Resumen de Enacting Agency and Valuing Rural Identity by Exploring Local Communities in the English Class

Lucelly Paredes-Mendez, Ingrid Alexandra Troncoso-Rodriguez, Sandra Patricia Lastra Ramírez

• This article reports on an action research study about the exploration of local communities to enact agency and value rural identity. Thirty-three students from a rural public school in Colombia participated in the study. Our aim was to examine ways in which students enacted agency as a result of participating in local community inquiry to realize the predominant value of their identity as farmers. Data were gathered through a focus group, interviews, students’ artifacts, and teacher journals. Results showed that when communities are linked with classroom practices and foreign language learning, English becomes a vehicle to explore their places, who they are as members of the community, and how to promote decision making to help others.