Representing the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Santiago, Chile (Usach), Dr. Gloria Romero Villarroel featured at IATEFL Brighton 2026 in England. Speaking to an international audience of language educators, the Department of Linguistics and Literature professor delivered the outcomes of her initiative, “Decentring ELT: Connecting regional learning communities in Latin America.”
Sponsored by the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust in partnership with the Chilean Research Network on ELT (RICELT), the initiative has emerged as a premier driver for empowering, funding, and disseminating classroom research conducted by K-12 English teachers.
The project’s central focus is on raising the profile of pedagogical knowledge produced in local contexts, promoting collaborative work among academics, pre-service teachers, and practicing teachers in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, as well as recognizing English teachers as generators of situated knowledge.
The project’s central mission is to elevate locally generated teaching knowledge through cross-border collaboration. By connecting scholars, pre-service teachers, and practicing teachers across Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, the initiative recognizes English language teachers as producers of situated pedagogical research.
In this regard, Dr. Romero noted that “this project, the result of a partnership between RICELT and the Hornby Trust, stems from the conviction that valuable pedagogical knowledge also emerges from the peripheries.” The presentation at IATEFL sought to highlight the research that school teachers are conducting to improve their English teaching practices, as well as to share a series of interactive infographics based on exploratory action research carried out by English teachers in three communities in Latin America.”
Regarding her participation in the conference, she added that “I am proud to have received full funding from the Hornby Educational Trust to share the project’s results. IATEFL is the world’s largest conference in the field of teaching English as a foreign language, bringing together high-caliber scholars and teachers from every corner of the globe.”
The Usach Faculty of Humanities praises Dr. Romero’s participation for driving the international visibility of its academic research while advancing collaborative, situated English language teaching (ELT). This milestone reinforces the university’s strategic commitment to locally relevant knowledge, integrating higher education research, teaching, and community engagement, thus aligning with the current challenges facing higher education.