Unisangil workshop 3

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.
3. GETTING AHEAD 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
Mass media plays an important role in education in order to
promote peace, justice, freedom, respect, human rights as well as
social and economic progress. Mass media also aims to provide
society with facts and opinions regarding events that take place in
our everyday life. Consequently, it is necessary to foster learners
critical thinking skills to be able to analyze the way different sources
built the memories of a chosen event. (Kolangui, N. T. & Magaña, L. R.,
2014).
One of the objectives in this stage is to develop analytical thinking
skills that allow learners to compare critically information that
comes from different sources.

4. Introducing the events:
Students choose one of the following
sources (an article, an audio or a video) and
take notes on the information provided.
Article
“En San Carlos ya no manda el miedo” El Espectador.
bit.do/rebuildingprojects
Audio
“Pieza Pedagógica”. Centro de Memoria Histórica
bit.do/returnings
Video
“San Carlos - Memories of war exodus”
(from 16:25 to 23:27)
bit.do/exodusinsancarlos

5. Analyzing the events:
After, they complete the graphic organizer using the
information provided in the source they selected to
socialize it within their groups.
Graphic organizers develop cognitive
skills such as retaining and recalling
concepts, organizing and prioritizing
information, as well as critical analysis.
in the classroom.

6. Analyzing the events:
As a group, students analyze the
three sources and discuss the
following questions:
1. Do these sources tell different
stories? If so, how do the stories
differ?
2. How did your understanding of
the “return to San Carlos” change
as you had access to more
sources?
“Ensure that the analysis has been
conducted in its own right before
moving to the creative output
(which students are often eager to
move on to). Experiences from the
experimental application showed
that if the analysis was poor, the
creative output became an exercise
in “telling the story of the event”,
rather than an analysis…”
Errazkin, M. and Martinez, R. (Coords), 2012. Sharing
European Memories at school: working with historical
memory in the classroom.

7. Reporting the events:
Finally, each group creates an
infographic where they report the
return of this community to their
territory after all the years of
violence, as well as the projects
developed to repair the population
and rebuild the social fabric.
Products can be shared in a Padlet
(see some samples in the following
link: bit.do/socialfabricL)
Students could use infographic makers
such Picktochart, Venngage or Canva to
share their creative output.
VARIATION: Have your groups create a
podcast instead of an infographic. Use
Audacity or Garageband.

8. Food for thought!
Can you think of some ways to engage
students to actively participate in any
social project of their community?
What recommendations would you
give to your family, friends, students
and people from San Carlos to avoid
repeating mistakes?