LATEST PROJECTS
FONDECYT 121 0392 Analysing the influence of university rankings on institutional practices in Chilean Higher Education (2021-2023)
Investigador Responsable: Stephen Darwin
Co-Investigadora: Malba Barahona
This three-year, qualitative research study will systematically investigate the nature and effect of global and local university rankings and their effect on institutional practices in Chilean higher education, as well as potential alternative scales that may more productively benchmark the quality of different teaching and research orientations across institutions. The primary objective of this research is to critically evaluate the design and effect of the range of global and local university rankings currently applied to Chilean universities, understand their local effect and analyse and pilot potential alternative rankings designs.
FONDECYT 1210867 Investigating the development of professional pedagogical responsibility of English language student teachers in chile (2021-2024)
Investigadora Responsable: Malba Barahona
Co-Investigador: Stephen Darwin
This is a four-year project with a mixed method research design. The aim of this project is to systematically identify and understand the significance of pedagogical practices in Initial English language teacher education programmes that enable and constrain the development of professional responsibility.
FONDECYT Project Nº 11170340: Developing and enacting knowledge for teaching English in Chile: a study of pre-service teachers’ learning trajectories throughout their progressive practicums (2017-2020)
This study intends to harness the understanding of how pre-service teachers develop and enact knowledge for teaching English over two practicum experiences. This will be based on an initial study of knowledge of how to teach English is understood in research literature, in order to create a synthesis and critical review of the nature of this development. Based on this foundation, the research design is founded on a longitudinal case study that will investigate how a cohort of pre-service teachers of English develop and enact knowledge for teaching English in practice during two practicum experiences during two teaching practices over a period of 18 months.
Thus, the expected outcomes of this study will be:
• A synthesis and critical review of the nature and path of pre-service teachers’ development of knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language
• A holistic understanding of pre-service teachers’ path and patterns of development of knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language
• A theoretical and empirically based framework of core teaching practices to be taught and integrated in the progressive practices in initial English language teacher education
You can read more about the project and its results here.
Project Semilla PUCV | La identidad de los profesores de inglés en Chile (2017-2018)
This project has been funded by PUCV proyecto semilla.
Objectives of the study
–to characterise who the current Chilean teachers of English are;
–to understand how teachers conceptualise their job as teachers of English; and
–to explore new resignifications of the current role of Chilean teachers of English.
A survey across the country has been undertaken by Chilean teachers of English.
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Key results from this study can be read in the article Barahona, M., & Ibaceta-Quijanes, X. (2020). Neither Fish nor Fowl: the Contested Identity of Teachers of English in an EFL Context. RELC Journal, 51(3), 347–363. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688219847315
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Project | Improving Collaboration between schools and universities to support more effectively pre-service teachers´ learning (2015-2017)
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This work was funded by the Chilean government through CONICYT (PAI 82140007) and sponsored by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
This project sought to understand how teacher educators and teacher mentors support EFL pre-service teachers in the activity of learning to teach EFL across Chile. It worked to find ways for teacher educators and teacher mentors to collaborate and to more effectively collaborate to support the development and capabilities of pre-service teachers.
Outcomes of the project can be seen at https://malbabarahona.wixsite.com/efltriad