowledge, and emotions.

Furthermore, the educational setting where I carried out this research was a language

institute from a public university mentioned in chapters I and III. They were 22 students in total;

16 females and six males (Chapter V).

Vision of Language

The language institution where this pedagogical intervention took place conceives

language as a tool considering the communicative approach. However, during this pedagogical

intervention, the students and I transformed this vision of language. According to Tudor (2001),

“language is the medium by which we build up personal relationships, express our emotions and

aspirations, and explore our interests” (p. 64). To be involved in this pedagogical intervention

permitted me to see language as self-expression (Tudor, 2001); students constructed

communities through their voices, comments, opinions, and artifacts, which became part of their


repertoire to participate in the classroom and show themselves as human beings who belong to

different communities.

On the other hand, Freire and Macedo (1987) state that language use responds to realities.

The students are of different ages and educational backgrounds. Hence, how students saw life

and expressed their feelings had a relationship with their experiences, perceptions, and

knowledge. Consequently, the vision of language in this research is seen as self-expression and a

means to construct realities. Students interacted synchronously and asynchronously. They were

able to acknowledge, realize, and be aware of the communities they belong to and the

community members they construct meaning.

Vision of Learning

I consider that learning is a process where collaboration and interaction play an essential

role in knowledge construction. Vygotsky (1987) states that learning is created through

interaction. Having the opportunity to exchange ideas, information, perceptions, and knowledge

with peers, permitted students to broaden their vision about the world. Besides, they constructed

knowledge and relationships. This pedagogical intervention aimed to understand students’ sense

of community in virtual environments. Therefore, I invited the students to interact through

written and oral comments on two platforms. According to Wang (2010), technologies provide

access to communication and collaboration. There is currently a change in how people

communicate; for this reason, the learning process is through the internet, which leads the

teacher and learners to collaborate and interact.

Didactic Choice

Sharkey & Clavijo, 2012 acknowledge assets of the community as resources to consider

in the curriculum. In the same manner, propose people-based pedagogies to recognize people as


a resource in the classroom, taking into account their experiences, points of view, knowledge,

and feelings. That is how this didactic choice came to light.

Learners’ Role

Students played an active role in this pedagogical intervention. They attended

synchronous English lessons; they brought all their background, their knowledge, their

experiences, dreams, thoughts, inquiries, and shared them with their peers through the internet.

Students were encouraged to use their life experiences in their learning process (Hammer, 2007).

Furthermore, empathy was a characteristic in this study's participants; they could interact with

peers putting themselves in others' shoes, and were compassionate with each other, listening to

their oral interventions, written comments, and questions. According to Vargas and (Vargas &

Madrigal, 2018), "empathic relations contribute to increase emotional, social and intellectual

wellness through the activities that students perform in class" (p. 164). Thus, empathy was a key

aspect of a harmonious virtual classroom where students felt free to interact. Learners as

researchers (Comber, 2015) is another characteristic of students; they were invited to explore and

investigate their context and take what they found to the classroom.

Teacher’s Role

My role in this pedagogical intervention had specific characteristics enable students to

build knowledge and relationships. According to Kumaravadivelu (2001), post-method teachers

are autonomous individuals whose aim is to consider their contexts and target particularities to

put into practice new theory. Interacting online permitted me to apply my didactic choice,

people-based pedagogy. Moreover, through my role as teacher-researcher, I encouraged my

students to explore their communities' members as a relevant asset to take to the classroom.


Therefore, I was a "monitor and supporter" in the process of the research work development

(Maley, 2011, p. 383).

Moreover, my role in this pedagogical implementation was empathic; Vargas and

Madrigal (2018) state that students feel vulnerable and face emotions during their L2 learning

process. Thus, students need an empathic teacher who supports them. For example, I could

identify those cases where students were shy in their interventions and supported them by asking

questions. Besides that, I realized that the students needed that space to talk to me about their

learning process, and I provide them time to do that individually after each class. Finally, I was a

good listener. Indeed, it was a learner-centered learning process; they had their time to express

their opinions, ask questions, present their outcomes.

Role of the Materials

The students created materials in this pedagogical intervention. I guided them through the

journey of the construction of projects. Students developed their autobiographies, virtual

communities mapping, and interview report and discussed their findings (Maley, 2011). Students

were guided, and they produced their own material. However, Stevick (1980, as cited in Arnold,

2011, p. 11) states that "Success [in language learning] depends less on material, techniques and

linguistic analysis and more on what goes on inside and between the people in the classroom".

My students had the opportunity to show their outcomes to the class, and their peers were able to

interact and talk about them. Their healthy relationships permitted the students to express their

ideas freely and feel comfortable with their work. In conclusion, the students’ interactions

became more relevant in developing of this pedagogical intervention rather than the materials.

Type of Syllabus


The syllabus for this pedagogical intervention was created considering the curricular

platform elements. Irfani (2014) states that “theory of language, theory of learning, and type of

learners” (p. 23) are aspects to bear in mind to create a syllabus. Moreover, I added the type of

teacher and the type of outcomes that I wanted to get from my students. The construction of this

syllabus started during the implementation of a curricular unit with a group of students in 2019

(Chapter I). The students showed their interest to work with individuals as assets. Consequently,

the sequence for this curricular platform was based on students’ interests. Furthermore, after

analyzing the literature for this study (Chapter II) I thought it was relevant to consider the self

and the others. The students who were part of this pedagogical intervention could analyze their

contexts, their life stories, interest, feelings, and their virtual communities in the classroom.

Indeed, the proposed activities were an excuse to invite learners to have different experiences

(Su, 2012).

Pedagogical Intervention

This section describes the pedagogical intervention; the stages, the activities proposed

and developed by the students as it is shown in Illustration 3. At the same time, I provide some

samples of my students work.

Illustration 3

Pedagogical Implementation’ Stages


Source: Own elaboration Pedagogical objectives:

• To invite students to write and present their life stories in the EFL classroom

• To explore with students the virtual communities they belong to

• To consider people from students' virtual communities in the EFL classroom

• To encourage students to write and speak about their virtual communities in the EFL

lessons.

This pedagogical intervention was conducted synchronously and asynchronously. It was carried

out from August to October 2020, and it was developed in 12 sessions. The first hour of class

was used to develop the planned activities to achieve the goals of this pedagogical

implementation. At the same time, we used Edmodo to communicate, and students commented

on their classmates’ activities. Therefore, each session enabled me to use the research

instruments (Chapter III) for the data collection. This pedagogical intervention was divided into

three moments (See Appendix B- Pedagogical intervention timetable). Students were invited to


explore their life stories, their virtual communities, and the people from their virtual

communities. Community-based pedagogies were the foundation for this pedagogical

intervention.

My autobiography: Who am I?

Sessions 1, 2 and 3 of this pedagogical intervention aimed to invite students to reflect on

their lives through an autobiography, considering the members who contribute to their learning

process. It was necessary to reflect on the aim of the task to write the students' guidelines. The

research study that Quintero (2016) carries out with his group of students allowed me to

understand that a life story is not a mere construction of events but an introspective practice that

involves "the meaningful others" (p. 106). Therefore, I proposed some guiding questions to my

students, which aimed to recognize those community members who permitted them to be who

they are nowadays.

Figure 2

Emilia’s Autobiography Word File


Source: students’ artifacts

The autobiographies were a means to guide the students in their literacy process and

encouragement of technological tools usage as is shown in Figure 3. Moreover, according to

Goodson (2014) “autobiographical memory was a site of reconstruction and reflexivity and a

place for the reworking of personal meaning” (p. 124). The students were able to analyze their

life stories, and they created knowledge and meaning. Bearing in mind that the lessons were

online, I asked the students to write their autobiographies and send them to me in a word file

through Edmodo. At the same time, they needed to show their autobiography innovatively to the

class. However, not all the students could present their autobiographies in class due to time

constraints and they posted them on Edmodo, and their classmates commented on them. Students

felt free to share their life stories and talk about their teachers, friends, and family who are part of

their achievements and dreams. Moreover, some students decided to create their videos with

images and their voices. Others did their infographics, and the rest of the students opted to use a


PowerPoint presentation and explain the information to the class. The students and the teacher

worked on literacies and the use of technologies during this pedagogical intervention.

Figure 3

Andie’s Video about Autobiography

Source: Edmodo platform. Students’ artifacts

My virtual community: Where do I belong to?

The aim of lessons 4, 5 and 6 was to invite students to explore their virtual communities.

First of all, students defined community and virtual community. Afterwards, they needed to

present the virtual communities they belonged to. It is worth mentioning that due to the

pandemic shut down, some of the virtual communities presented by students used to be face-to-

face communities. Therefore, students presented their group of classmates at university, their

family, their colleagues. However, there were students that belonged to groups in Facebook,

Instagram or video games communities. This activity permitted students to be aware of the


communities that they were part of. This is an element of community-based pedagogies, to

encourages students to recognized and be aware of the assets of their communities (Rincón &

Clavijo, 2019).

Figure 4

Mariana’s virtual communities’ presentation.


Students were also invited to focus on one of their virtual communities during this stage.

They had to explain to the class what they did, how long they have been there, how they feel in

those groups, what they have in common, and why they decided to be part of those communities,

as evidence in Figure 4. All the activities that students did were preceded by some guidelines that

included the topics studied during the lesson to put in practice: knowledge constructed and the

language elements. There were various communities, and students were motivated to share their

interests with the class, how they spend their time and learn in the communities they belonged to.

Figure 4

Almo’s Text about his Virtual Community


Source: students’ artifacts.

Figure 5

Emilia and Natare’s Interaction about Virtual Community


Source: students’ artifacts.

Community members: Who belongs to my virtual community?

Considering that this pedagogical implementation expected to connect the EFL classroom

with people, I invited students to address people as assets in this stage. The students were asked

to do a community group profile. They had to explore the people from the virtual community

they chose and told their classmates who they were. Once again, I provided students with some

guidelines that aimed to know who the members were, their age, their occupation, where they

live, and how they feel and contribute to the community they are part of, as evidenced in Figure

5.


Figure 7

Hipatia’s virtual community profile

Source: students’ artifact

After guiding students to acknowledge people from their communities, I proposed them

to focus on one member. Students had to interview one member of their communities; I provided

them with some guidelines divided into two parts. The first was related to the person's general

information, childhood memories, qualities for their jobs, and plans for the future; those topics

were studied during the class and were part of the institution's syllabus. The second part of the

interview aimed to focus on the community members' experience in the group, such as how long

they have been part of it, why they are there, and what they do for the community members, as

shown in Figure 7. This activity not only permitted students to know more information about the

community members, but it was a bridge to connect students with their community members and

strengthen ties.

Figure 8


Tatiana’s community member interview report


This pedagogical implementation enabled the students to use the English language

to construct meaning and create relationships. In the same token, students did their

activities, presented them to the class, and it permitted them to interact and inquire about

their classmates' job. Even though we had the platform Edmodo, students expressed that

it was necessary to share their work in the class. Therefore, they had their space in the

classroom to present their work to ask questions and comment. Moreover, they uploaded

their work in Edmodo. One could say that students consolidated their critical literacies by

reading, writing, and becoming aware of the people who are around them.

The data gathered from this pedagogical intervention is analyzed in the following

chapter. As well as the other instruments applied in this research study.


Chapter V

Data Analysis

This chapter presents the analysis of the information collected from a pedagogical

implementation in an EFL virtual classroom. This chapter is divided into four parts. First, it

describes data management. Second, it explains the analysis framework. Third, it depicts the data

analysis procedure. Finally, it presents the categories illustrated with samples.

Data Management

This research aimed to respond a research question, i.e., what sense of community do

English students reconstruct when they are engaged in community-based pedagogies through

virtual environments where individuals are seen as assets? It also sought to answer a research

sub-question: What understandings do students create about other members of their communities

while they are interacting virtually?

In order to answer both questions, data were gathered through a pedagogical intervention.

This intervention was carried out from August to October 2020. As mentioned in Chapter IV, the

instruments used were students' artifacts, teacher's field notes, and two semi-structured virtual

interviews. The information collected was organized in virtual folders and each instrument had a

particular data collection procedure.

Students' artifacts were collected through a virtual platform called Edmodo. The students

uploaded their activities there and presented them in the classroom after finding out that the

students preferred to share their work. I analyzed the alphanumeric artifacts of my learners which

I kept in a folder with the pseudonym of each participant. The conversations in Edmodo were

collected and analyzed during the time of the intervention. Lastly, I took screenshots, pasted

them in a matrix, and copied the text to analyze it easily.


Plus, there were two virtual interviews, one at the beginning and the other at the end of

the intervention. They were video recorded in the platform Teams as well as audio recorded. I

transcribed both virtual interviews verbatim. The last interview was a conversation during the

presentation of students' reports of community members. I made that decision due to the lack of

time; I also had internet issues, and there was not another moment to carry out that interview.

Teacher’s field notes were constructed after each lesson using some notes taken during

class. Then I organized them in a Word file where I included the date, number of students, and

hour. Moreover, since there were discussions in the chat during the class, I copied and pasted the

most relevant messages. The lessons were recorded, so that it helped me to go back to the

information that I found relevant, and in some cases, I transcribed some students' comments

made during the class verbatim. After collecting the data, I analyzed them considering the

grounded theory approach Charmaz (2006) and Freeman (1998).

Data Analysis Framework

The framework of data analysis adopted here was grounded theory. Charmaz (2006)

sustains that grounded theory is a systematic and flexible approach to collect and analyze data. It

allows the researcher to see the data in fresh ways and use an inductive procedure. In this sense,

this framework leads to create categories that emerge from the data and theorize, which

permitted me to organize the data and depict participants’ voices.

There are four stages outlined in the grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006;

Freeman, 1998). This process starts with coding (Charmaz, 2006) that aims to name segments of

data with a label that subsumes the data's meaning. It also helps to compare other parts of the

data. This stage is what Freeman (1998) calls naming. The second stage is axial coding

(Charmaz, 2006) and aims to group the data again after dividing it into codes. Freeman (1998)


presents this second stage as grouping. It aims to gather the codes you have given to the data in

the first stage and provide them with a name. The third stage is selective coding (Charmaz, 2006)

or finding relationships (Freeman, 1998). In this stage, the researcher finds links among groups

and name them. The last stage is theorizing (Charmaz, 2006) or displaying (Freeman, 1998). Its

purpose is to perceive how all the data are connected, "refining interpretations that fit the data in

response to your question or inquiry" (Freeman, 1998, p. 101).

Data Analysis Procedure

Following the grounded theory framework, I proceeded to analyze the data. I organized

the whole data in an Excel file, each instrument in a book. The first stage was naming or coding.

I did segment by segment coding (Charmaz, 2006) which generated a variety of ideas from the

data: I went over the interviews, field notes, and artifacts. Next, I assigned a label to each

segment, and the codes emerged from the data; I labeled them using a gerund as well as in vivo

codes.

Continuing with the process, I assigned a color to the codes making it easier to group

them to do axial coding. I grouped them, taking into account the research question and sub-

question. Keeping these questions in mind helped me to organize groups with similar codes.

They became part of different groups as I used gerunds to label the codes. For example, there

was a group where I organized all the codes that had to do with acknowledging schools and

community members when the students mentioned the members of these different institutions.

The next step was to advance with selective coding or finding relationships. Here I

decided to use color again. I started to see the relationship among groups, and I assigned

different colors to various groups that I found as having a possible connection. For instance,

those groups that refer to acknowledge (acknowledging school and community members,


acknowledging to people, acknowledging value to the self) were put together in a single group

considering that all of them refer to people (community members and themselves), their

qualities, interests, achievements, talents and their presence in students' lives. Finally, this stage

also led me to refine specific subgroups' names as each instrument helped me improve each

stage.

Subsequently, I continued with theorizing or displaying. As I developed the data analysis

from coding/naming to selective coding/finding relationships separately, I decided to continue

my data analysis by integrating all the instruments from the finding relationships stage. This

strategy shed light on possible relationships among data interpretation throughout instruments

and towards categories and subcategories emergence. Having the categories and subcategories, I

started to describe data and draw some conclusions.

To provide robust analysis, I used methodological triangulation. Three different

instruments (students' artifacts, field notes, and virtual interviews) were used to compare,

contrast, and analyze the data. As mentioned before, I analyzed each instrument individually, and

I could interweave the emergent data. Those similar patterns were the raw material to answer the

research question and the sub-question of this study (Cohen et al., 2007).

Findings

This section outlines the categories and subcategories that came to light after data

management and analysis. Two categories and their respective subcategories (each one

encompassed three subcategories) emerged from the data to answer the main question and sub-

question. The first category was acknowledging the self, members, and places in the community

from an EFL scenario. The second category was learning as giving and receiving from

communities. The first one addresses how students acknowledge themselves and others: naming,


seeing, and describing them. The second category has to do with that relationship with others

towards the construction of knowledge. Therefore, both categories address the reconstruction of

a sense of community. The categories and sub-categories are presented in Illustration 4.

Illustration 4 Categories and subcategories emergence


Category 1. Acknowledging the self, members, and places in the communities from

an EFL scenario.

This category accounts for the question and the sub-question of this research study. It is

supported by three subcategories, as shown in Table 1. Students acknowledged themselves, other

community members, and communities positively, highlighting their self-qualities, interests, and

values during the pedagogical intervention.

The participants of this study were able to identify themselves and others as assets. It has

a relationship with the assets approach for the EFL classroom that Medina et al. (2019) adapted

from Kretzmann and McKnight's (1996) community asset approach. Medina et al. (2019) invite

their students to identify their assets in their communities. This approach permits community

members to identify different community assets; in this case, individuals stood out in students'


experiences. One could say that students acknowledged themselves, the others, and those spaces

that interweaved them as part of different communities.

Table 1

First categories and subcategories emergence

Category Subcategory Acknowledging the self, members, and places in the communities from an EFL scenario

Acknowledging the self: I can do anything I want Acknowledging community members

Acknowledging communities


Subcategory 1.1 Acknowledging the self: I can do anything I want.

This category originated from the data from two of the three instruments. It presents

students as valuable characters in their communities, acknowledging their qualities, self-

achievements, and professions. This subcategory answers the question and sub-question of this

research. Part of the name comes from a student's artifact in which she wrote in her

autobiography the following:

I started an [a] business of alternative clothing and I sold in the Mercado de las Pulgas.

This project I did with my brother in low [law] of that time. While [I was] studying and

working, I learned (me) that I can do anything (I) want (Angie, artifact-autobiography,

August 15/2020).

This excerpt depicts Angie's self-acknowledgment. The statements "I started," "I did

with," and "I learned me" show how she acknowledged what she did, using the word "I".

According to Belsey (1980), “it is in language that people constitute themselves as subjects” (p.

226). The word “I” that Angie frequently repeated in her intervention permitted her to show

herself as an individual. The author explains that the “I” could not exist without the “non-I”, it

means the “you”. For example, when Angie said, "I did with my brother in low [law]", here there


is an acknowledgment of the "I" and the "you". She sees herself and the other as a valuable

individual through language in the class.

Moreover, when she said "I learned (me) that I can do anything (I) want" lets me think

that she saw herself as a capable woman showing her sense of empowerment that she gained in

that experience. Hence, she showed her enthusiasm, confidence in her abilities, and learning

process. This has a relationship with the concept of empowerment that Shor (1992) proposes:

“individual growth as an active, cooperative, and social process because the self and society

create each other” (p. 15). Angie also said, "I learned (me)". Although it seems that she does not

use the right word. I would say that she wanted to say I realized. It means that she was aware of

her qualities. That’s how this participant acknowledges and empowers herself.

In this train of thoughts, I could also see how June, another student, acknowledged his

qualities, efforts, and autonomy in the English language classroom:

Juno said: "I learn that with dedication and commitment you can do it" He also said that

he doesn't contact his friends all the time, but they are real friends. He said "I am a

software developer. I need to learn new things all the time; I love traveling; I think this is

me." (Teacher, class observation, Aug 22/ 2020)

June’s traits have to do with the concept of self-regulation that Schunk and Zimmerman

(2008) pose as a synonym of self-control or self-discipline that an individual sets up to achieve a

goal. It is worth mentioning that this excerpt emerged from a class where some students

presented their autobiographies. Juno acknowledged himself as a dedicated and committed man

who achieved what he wanted. Once again, the student used the word “learn” instead of

“realize”; he was aware of his qualities and who he is. There is evidence of his sense of


empowerment (Shor, 1992). He also acknowledged his career and what it requires. The two

previous excerpts show how students saw themselves and their potential in the EFL classroom.

Students first acknowledged themselves as valuable assets in the community. Their

knowledge, experiences, achievements need to be acknowledged by themselves to be recognized

by the communities that they belong to. Therefore, students could see who they are in other

members of the community. Furthermore, the fact that the participants were reflecting about their

life stories allowed them to question themselves. Demarest (2015) explains that questions such as

who am I? foster self-awareness on students. Consequently, this subcategory revealed that they

reflected about themselves as valuable individuals.

Subcategory 1.2 Acknowledging community members.

This subcategory was traced in the three instruments used. It also answered both the main

question and the sub-question of this research. This category encompassed all those members

that students refer to; those members became visible in the EFL virtual classroom. Student’s

family members, their bosses, their colleagues, their classmates, and their community members

were mentioned during the pedagogical intervention. Considering that some students’

communities became virtual during the implementation, they also created new communities due

to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students acknowledged those people around them; those members that sometimes are

invisible in the EFL classroom became assets to construct knowledge as illustrated by the

following fragment:

Teacher: Ah in the WhatsApp group that you have. Okay Great. And do you think that

your perceptions about her changed after that experience?


Hipatia: umm no I think is a good person, I think is a good teacher, I don't know no,

probably I admire her more in this time because I know that is not only a professional.

I know more information about the personal life, and I think is a good person, but not

change. Only stronger, I don’t know. (Hipatia, Interview 2, October 31st /2020)

This excerpt is a teacher-student interaction. In this sample, the teacher asked Hipatía

about her experience interviewing a member of her virtual community, a group of math teacher-

researchers who gather to talk about math teaching research and share other interests. This

sample revealed the importance of the human dimension that the participants depicted in their

voices. Hipatia used phrases such as "good person" and "good teacher” appreciating her friend's

qualities and valued her as an important human being and relevant member of her virtual

community. Hipatia also said "I admire her more in this time because I know that is not only a

professional". This means that the people's value goes beyond their professions or occupation for

this student. It transcends to human nature, i.e., what people can offer to others: values,

knowledge, and experiences.

The activities from the pedagogical intervention, which included interviewing their

community members, enabled Hipatia to see her colleague as a human being with certain

qualities, which made her unique. Therefore, when Hipatia claimed "I know more information

about the personal life", she means that their interaction and exchanging of life experiences lead

them to create ties to have a closer relationship. The human dimension plays an important role in

acknowledging these people as assets from the EFL classroom.

Likewise, this subcategory evidences that students appreciated their community

members' interests, as is indicated in the next excerpt:

Teacher: Ah okay…Good thank you. What about you Mariana?


Mariana: yes teacher. This activity of the virtual community is very interesting for me

because um is possible know more about my classmates. For example, ahh their interest,

their hobbies their preferences and is possible um for example share the same interest or

the same hobbies and for example um um share this community, for example, you need

for this community the other classmates. um great the activity… Teacher…

(Mariana, Interview 1, Sep 19/2020)

The teacher wanted to know through the interview what students thought about the

virtual community's activity. When they had to explore the virtual communities they belonged to,

Mariana stated "is possible to know more about my classmates". She admitted the importance of

knowing about her classmates; she is interested in knowing more about them. Through this

pedagogical intervention she recognized the other, their interests, and their hobbies. Empathy

becomes crucial to value the other as a whole human being (Vargas & Madrigal, 2018). Students

are far beyond than classmates; they are humans with an array of experiences and knowledge.

Before moving on, it should be pointed out that when she said "share this community, for

example, you need for this community the other classmates", Mariana saw the presence of the

others as valuable ones in the community. Mariana’s fragment embodies how the social tissue

permits to construct relationships and bonds among members of different communities.

Students expressed the importance of their community members and their classmates’

community members along these lines. According to Bolaños et al. (2018), when students are

engaged with their communities, they learn English and strengthen their sense of belonging and

see community members as models. Students used the language to talk about themselves and the

members of their communities during this pedagogical intervention. They had the time to prepare


their presentations and they shared their activities on the platform Edmodo and socialized them

in class. This fact engaged students in written and oral interaction, as evidence in Figure 9.

Figure 9

Juanchisti and Emilia’s Interaction

(Juanchisti, Edmodo artifacts, Sep 2/2020)

Juanchisti recognized the importance of grandparents and teachers in his life in

statements such as "our old parents are vital for our lives". It is worth saying that Juanchisti is a

19-year-old boy who bears witness that older adults are crucial members of our communities for

young people. Juanchisti gave value to community members such as older adults and teachers. "I


liked so much when you mention about the teacher or your school, I think that is important that

you have a person model like her", claimed Juanchisti, making teachers visible as models. Even

though the mass media underestimates teachers' jobs in Colombia (Roso, 2018), and this society

tends to reject elderly people (Lampirini, 2016), this student appreciates them, presenting them

as characters to follow.

According to Freire (1985), we first read the world, and then we read the word. Juanchisti

portrayed his perception and vision of the world, acknowledging teachers and older adults as

valuable community members. He could set a relationship between his experience and his

classmate's. He acknowledged these members' value because they are wise people who share

knowledge and experience with him. In the light of the evidence, students had the opportunity to

take the time to know who the community members are, and they found a positive value to these

members, mentioning their uniqueness as human beings, as holders of knowledge, interest,

hobbies, preferences, and valuable assets who are life models. It is interesting to see that students

first appreciated the individual from their human dimension. Afterward, they started creating or

strengthening ties.

Subcategory 1.3 Acknowledging communities.

This category emerged as a result of students’ appreciation of their communities. It

includes those places that they felt proud of, particularly, universities, and offices where they

worked, schools where they spent their childhood, and those cities or towns that they in which

they have lived. Furthermore, students brought up to class those small communities that became

virtual. In this vein, Gusfield (1975, as cited in Chavis & McMillan, 1986) presents the concept

of community as relational, which means that when people are interacting, they are constructing

communities. It is not necessary to have a meeting place to construct them.


Many places, such as schools and universities, are currently closed to avoid the spread of

the Covid-19 virus, and consequently, people interact through the internet. Therefore, some of

the pedagogical intervention activities were to explore their virtual communities and interview

one of their members. An example of this is Emilia's' virtual community, a seedbed on menstrual

education. She is part of a group of women from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Spain who

gather to discuss the important role of women's cycle in their lives. The group aims to empower

women not to feel ashamed for having their menstrual cycle. As I could see Emilia's sense of

belonging to that group (Chavis & McMillan, 1986), I asked how her experience interviewing

the member or her community was, and this is what she said:

Emilia: And…was a good experience and we are thinking about the baby shower and those kind

of things

Teacher: Okay

Emilia: and we the community also, the community, last week we talk about how to make that

activity, that meeting on [in] January maybe because the baby would be on March or April

Teacher: Okay. How many women are there in your community?

Emilia: Seventy.

Teacher: Seventy and I remember that you told us that they come from different countries.

Emilia: yes, we are different among us, but the idea is to make a baby shower. (laughing)

Teacher: Okay

Emilia: we are virtual, but I suppose in that moment we are going to be a community, face-to-face

community. I don’t know if you say that.

Teacher: yeah, you can say that, that’s right. Do you think that activity was useful?

Emilia: Yes, yes, she feels important, and she is important, but she feels ah like a, important. So,

it is an interview for me? Why? and my God you do a lot of things, you can, you know, you must


know that you are an important person and that is interesting. (Emilia, Interview 2, October

31st /2020)

Emilia's view of a community transcends being part of a place, which connects to

Kalman’s (2000) idea that interaction among people makes communities rather than the physical

spaces. Emilia recognized that a community is more than an institution, a town, a city, and

borders do not exist. She gives more relevance to people's interaction, how they share, support,

learn, create, and exchange knowledge. This community is the meeting point for a group of

women with a particular interest, and the menstrual cycle they have in common gathers them for

a common goal. Emilia states that the group leader is pregnant, and they are planning a baby

shower, as mentioned in excerpt 5. There is something else to point out. Emilia said "we are

different among us, but the idea is to make a baby shower". This statement reveals that even

though they are different, they are going to gather for a purpose. This group has created strong

ties, and they are interested in sharing and supporting each other.

A communitarian feature is to embrace differences and work for a common goal (Chavis

& MacMillan, 1986), in this case a baby shower. We can see that this sort of make communities

closer and stronger. On the other hand, when Emilia said "we are virtual, but I suppose in that

moment we are going to be a community, face-to-face community", it implies a desire to share

with her community, that face-to-face interaction that everybody misses in this time.

The previous fragment shows that students recognized those virtual communities as

relational communities: those spaces where they construct knowledge, relationships, and a sense

of community. Sharkey (2012) points out that community-based pedagogy considers the

curriculum and the local knowledge as a source for learning and teaching. The students brought

her community to the class, and she shared her knowledge, experiences, and interest.


On the other hand, the following excerpts present the community as spatial considering

the places. Students recall places in their discourses. They acknowledge places as the setting to

interact, construct meaning and relationships. When students refer to places, some of them

present those places with their names or acronyms. The following excerpts show how students

use specific names in their discourses.

Mariana: At the 6 age, I entered the Nuestra Señora del Rosario school was a Catholic school

where they instilled values, discipline, order, such as respect, love of family and love of God.

(Angie, artifact-autobiography, August 15/2020).

In the previous excerpt, Mariana unveils the institution's name, the school he was part

of. She presents the school's complete name showing a sense of being proud of that place and the

learning process that she obtained in this school. The following figure also shows the way Clai

names her academic community.

Figure 10

Clai’s Edmodo Artifact

(Clai, Edmodo artifacts, Aug 22/2020)


Clai acknowledges her academic community. When he said, "I studied undergraduate,

graduate and master's degrees at the UPN [National Pedagogical University]”, she acknowledges

to be part of that community; she could have said a university, but when she mentions the

university acronyms. Chavis and MacMillan (1986) call membership a feeling of being part of a

community. It is also a need to show that she is studying in the same institution she is taking her

English course. It is a way to show her membership and her sense of community to this

institution.

Moreover, Clai said "I am a second grade public school teacher in Bogotá". Even though

she does not mention the school's exact name, there is a sense of belonging to her city's public

sector schools. According to Esposito (2012), those places where people belong nourish and

configure them as human beings.

Nonetheless, one point of differentiation is when Clai talked about her school, saying "I

want to learn English because in the school where I studied I feel that I did not learn any of this

language". Clai described her school's learning process, but she did not say the institution's

name. It could be any school. This shows a lack of sense of belonging to that institution; she did

not feel part of it. It is a kind of rejection to it due to her negative experience towards language

learning. Grunewald (2003a) states that spaces configure students’ possibilities. Consequently,

this participant presents her perception of failure towards the English language process in that

institution. In short, the data portrayed how students brought those institutions to the classroom,

which are the meeting point to build relationships, learning, and knowledge. Therefore, those

places become the source of the sense of belonging where students feel part of or the places they

reject.

Category 2. Learning as giving and receiving from communities.


This section presents the second category surfacing from the data. The data unveiled that

the students belong to different communities, and through interaction with their members, they

build knowledge and relationships. I had the opportunity to analyze how participants saw the

people who have played an important role in their lives, people from their virtual communities,

and the interactions among classmates. These relationships enable them to co-construct learning

individually and within the society (Shor, 1992).

This category emerged from those relationships and interactions, subsuming knowledge,

experiences, perceptions, and values exchange with community members. Table 2 illustrates the

category in question and its subcategories.

Table 2 Emergent second category, subcategories

Category Subcategories

Learning as giving and receiving from communities.

People as learning sources and valuable assets.

Appreciating community members: I support you.

Raising emotions within communities.


Engaging students in community-based pedagogies permit teachers and students to think

about aspects that community members share daily to construct meaning (Lastra et al., 2018).

Hence, students do not take for granted the learning process that they have with people around

them. Therefore, they see their support networks as sources to grow as shown in the following

excerpt:

Today I am happy in my work and my best teachers are my students, my children, I learn

from them every day and at home I learn from my daughter every day who gives me

lessons in simplicity, nobility and kindness of heart.

(Clai, artifact-autobiography, August 15/2020).


This participant portrays the learning process that she has within the members of her

communities. The first thing that students did in this research study was acknowledging the

people who are part of their lives. Afterward, they see their community members as a resource to

learn. In this case, the children as masters of life.

Subcategory 2.1 People as learning sources and valuable assets.

Participants presented their learning experiences and the valuable knowledge that they

got from the communities’ members. This is how this subcategory emerged. During the

pedagogical intervention, students mentioned those learning experiences they had with the

community members, and they realized that those members are a source of learning. They

acknowledged the values that they got from their first community: their families. Subsequently,

students built knowledge with their schoolteacher's support, later with their professors at

university, their colleagues, and bosses. Indeed, they also acknowledged the learning process that

they undertook with their classmates and virtual community members. This exchange of

knowledge is what Moll (1994) states as funds of knowledge.

The following fragment describes Almo’s learning experience with a teacher:

Almo: I remember my history and political science teacher, he used to tell us about

revolutions, world wars and the new order in his classes. He was very intelligent and

taught me many things, especially he knows the past of our country and the world. I

remember in one of the classes he told me: "Education is the most powerful weapon you

can use to change the world." That quote by Nelson Mandela, was etched in my memory

forever. (Almo, artifact-Autobiography, August 15/2020)

First, he recalled his teacher: "I remember my history and political science teacher"; he

remembered him because this teacher could mark him positively. For example, when Almo said


"he used to tell us about revolutions, world wars, and the new order in his classes", there was a

motivation that pushed him to remember those topics. Actually, this educator inspired him to

become a history teacher.

Almo acknowledged his teacher's qualities and the learning process he had with his

guidance. He valued his teacher as a holder of knowledge who understands past events. Those

past events remind people not to make the same mistakes, which is a characteristic to value in a

country like Colombia. People continue choosing representatives who do not work for social

justice and equity. Kalman (2000) states that when students interact with the community, they

consolidate their knowledge through participation. That school experience with his schoolteacher

is a source of learning for Almo and, in this case, to his classmates. Even though it was an

experience, to bring it to the present led the participants of this research to reflect upon history

and learning and teaching experiences as something relevant.

Similarly, Almo highlighted that time when his teacher told him a Mandela’s political

quote that influenced him as a history teacher, opening for him a new door: education a means to

make social changes. Educators set their hearts on education; we believe that it leads students to

construct knowledge and empower themselves to be better human beings, and global and local

citizens, one of the 21st Century Skills (Ledward & Hirata, 2011). Communities are a resource in

the classroom in which students can see themselves as active agents and their voices are heard

(Ramirez & Cerón, 2019). Therefore, Almo expressed his anecdote to have an effect on his

listeners or readers. Moreover, through his role as a teacher, classmate and citizen is making a

social change. When students share knowledge and experience like the aforementioned with the

class, they somehow became activists. In this case, towards education as a means to transform

society.


Interaction permitted students to share knowledge and experiences. Almo did not only

write his autobiography as a task to submit, but he shared it with his classmates for them to react

toward it. This accounts for literacy processes inasmuch as a literate person is the one who

participates in the social world (Kalman, 2000). The classroom became the stage where students

had active participation as members of society. Hence, students co-constructed meaning through

language and inquired about their classmates’ positions and perceptions. As evidence in Figure

11 Natara’s comment on Almo's autobiography.

Figure 11

Natara’s Edmodo Artifact

(Natara, Edmodo artifacts, Sep 3/2020)

First, she praised Almo’s work and found similarities with his life. Afterward, she

wondered how Almo has contributed to the world through his job as a teacher. This interaction

and inquiry spaces set them as active learning members and denied the banking model education

(Freire, 2000). Gruenewald (2003) admits that critical pedagogy and critical pedagogy of place

identify places as the context where people perform activities and are aware of certain situations.


Although the setting where this exchange of knowledge took place is the internet, Natara

recognized and analyzed her classmate’s position towards education and inquired him about it.

This scenario permitted them to learn from each other and use the English language as a means

to dialog and reflect on social issues and construct meaning. Accordingly, during this

intervention, students were seen as active members of the society who consider the social

dimension of the reading practice (Freire & Macedo, 1987).

Subcategory 2.2 Appreciating community members: I support you.

This category arose from those data pieces where students took a moment to appreciate

the people around and valued them. It encompassed those interactions of kindness and awareness

towards the other. Students took the time to read or listen to their classmates in such a

mindfulness state that they could understand the other and offer kind and sincere words.

Deringer (2017) presents this as connection and a feeling of collaboration. Therefore, the

communities where students belonged helped them to develop that sense of community and

human nature.

Part of this subcategory's name came from an in vivo code, (see Figure 12):


Figure 12

Andie & Lau’ Interaction

(Andie & Lau, Edmodo artifacts, Aug 23/2020)

Andie posted his message expressing his struggles studying remotely. Lau showed her

empathy and reacted with words of encouragement. First, she praised his comments. After that,

she showed empathy. This interaction embodies sense of community because as members of a

group they realize the importance and value of each member, and they are sure that they can

achieve a goal by helping each other (Chavis & MacMillan, 1986). Lau showed her support and

certainty that Andie is going to succeed with the groups' support. She finished her message with

the statement "Good luck, I support you!" That is how the name of this subcategory appeared.

In the same light, during the lesson, some students expressed values such as tolerance and

understanding as illustrated in the following excerpt:


Sebas presents his virtual community, their classmates at the university. He says "Each

one has something to share with each other”. Artist-teachers share pictures of the

semester. They share and live memories and moments. He says that his virtual

community allows him to share his crazy ideas, and "you must understand others' crazy

ideas”. (Teacher, class observation, Sept 12th/ 2020)

Sebas presented his classmates of the university as a community of practice (Wenger,

2001). This pedagogical intervention permitted my students to bring to the classroom the

learning process that they had with people from different communities. They saw their

communities as a topic to discuss in the lessons. When Sebas said "each one has something to

share with each other", he showed that members of the group matter and have something

valuable to offer to the group. Indeed, these artist-teachers have something in common; they

share the same interest. Communities of practice are known for their reason to be together, which

is an element of the sense of community. The integration and fulfillment of needs (Chavis &

MacMillan, 1986) and common expectations (Rovai, 2002) are interwoven to explain that a

group gathers for a purpose and there is a motivation to give and receive something from the

community.

Sebas expressed in the class that his virtual community was a place to share ideas. Those

virtual communities are knowledge and values construction places. Apart from the sense of

community that the participant manifested, there are also values such as tolerance and

understanding. These values make human relationships stronger and healthier. This event has to

do with influence and trust terms (Chavis & McMillan, 1986; Rovai, 2002) present as elements

of a sense of community where community members create ties among members. Those

elements of sense of community portrayed in the student's interactions in the classroom reveal


the interconnection among students with members of different communities. It also unveils how

they are aware of the members and appreciate them as valuable human beings and holders of

knowledge who receive and give themselves as whole beings.

Subcategory 2.2 Raising emotions within communities.

This subcategory portrays the emotions that arose during the pedagogical intervention.

The data revealed that communities are made up of sensitive human beings. Consequently,

emotions permeated those relationships. Students brought to the lesson feelings that they

experience in and outside the classroom with their communities, accepting that they are humans

who love, hate, cry, laugh, and are scared. The classroom was a scenario to unveil feelings and

consider students’ as complete beings to avoid growing "the fears of their oppressed

consciousness”. (Freire, 2000, p. 96)

In Figure 13, Camila shows her feelings towards the English language learning process:

Figure 2

Camila’s Edmodo Artifact

(Camila, Edmodo artifacts, Aug 23/2020)

Despite that people just can realize there are feelings because they experience them or

through facial expressions, Camila was able to depict them in the EFL classroom through writing


(Pinto, 2018). Camila points out how nervous she was at the beginning of her learning process.

She also expressed her anxiety when she said, “I didn't know how everything was going to be."

Besides, she shows her feeling of satisfaction standing out her efforts regarding her learning

process. In this respect, Roed (2003) asserts that virtual learning environments are a relaxing

atmosphere where students share more information about their lives. This fact might explain why

Camila felt at ease, talking about her emotions. This participant used the language as a mean to

express her feelings.

Simultaneously, this artifact portrays a sense of connectedness in Camila. Although she

seemed to be insecure about continuing studying, she motivated herself to continue with her

English process. At the same time, she presents that she had met friends during the process. This

corresponds to what Rovai (2002) calls spirit: what connects students with their peers to have a

sense of belonging and increases their self-esteem and motivation to continue their learning

process. English language learning process is also configured by elements such individual and

social connection and emotions.

In this line of thought, Consue also shared in her autobiography her family members’

feelings during the Covid-19 shutdown:

Nowadays, my two sons and I live in Colina Campestre neighborhood, with my little cat

pet Molly, that is four months. This time is teaching me, it is necessary to learn the school

is not the most important training because they would like to return to school, (for) to

play, to share different moments with their friends; so then, they are feeling loneliness,

boredom, sadness, anxiety for the covid_19. (Consue, artifact-autobiography, August

15/2020)


The pandemic has affected people's lives, particularly children who cannot spend time

with their school friends. Therefore, students were aware of their communities and recognized

their knowledge and their emotions. Demarest (2015) poses a question about community

members: “What is my relationship with others and the community in which I live?" (p.8 ).

Consue revealed her close relationship with her family since she acknowledged their emotions

and took them to the English language classroom. Being aware of community members helped

students see themselves and others as human beings who feel, dream, and live.

By the same token, students depicted their emotions during class. Angie talked about her

learning process with a community member, her cousin:

The teacher asked the students who presented, who is that person who taught you

something important in your life. Angie answered that the person was her cousin because

she helps her be more empathic and compassionate. After all, she tries to teach other

people to feel good. (Teacher, class observation, Aug 22/ 2020)

I asked Angie about her learning experience with that community member. In this vein, the

participant sustains that her learning process with her cousin led her to be more empathic and

compassionate. Angie could have recognized other kind of learning processes, but she signaled

those related to emotions. Emotion is a topic to consider in the English language classroom since

it is a constituent of social change.

In conclusion, in this subcategory, students recognized their emotions and those of others.

Even though they could perceive themselves as vulnerable, they expressed how they felt dealing

with different learning processes, Covid-19, and their relationships with others. Therefore,

students could see others and themselves with more compassion, empathy, understanding,

kindness, and love. It was an opportunity to address a topic that tends to be hidden in the EFL


classroom. Students felt encouraged to express and bring to class their emotions and the ones of

their community members.

The next chapter addresses the conclusions of the data analysis as well as the pedagogical

implications, limitations, and further research derived from this study.


Chapter VI

Conclusions

This study's foremost objective was to understand students' sense of community when

they are engaged in community-based pedagogies through virtual environments where the

individuals are seen as assets. The decisions that I made to accomplish this goal were the

following: I created a syllabus that considered students' role as autonomous, empathic, and

researchers, the vision of language as self-expression, and a set of learning tasks in a three-stage

pedagogical implementation. Furthermore, there was the Edmodo platform that permitted

students to interact virtually (See chapter IV).

Considering that students are not empty vessels (Freire, 2000), they already hold a sense

of community. This study permitted me to answer the question: What sense of community do

English students reconstruct when they engage in community-based pedagogies through virtual

environments where individuals are seen as assets?

First, students acknowledged themselves and the community members, as shown in the

category acknowledging the self, members, and places in the communities from an EFL scenario

(Chapter V). The basis for students' sense of community is when they are aware of themselves as

empowered beings who achieve what they desire, the subcategory: acknowledging the self: I can

do anything I want, suggested it. Simultaneously, recognizing the human dimension in their

community members as valuable assets in their lives and communities, as the second

subcategory acknowledges community members presented. Finally, students presented their sense

of community with their sense of belongingness when they are part of different institutions such

as their universities, workplaces, and schools, as the subcategory acknowledge communities

shows.


Students also conveyed their sense of community and the understanding of other

members of the community by appreciating them as holders of knowledge who have contributed

to their construction as human beings. It is portrayed in the second category learning as giving

and receiving from communities. The EFL virtual classroom was the setting who permitted

students recognize their community members as vital individuals and holders and givers of

knowledge (First subcategory: People as learning sources and valuable assets). Students not

only acknowledge those community members, but they also were aware of them listening,

commenting and supporting them (Second subcategory: Appreciate community members: I

support you). Emotions were also present in the reconstruction of a sense of community and the

understandings that students created about other members of the community while they were

interacting virtually. (Third subcategory: Raising emotions within communities). Virtual

communities are a more relaxed and free space for students to communicate (Roed, 2003).

Hence, they were able to express their worries, fears and anxieties.

The use of community-based pedagogies in virtual environments provided students to see

their contexts as relevant assets in the EFL classroom. Taking into account that the Covid-19

pandemic forced teachers and students worldwide to have virtual lessons. Community-based

pedagogies were an opportunity to consider the virtual communities as assets in the classroom.

Students were able to share their life stories, their virtual communities, and the members of their

virtual communities in the classroom. Thus, their interests, emotions, relationships were

considered as a starting point to teach and learn (Medina et al, 2019).

The acknowledgement of individuals as assets permitted to explore students’ relationship

with their context in the EFL classroom. Students are constructed by the relationships that they

hold with the community members and themselves. Therefore, this research study granted


students permission to recognize them and their community members’ lives, achievements, and

emotions.

This research study unveiled emotions as a topic to consider in the EFL classroom when

students are engaged in community-based pedagogies. When students explored, analyzed, and

took to the classroom their life stories and their community members, it permitted them to

perceived themselves and others as human beings who suffer, and struggle. Therefore, emotions

arose and had a room in their interactions, reflections and opinions. Moreover, students were

able to show their kindness, love, and empathy for themselves and the members of their

communities. This fact unveils pedagogical implications in which learners construct knowledge

and relationships.

Pedagogical Implications

This study considered people’s relationship and interactions in the pedagogical

intervention. It has to do with the importance to connect community members to the ELF

classroom. Students are social beings who construct meaning and themselves with the

relationships that they hold. Thus, members of the community need to be taken to the classroom

to provide students the opportunity to acknowledge, be aware and share their learning process,

their relationships and their emotions. Furthermore, when students interact with community

members and carry-on tasks within them, it helps them to strengthen ties and recognize emotions

such as empathy, love and compassion for themselves and others.

Community-based pedagogies is an approach that takes into account the real context of

the students. Therefore, students were able to recognize the support net that they possess. To take

to the classroom their lives and those community members permitted students to be more

motivated towards their learning process. It provided them the opportunity to use the language


and the English classroom as a platform to show themselves, their interest, their dreams and

emotions.

Regarding the students’ sense of community in virtual environments. This research study

shows that the senses of community that students possessed and constructed during their lives. It

is also permeated the classroom. Students show traces of the elements that Rovai (2002) and

Chavis and MacMillan (1986) state. It means that a sense of belonging, ties among community

members, common expectations, and emotional connection were present for their virtual

communities and the classroom.

Regarding students’ critical literacy practices, they were able to read and write their

immediate contexts. According to Medina et al. (2019), community-based pedagogies promote

critical literacies being a platform for students “to learn, raise awareness and propose changes by

studying and social and cultural issues critically” (p. 46). Members of the community are assets

who were taken into account during this study, considering that they are the ones who perform

those social and cultural issues that the authors point out. Furthermore, the social change that this

study provides was to guide students to recognize, value, and be aware of individuals as holders

and givers of knowledge, experiences, dreams, emotions, and human nature. Therefore, it

permitted students to see others with more empathy, understanding and love.

The pedagogical implication that this study provided me as an English language teacher

was to transform my teaching practice into a more humanizing one. Thanks to this study process,

I could grant permission to acknowledge individuals' importance as assets in the English

classroom. Hence, I could recognize my students, lives, interests, and emotions as the basis to

plan my lessons. Moreover, my vision of language changed from a communicative approach,

where my students created conversations to deal with certain problems, such as asking for


information. Therefore, I now see language as self-expression, creating relationships, expressing

emotions, and going deep into my students’ interests (Tudor, 2001). Finally, this study permitted

me to be aware of the language as a means to create knowledge.

Limitations and suggestions

This research study answered the research question and sub-question. At the same time, it

achieved research and pedagogical objectives. However, there were some constraints that my

students and I had to face.

The first constraint was the number of students. There were twenty-three students in total.

Therefore, I had to manage the time wisely to promote fair participation. Moreover, the

intervention's timetable and the proposed activities granted students the time to participate,

present their work, and interact with their classmates and with me. Rovai (2002), states that small

size classroom promote a sense of community. However, we do not have the number of students

that we would like to have so that I suggest teachers-researchers to try to provide each student

the same time to participate letting them know how much time they had beforehand.

Another constrain was that some students tended to read their activities instead of

explaining them. Students presented their activities to the class, and online communication

provoked some students to feel free to read. Nonetheless, after each student's presentation, there

was always time for questions and comments from their classmates so that they needed to

express their ideas instead of reading their material. Indeed, this interaction was the most

important moment in the class to construct meaning as a community of practice. It is essential to

promote interaction among peers to avoid students read prepared material.

The third limitation was the worldwide difficult situation that we are facing as humanity.

As a teacher, I had to think of strategies that let my students to focus and had a comfortable


environment. Students used to have their face-to-face lessons, and during the study, they were

locked down in their houses. For that reason, the warm-up activities needed to be very well

thought. In fact, in some lessons, we had five minutes of meditation, which invited the students

to breathe, relax, enjoy the present moment, and be ready to start. The English language teaching

practice has changed considerably. Hence, the warmup activities that teachers propose should

address the peace and comfort of human being. That is why I suggest considering meditation,

brain gym or relaxing activities in this time of remote lessons during pandemic.

Further research

This research study opens windows for future research to understand the sense of

community in virtual environments in the EFL classroom. Even though some studies explore the

sense of community, as I show in chapter II, this study considered using community-based

pedagogies in virtual environments to understand how students reconstruct their sense of

community.

After doing the pedagogical intervention, the data collection, and the data analysis, I

reflected upon the following topics. Students showed traces of sense of agency stating their voice

during the intervention. Therefore, sense of agency in virtual environments deserves attention in

the area. At the same time, I wondered if we, teachers-researchers, should go beyond than

understanding students’ sense of community reconstruction in virtual environments.

Furthermore, I asked myself if the students’ multimodal texts should be analyzed to understand

their sense of community. Moreover, emotion is a topic that should be taken into account in the

EFL classroom considering this difficult moment of the pandemic. Additionally, as a teacher I

had to tackle the transition from face-to face curriculum to a virtual one. Hence, it would be


useful to study those transformations in the EFL curriculum. Finally, I noted that life stories are

a rich resource to work in the EFL classroom that should be considered

Further research questions

The following research questions could be an invitation for future research studies:

• What traces of sense of community do students’ multimodal text unveil?

• How to create a sense of community in a EFL remote learning classroom?

• To what extend can the English language classroom mitigate EFL learners’ negative

emotions during the pandemic?

• How to move the EFL face-to-face pedagogical practices to remote lessons?

• How do life stories contribute to the critical literacy process of EFL students?

• What sense of agency do students portray in the EFL virtual classroom?


References

Arnold, J. (2011). Attention to affect in language learning. Anglistik. International Journal of

English Studies, 22(1), 11-22.

Azano, A. (2011). The possibility of place: One teacher’s use of place-based instruction for

English students in a rural high school. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26(10),

1-12.

Bickel, B., Shin, J., Taylor., Faust, H., Penniston, T. (2013). Learning English internationally

while engaging communities locally: online EFL supporting community learning for

young leaders. TESOL Journal. 4(3), 439- 462.

Belsey, C. (1980). Critical practice. Routledge.

Bolaños, F., Florez, K., Gomez, T., Ramirez, M., Tello, S. (2018). Implementing a community-

based Project in an EFL rural classroom. Colomb. Appl. Linguist. J, 20(2), 274-289

Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative

analysis. Sage publications.

Chiu, C., Hsu, M., & Wang, E. (2006). Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual

communities: An integration of social capital and social cognitive theories. Decision

Support System, 42(3), 1872-1888.

Comber, B. (2018). Community-based approaches to foreign language education. Colomb. Appl.

Linguist. J. 20(2), 153-160.

Comber, B. (2016) Literacy, place and pedagogies of possibility. Routledge.

De Sousa Santos, B. (2010). Descolonizar El Saber, Reinventar El Poder. 1st ed. Trilce.

Comber, B. (2015). Critical literacy and social justice. Journal of Adolescent & Adult

Literacy, 58(5), 362-367


Cohen, L., Manion, L., and Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education. (6th Ed.)

Routledge.

Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods

Approaches. (4th Ed.) SAGE Publications.

Croker, R. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. In Heigham, J. & Croker, A (Eds.),

Qualitative research in applied linguistics a practical introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.

Demarest, A. (2015). Pace-based curriculum design: exceeding standards through local

Investigations. Routledge.

Esposito, L. (2012) Where to begin? Using place-based writing to connect students with their

local communities. The English Journal, 101(4), 70-76.

Freire, P. (1985). Reading the world and reading the word: an interview with Paulo

Freire. Language Arts, 62(1), 15-21. www.jstor.org/stable/41405241

Freire, P., and Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: reading the word and the world. Westport,

CO. Bergin & Garvey

Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Edition. Continuum.

Freeman, D. (1998). Doing teacher -research: From inquiry to understanding. Heinle &

Heinle. Cengage Learning

Gómez, P., & Cortés-Jaramillo, J. (2019). Constructing sense of community through community

inquiry and the implementation of a negotiated syllabus. Gist Education and Learn

Research Journal. 18, 68-85.

Goodson, Ivor (2014). Defining the self through autobiographical memory. In Goodson, I and

Gill, S. Critical narrative as a pedagogy. Bloomsbury


Gruenewald, D. (2003a). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-

conscious education. American Educational Research, 40(3), 619-654

Gruenewald, D. (2003b) The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place.

Educational researcher, 32 (4), 3-12

Gutiérrez, D. (2020). Problematizing the community: voices from secondary school students.

[Unpublished master’s thesis] Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.

Hampton, K. Wellman, B. (2018) Lost and saved… Again: The Moral Panic about the Loss

of Communities takes Hold of Social Media. Contemporary Sociology, 47(6), 643-651

Hinkel, E (Ed.) Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and

Learning United States, New York & UK, Oxford: Routledge.

Hernández Gómez, Z. (2016). Third graders as community inquirers writing their worlds.

[Unpublished master’s thesis] Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.

Irfani, B. (2014) Syllabus design for English courses. English Education: Journal Tadris Bhasa

Inggris. (6)1,21-41

Janks, H., Rogerts, R., & O’Daniels, K. (2017) Language and power in the classroom. T.L.

McCarty, S. May (eds.), Language Policy and Political Issues in Education,

Encyclopedia of Language and Education, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-02344-1_15

Kalman, J. (2000) El estudio de la comunidad como espacio para leer y escribir. Red revista

Brasilera de Educacao, (26), 5-26.

Kincheloe, J. L., McLaren, P., Steinberg, S. R, Monzó, L., (2017) Critical Pedagogy and

Qualitative Research: Advancing the Bricolage. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincon

(Eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. (5th ed.) (pp.235-260)


Thousan Oaks, CA: Sage.

Kress, G., Leite-Garcia & van Leeuwen, T. (2000). Semiótica Discrusiva. En. Van Dijk, T.

(2000). El discurso como estructura y proceso. Gedisa.

Kozinets, R. (2002). The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing

research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research,39(1), 61- 72.

https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.39.1.61.18935

Kozinets, R. (2010). Netnography: Doing etnographic research online. SAGE Publications

Ltd.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Post method condition. In Understanding language teaching:

from method to post method. Routledge.

https://livelongday.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/kumaraposmethod.pdf

Kumaravadivelu B. (2003) Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for Language Teaching. Yale

University. Yale University Press.

https://www.ugr.es/~isanz/archivos_m3thodology/kumaravidelulibrocap1.pdf

Ledward, B. C., & Hirata, D. (2011). An overview of 21st century skills. Summary of 21st

century skills for students and teachers. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools–Research &

Evaluation.

Lampirini, K. (2016). Social excluison of elderly. J Health Commun, 1(3), 1-3.

Lastra, S., Durán, N. & Acosta, D. (2018). Community based pedagogy as an eye–

opening for pre-service teachers’ initial connections with the school curriculum.

Colomb. Appl. Linguistic. J., 20(2), 209-229.

Luke, Allan. (2000). Critical literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint.


Journal for Adolescent & Adult literacy. 43, 1-19.

Lian Gao, Xi. (2020). Students’ sense of community and perspectives of taking synchronous and

asynchronous online courses. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15 (1), 169-179.

Medina, R.A., Ramírez, L. M., and Clavijo, A. (2019). Leer la comunidad críticamente en

la era digital: una mirada desde las multiliteracidades. In Clavijo and Ramírez (Ed.),

Las pedagogías de la comunidad a través de investigaciones locales en el contexto

urbano de Bogotá. (57-78). Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.

Mendieta, J.A. (2013). Narrative research: An alternative approach to study language

teaching and learning. Folios (37), 135-147.

Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and

implementation (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Mignolo, W. (2000). Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and

Border Thinking. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

McMillan, D., & Chavis, D. (1986). Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory.

Journal of Community Psychology, (14), 6-23.

McMillan, J., & Schumacher, S. (2005). Investigación educativa una introducción

conceptual. Pearson Education.

Moll, L. (1994) Literacy Research in community and classrooms: a sociocultural approach. In

Rudell, R., Rapp, R., Singer, H (Eds.), Theoretical models and process of reading (pp.179-

205) International Reading Association.

Nieto, J., & Suzanne Valery. (2006). Creating a sense of community in the classroom. Journal of

Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, 3(5), 71-87.

Nieto, Y. (2019). Promoting the Use of Local Literacies among EFL University Teachers: Sources


to Connect Curriculum and Teaching. [Unpublished master’s thesis] Universidad Distrital

Francisco José de Caldas.

Nation, I.S.P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. Routledge.

Ramirez, L., & Cerón, A. (2019). Una mirada al entorno y las manifestaciones estético-

políticas de los jóvenes de la comunidad Alfonsina. In Clavijo and Ramirez (Ed.), Las

pedagogías de la comunidad a través de investigaciones locales en el contexto urbano de

Bogotá. (pp. 205-218) Bogotá: Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.

Razak, N., & Saeed, M. (2015). EFL Arab Learners’ Peer Revision of Writing in a Facebook

Group: Contributions to Written Texts and Sense of Online Community. English

Language Teaching, 8(12), 11-26.

Roed, J. (2003) Language learner behaviour in a virtual environment. Computer Assisted

Language Learning, 16 (2-3), 155-172.

Rovai, A. (2002) Building a sense of community at distance. International Review of

Research in Open and Distance learning, 3 (1), 1-16.

Roso, G. (2018, September 26). Educación: El mal negocio de ser profesor en Colombia. Revista

semana. https://www.semana.com/opinion/columnistas/articulo/el-mal-negocio-de-ser-

profesor-en-colombia-por-julio-rozo/262608/

Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier.

Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International

Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1).

http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm


Shunck, D., & Zimmerman, B. (2008). Motivation and self-regulated learning: Theory, research

and applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Taylor & Francis group

Sharkey, J., Clavijo, A., & Ramirez, M. (2016). Developing a deeper understanding of

community- based pedagogies with teachers: Learning with and from teachers in

Colombia. Journal of Teacher Education. 67(3), 1-14.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022487116654005

Sharkey, J. (2012). Community-based pedagogies and literacies in language teacher

education: Promising beginnings, intriguing challenges. Íkala: Revista de Lenguaje

y Cultura, 17(1), 9-13

Sharkey, J., & Clavijo-Olarte, A. (2012) Community-Based Pedagogies: Projects and

possibilities in Colombia and the United States. In Honigsfeld, A. & Cohan, A (Eds.),

Breaking the Mole of Education for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.

Innovate and successful practices for the 21st century. Rowman & Littlefield

Publishers, Inc.

Sharkey, J. (2004). Lives stories don't tell: exploring the untold in autobiographies.

Curriculum Inquiry, 34(4), 495-512. www.jstor.org/stable/3698497

Smith, G. A., & Sobel, D. (2010). In Place- and community-based education in schools. New

York Routledge.

Shor, I. (1992). Empower education: critical teaching for social change. The University of

Chicago Press.

Vargas, V., & Madrigal, V. (2018). The empathetic EFL classroom: a path to creative thinking.

Revista de Lenguas Modernas, (29), 161-173.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). The mind in society: The development of higher psychological process.


Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press.

Wenger, E. (2001). Comunidades de práctica: Aprendizaje, significado e identidad. Paidos.

Wen Su, S. (2012). The various concepts of curriculum and the factors involves in curricula-

making. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, (3)1,153-158.


Appendix A Consent Form Model

Apreciados estudiantes Intermedio II: En el momento me encuentro adelantando la maestría en Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera en la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas y estoy interesada en realizar mi intervención pedagógica con ustedes. La intervención pedagógica hace parte del trabajo de investigación “Understanding EFL Students’ sense of community in virtual environments” (Comprendiendo el sentido de comunidad en estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en ambientes virtuales). Está intervención pedagógica prentende hacer uso de las pedagogías basadas en el lugar y en la comunidad con el fin de analizar la manera cómo ustedes reconstruyen sentido de comunidad en ambientes virtuales. El principal objetivo es beneficiarlos proceso de aprendizaje proponiendo trabajo colaborativo, fomentando discusión, intercambio de conocimientos, experiencias y constante contacto con la lengua inglesa con el fin de construir comunidad de aprendizaje. En este semestre recopilaré datos y analizaré sus producciones orales y escritas. Así mismo, observaré sus interacciones virtuales a través de Edmodo, WhatsApp y encuentros vía Teams. Realizaré entrevistas con algunos de ustedes para verificar información. Por otro lado, conformaré dos grupos focales; uno al iniciar y otro al finalizar la intervención pedagógica. Cabe indicar que daré un tratamiento de información confidencial las producciones, ideas y opiniones de ustedes. En primera instacia les expliqué de qué se trata el proyecto y les solicité que firmen un consentimiento informado. Sin embargo, si tienen alguna duda pueden preguntar en el momento que lo deseen. De igual manera, mantendré en anonimato sus identidades y ustedes podrán hacer uso de un seudónimo. Todo la información que ustedes suministren es exclusivamente para uso educativo e investigativo. De antemano agradezo la atención prestada. Cordialmente, Nombre: ____________________

Firma: ______________________

Seudónimo: _________________



Appendix B. Pedagogical intervention timetable

Content

Activities

Driving

questio

ns

Didactic materials

Instrument

collected

Session 1 Aug 15th

2020

My autobiography (Institutional syllabus

topic: Identity)

Students are given some questions to reflect on their lives and the people they have shared with and have taught them something. They also watch videos about how to write paragraphs. Homework: Students write an autobiography as homework and find an innovative manner to present it to the class.

Who am I?

1. Video how to write a good paragraph 2. Autobiography guidelines

Sessions

2 & 3 Aug 22nd/

29th 2020

Exploring autobiographies

Students present their autobiographies in the classroom in a synchronic manner and comment on their classmates’ autobiographies in Edmodo.

Students’ autobiographies presentations

1.Students’ autobiographies presentations 2.Students’ comments in Edmodo 3.Teachers’ field notes

Session 4 Sept 5th

2020

My virtual community (Institutional syllabus

topic: tales)

The students and the teacher talk about the community and build a community and virtual community definition. Afterward, the teacher invites students to explore the virtual communities they are part of.

Where do I belong to?

Teacher’s guidelines

1. Students’ comments in Edmodo 2.Teachers’ field notes

Session 5 Sept 12th

2020

Students’ virtual communities

FIRST TERM EXAM

Students present their virtual communities

Students’ virtual communities’ presentations


Session 6 Sept19th

2020

Feedback

1. Students present their virtual communities 2. Group interview about students' experiences when they presented their communities and their autobiographies.

Students’ virtual communities’ presentations

1. Students’ comments in Edmodo 2.Teachers’ field notes 3.Group internet interview

Session 7 Sept 26th

2020

Exploring members of virtual communities

(Institutional syllabus topic: future)

The teacher and students recognize the importance of different members of their virtual communities. Homework: students explore the people from their virtual communities and write a profile informing who they are

Who belongs to my community?



Sessions

8 & 9 Oct 3rd & 10th 2020

Exploring members of the community

The students do their presentations about the people they found in their communities.

Students’ community members profile


Sessions 10 & 11 Oct 17th

& 24th

Presenting interview of members of the students’ virtual

communities. Second Term Exam

Students present their reports about members of their virtual communities

Student’s presentations Community member interview


Session 12

Oct 31st

Feedback &

Second Interview

1.The teacher gives students’ feedback about their process. 2.Students talk about their process of working with people from their communities

Student’s presentations Community member interview

1. Students’ comments in Edmodo 2.Teachers’ field notes 3.Group internet interview


Appendix C. Interview protocols

Group interview 1 (Semi-structure interview) Objectives of the interview

• To identify students’ perceptions about the activities that we have done during the first stage of the research

• To identify traces of students’ sense of community • To determine students’ ideas about how they make strong bonds with the members of the

community. In this case, the English course. Questions Dear students, As you know, we have done two small projects in the class; the autobiographies and your presentations about your virtual communities. I want to listen to your comments about those activities. Let’s start with your autobiographies.

1. How did you feel about the autobiography activity? 2. What did you learn from that experience? 3. What was useful about that activity for you? Why? 4. If we had the chance to do the activity again, what would you do differently? Why? 5. How many people did you know through these autobiographies? 6. What did you learn about your classmates’ autobiographies? 7. Why did you decide to comment on your selected classmate’s autobiography?

We explored your virtual communities, you did a presentation about them, and you gave us details about one of those communities.

8. What do you think about your virtual communities presentations? Why? 9. What did you learn from that experience?

In one of our lessons, we defined a virtual community.

10. Do you feel part of this community? Why? 11. What have you learnt from this community and its members? Why? 12. Have you done anything for the members of this community? What have you done? 13. What do you think members of this group should do to improve our relationship as a

group that shares a common goal?


Group Interview 2 Objectives

• To understand students’ experiences when they worked with members of their virtual communities

• To understand how students see themselves and others as members of the community while interacting virtually

• To identify students’ reconstruction of the sense of community in their virtual communities.

Documents

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas School of