2020
Due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19, the exchange to Ohio was suspended, as well as the in-person interventions in schools. However, the Teachers Across Our events, now offered online, are free and open to the general public.
Collaborative writing of a book from the project TaB-UFPR
When reflecting on the entire journey and production of the project Teachers across Borders: initial and continuing education in foreign and additional languages over the past five years, since its pilot phase in 2017, coordinators Angela Walesko and Juliana Martinez considered the publication of a book containing the history and memory of the project, further enhancing the work and dedication of all involved. Moreover, sharing the experiences could inspire other institutions in their proposals for teacher education, as well as teachers in formation and teachers already working in our schools, especially in Primary Education, to work with literacy, multi-literacy and critical literacy in their classes. In this way, it would be an opportunity to review their teaching materials, their students, their school space and their methodologies in a critical-reflective way, in order to transform their practices and, from there, people and education as a whole.
Thus, during 2020 and 2021, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, several remote meetings were held with primary education teachers who had participated in the previous actions of the PsF-UFPR project for the collaborative writing of a book. In particular, those who had participated in the course “International and intercultural teacher training a collaboration between UFPR and Otterbein” in 2019 and the course “Shared Teacher Education in Brazil: UFPR – Otterbein” in 2018 were invited. In these two moments, it was possible to carry out collaborative work with the partnership of American teachers (linked to the University of Otterbein), build and implement Critical Literacy projects in English classes, planned from the reflections, readings and discussions present in the courses.
The Critical Literacy projects developed in English in public schools in the city of Curitiba and metropolitan region and in the city of Ponta Grossa, in Paraná, sought to emphasize the educational value of teaching English through critical language education based on themes relevant to the profile of students in the classes in which they would be implemented (11 schools in the year 2018 and 09 schools in 2019).
Themes such as the impact of social networks on life nowadays, the issue of racism, the challenges of bullying, the role of education, respect for differences, among many others, were developed by small groups of English language teachers. Therefore, the school projects served as a way to give new meaning to the teaching of English language in Primary Education, showing that the teaching-learning of a foreign language is, in fact, a possible and fruitful path, if we consider a socio-discursive perspective of language that involves different social practices.
As a collaborative writing proposal, the chapters about the projects were developed by the teacher-authors in a dialogical way, guided by questions elaborated in an interview format by the organizers (coordinators of the PsF-UFPR project). There were also meetings for guidance on writing, discussed collectively, and feedback sent by the fellows and the coordinators, in synchronous group and individual meetings. This process of monitoring and guidance was fundamental for those who had never had the opportunity to write and publish before. As a result, we can see the quality of the articles produced.
Finally, the book will present the history and memory of the project, with a conceptual chapter on collaborative practices and the theories that underlie them, which guide all the intercultural teacher education work developed in the project’s actions, locally and internationally. Readers can expand their reading in the chapters about the Critical Literacy projects in schools and experience reports from teacher trainers and exchange students.
We hope you enjoy our publication!
Event Teachers without Borders annual meeting: sharing educational experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic – 2020
With the suspension of classroom activities in schools and at the university due to the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, the PsF-UFPR project could not offer in-person teacher education courses and events throughout the school year. Thus, we offered the online event: Teachers without Borders annual meeting: sharing educational experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic, as an opportunity for intercultural dialogue and socialization between Brazilian undergraduates and English language teachers and U.S. teachers working in public basic education, to share educational experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The event, which took place on December 8th, 2020, promoted the critical reflection of the participants about the limits and potentialities of the pandemic in the educational area in different cultural contexts through intercultural dialogue. It was also possible to reflect on the impacts of social isolation and Emergency Remote Learning (ERE) for students and teachers in Brazil and in the USA, discuss pedagogical alternatives that have been adopted and that may come to be re-signified in Basic Education in the pandemic and post-pandemic period.