From Beans to Bonds: Coffee Culture, Identity, and Community Education

This study, conducted under Action Research principles, involved 47 students from two public schools in rural areas of the department of Tolima. Its main objective was to explore the participants’ coffee culture by implementing Community-Based Pedagogies (CBPs) and facilitating curricular negotiations to highlight and harness the local knowledge and community assets of the regions within an English language learning environment. The study was developed in one cycle divided into three moments, enabling teacher-researchers to gain profound insights into the coffee culture of Delicias and Gaitania. Based on that, exploring the surroundings, along with the implementation of CBPs, served as a valuable tool for comprehending the coffee culture. Furthermore, the purpose was to describe the curricular connections emerging from the exploration of the coffee community and the effects on the English language learning process. Data was collected through interviews, classroom observation, teacher’s journals, learner’s artifacts, and a focus group. Results showed that the local knowledge within these coffee communities can significantly influence curricular constructions by resignifying cultural values within the English classroom. In this regard, students actively engaged in exploring their coffee culture, fostering positive awareness about their identity as coffee farmers. Finally, this study unveiled different understandings of coffee, transitioning from a mere knowledge of coffee production to entrepreneurial actions that benefitted all members of their communities.

• Autores: Artunduaga Garzón, Andrés Enrique; Palomino Herrera, Cristian Camilo
• Fecha de publicación: 2024
• Institución: Universidad del Tolima
• Repositorio: RIUT: Repositorio U. Tolima
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.ut.edu.co:001/3820
• Acceso en línea: https://repository.ut.edu.co/handle/001/3820
• Palabra clave: 370 - Educación; Educación; Cultura cafetera; Pedagogías basadas en la comunidad; Enseñanza de la lengua inglesa; Identidad; Ruralidad; Coffee Culture; Community-Based Pedagogies; English Language Teaching; Identity; Rurality
• Rights: openAccess
• License: http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2