The hidden curriculum of work in English language education

Abstract

There has been a rapid global expansion of English instruction in the early grades in public school curricula. Particularly in so-called developing countries, the increase of and its shift from exclusively private to public education is linked to the idea that acquiring English promotes personal, social, and economic development. The author takes one case of a recent early English program, the national program in Mexico, and argues that it is a representative case of a language education programme and policy organized around neoliberal principles. The policy’s stated goal is to address issues of access and equity for public school students; however, findings indicate that the actual processes of teaching and learning at the classroom level remain highly stratified across social class lines. An analysis of English lessons in schools at different points on the socioeconomic spectrum illustrates that instruction is preparing children with certain types of skills and dispositions congruent to their class position and revealing the hidden curriculum of work in early English education.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet: A Critique of Neoliberal Motivations Orienting the Promotion of Public Bilingual Schools to Young Learners in Brazil

“…And even though the Brazilian public schooling system is the focus of this paper, the neoliberal motivations to teach English to young learners may be traced to other countries such as Nepal (Sah, 2021), Spain (Lasaosa, 2021), and Japan (Smith, 2021). In short, the English learning fever is a global phenomenon (Sayer, 2019). As we will illustrate in this paper, it is not only the English language that has been promoted to young learners based on neoliberal motivations, Spanish -at least in certain areas of Brazil -has also benefited from this line of neoliberal reasons.…”

Inglês e avaliação no ensino fundamental I: Propostas para o PNE 2025-2035

“…Simultaneamente, observa-se a crescente oferta do ensino de línguas adicionais, em especial da língua inglesa, na educação infantil e nos anos iniciais do EF por iniciativa de projetos municipais, estaduais ou de universidades públicas (Enever, 2012;Mello, 2013;Merlo, 2018;Sayer, 2019). Tal temática vem sendo abordada por diversos educadores e pesquisadores, pois essa realidade gera demandas importantes que afetam desde a administração escolar até a formação docente para esse contexto (Santos, 2010;Tonelli & Cristovão, 2010;Cirino & Denardi, 2019;Galvão & Kawachi-Furlan, 2021;Batista & Tonelli, 2022;Brossi, 2022).…”

La influencia de las especialidades en el desempeño laboral de los egresados de licenciatura: el caso de una licenciatura en enseñanza del inglés

“…Por último, en educación superior, la mayoría de las universidades han incorporado el inglés como requisito de titulación en sus licenciaturas y de ingreso o egreso a nivel posgrado; así como también se ha promovido su internacionalización (para un análisis más detallado de los programas y de sus resultados y limitantes, revisar a: Bremner, 2020;British Council, 2015;Castillo et al, 2019;López-Gopar et al, 2009;Ramírez-Romero y Vargas-Gil, 2019;y Sayer, 2015, entre otros). Gracias a estos cambios en las políticas y programas anteriores se ha incrementado la demanda de un mayor y más heterogéneo grupo de docentes especializados en la enseñanza del inglés que permita atender al también creciente grupo de estudiantes (Sayer, 2019).…”