Unisangil Workshop 1

1. Teaching social justice in the EFL classroom
within the Colombian post conflict
María del Pilar Fernández Pedraza M.A.
Leidy Yisel Gómez-Vásquez M.A.
1. CONTEXT STATION

2. Understanding the context
SOMETHING ABOUT SAN CARLOS, ANTIOQUIA
San Carlos is a municipality part of the sub-region of Eastern
Antioquia well-known as the hydro-electrical capital of Colombia due
to its strategic location. San Carlos is a town with great variety of
natural resources: beautiful woods, natural reserves, rivers and
waterfalls, as well as fertile lands that allow the community to
produce coffee, sugarcane, potato and corn.
Unfortunately, due to its strategic location,
San Carlos became the main objective of
different armed groups that wanted to have
control over the territory to impose their
ideologies and benefit their own interests
in detriment of the civil society.

3. Introduction
Providing students with historical background
of a period or conflict helps them understand
multi-casualties of historical events. One of the
objectives in this stage is to have learners
understand San Carlos’ geographical
characteristics, as well as the armed groups’
motivation and actions that caused the conflict
in this region of Antioquia.

4. Introducing the events
Students watch the first part of a video called “San
Carlos- memories of war exodus” (0:00 – 5:00
minutes) and correctly identify the period in which
each event happened.
bit.do/sancarlosexodus

5. Organizing the events
Using www.sutori.com/dashboard, students create
a timeline of the conflict by placing the following
pictures and descriptions taking into account the
information provided in the previous resource.
VARIATION 1: Include national events
from each period as well, so that
students summarize their work by
finding connections between local
and national events.
VARIATION 2: Prepare a big paper roll
so that the whole class creates a big
timeline and break it down into
periods assigned to each group to
examine deeply and present later.

6. This collaborative timeline
presentation tool enhances learners
creativity and critical thinking skills .
Students can embed different
resources such videos, images, sites,
PDFs, Quizlet and Google Docs.
Teachers are able to provide constant
feedback and measure learners
progress.

7. Bloc Metro from the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC) arrived coming from Middle
Magdalena to eradicate the guerrilla due to its
sabotage to infrastructures of the region and their
destabilizing effects.
Image taken from:http://palabrasalmargen.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/R%C3%A9gis-Paramilitares-
Autodefensas-Unidas-Colombia-AUC_ECDIMA20170612_0007_21.jpg

8. Jesús Abad Colorado
FARC and ELN arrived in the territory and
took total control of San Carlos
neutralizing and expelling the authorities
Image taken from: http://www.banrepcultural.org/coleccion-de-arte-banco-de-la-republica/sites/default/files/obra/AP5442-_0.jpg

9. Disputes between FARC and ELN started. Both
armed groups developed war actions against the
community what contributed to a new type of
displacement.
Image taken from:http://www.elchaco.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GUERRILLEROS.jpg

10. Inhabitants were forced to sell their lands and leave their
home to allow the construction of the three Hydroelectric
power plans located in the municipality (San Carlos, Calderas
and Playas). There was no relocation of the community, land
exchange or compensation.
Image taken from: https://www.isagen.com.co/SitioWeb/documents/21223/29164/central-hidroelectrica-san-carlos.jpg

11. The army used to take peasants from Panela Farms near San
Carlos to Samaná in order to hand them over the AUC so that
they killed them claiming that these farmers belong to the
guerrila.
Image taken from: http://resistenciacivildemocratica.org/terrorismo/terror1998.php

12. Social movements (e.g. Movimiento de Acción San Carlitana) were
created to defend people’s social, economic and political interests.
Unfortunately, traditional political movements did not approve
such social actions. Threats and selective murders to civic leaders
started to take place and, consequently, many of them had to flee
to other regions to be safe.
Image taken from: http://humanidadespatoroa.blogspot.com/2014/10/los-movimientos-sociales.html

13. Enforced disappearances, selective murders, eviction orders,
extortion, deprivation of possessions, roadblocks, confinement and
mined fields were some of the actions of a fear-based strategy.
Image taken from: http://s3.amazonaws.com/elcomun/carpeta_ckfinder/files/andres/bultos.jpg

14. Analyzing the events:
1. Once the group fills the timeline,
students analyze deeply the information
in order to identify the causes,
consequences and the actors of the
armed conflict in this particular context.
2. Split the work by making sure one of the
students is in charge of analyzing the
causes, the other the consequences and
the other the actors involved.
3. The group must be ready to socialize
their work in a plenary at the end of the
class.
VARIATION 1: Have students reflect
upon the events that cannot be
repeated from this experience in San
Carlos with the projects the
government is carrying out in the
country nowadays (e.g. Hidroituango or
any other)
Analyze with your class the relevance of
organizing and participating in social
actions to protest against what a
community considers as social injustice

15. Dear teacher,
Can you think about the educational
purposes of using timelines in your
classroom?
Food for thought!