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Published:
Jul 25, 2025
Keywords:
English pedagogy students
students’ dreams and aspirations
future educators
qualitative content analysis (QCA)
Chilean education and society

Abstract

This paper analyzes essays by nine English pedagogy students in Chile, written as a response to a national contest that took the poem “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes as a springboard to the expression of the students’ own dreams and aspirations regarding their country. The vision of these future educators is analyzed from a Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) perspective, specifically from  conventional qualitative content analysis, that identified nine different themes. The findings reveal a collective desire among the students for educational reform as a catalyst for social reform. Each essay contributes a unique perspective to the idea of a more just and equitable Chilean society through education. The implications of these findings emphasize the role of educators as agents of change in a society that needs an urgent transformation. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering insights into how future teachers see education reforms as the answer to broader social reforms.

Andrea Campaña García
Diego Mendoza Godoy
Author Biographies

Andrea Campaña García, Universidad de Santiago de Chile

She is a State Professor of English, Master of Arts in English and PhD in Philosophy, Art, and Social Thought. She is a full-time professor at the University of Santiago de Chile where she teaches the following courses for the English Pedagogy degree: Literary Analysis and Interpretation, Literary Research Methodology and Thesis Project. Her research work deals with the contribution of literature in the teaching of English, environmental literacy in the teaching of English and the pedagogy of Gabriela Mistral. She is currently the coordinator of the literature area for the English Pedagogy degree at the University of Santiago de Chile.

Diego Mendoza Godoy, Duoc UC

He is an English teacher from Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) and Master in Linguistics Applied to English as a Foreign Language from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is working as an English teacher at Duoc UC where he teaches general courses and ESP courses. His research work focuses on the use of the knowledge about pedagogical action research and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in educational contexts. He is currently leading a project called R2L Project at Duoc UC in which the Reading to Learn (R2L) methodology is being employed to teach students how to understand and produce the genres of daily routines, personal recounts, and descriptions.

How to Cite
Campaña García, A., & Mendoza Godoy, D. (2025). Reimagining Chile: perceptions of english pedagogy students on the future of chilean education and society. Contextos: Estudios De Humanidades Y Ciencias Sociales, (55). Retrieved from https://revistas.umce.cl/index.php/contextos/article/view/2954

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