Basic Education, absolutely necessary in our current world, mainly in intercultural and technological societies, has a relevant meaning in changing rural contexts. Persuaded of this evidence, for more than one year and still throughout this school year, we have implemented a process of didactic innovation and collaborative research, to build up a team of knowledge creation and of research, with participation of National University of Distance Education (UNED) researchers and teachers of the Infant an Primary Education Public School “Fernando Martín”, placed in the regional nucleus of “Mora de Toledo” (Toledo ´s province). For the first year, the central purpose of this study has been “to assess the incidence of organizational flexibility materialized in students´ flexible grouping. For such purpose, every student involved in this project has been placed in one of the three following flexible groups: “reinforcement”, “average” and “enrichment”. Within each one of these groups, students have been working by following “ad hoc” programmes of intellectual development. We have been working on this project by uniting our research expectancies, in Didactics, School Organization and Specific Didactics, to the restructuring plan of a model of institution integrated in the regional reality in evolution, the presence of different cultures within the school and the projection of education in the regional and social context. Our project could, then, be considered as a research initiative within a process or “glocalization”. During the whole process, our aim has been to implement a research project and also to promote educational improvement within the schools and to provoke social coexistence outside the educational institution. This innovation and research project is coherent with our intense working processes implemented throughout last decade (Medina y Cardona, 1997; Medina y Gento, 1995; Medina y Domínguez, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2007; 2008). During this time, we have consolidated a model of integral training for region development. Such educational, didactic, intercultural and interdisciplinary model is committed to education improvement and to localities and regions eco-building and sustainable development. In this report, we present the model consolidation through the analysis of a case study or, more specifically, through an institutional-collaborative case (university and school) in continuous evolution, supported by an “ad hoc” methodology, in institutional harmony, methodological complementariness and projection to the integral improvement of the involved communities, cultures and organizations.

The followed methodological process has tried to promote educational innovation and research development with researchers, teachers and committed parents collaboration. The approach has mainly been qualitative, but in complementariness with the quantitative one. So, we throughout the whole research and innovation process a mixed or eclectic approach has been used. The team mainly made up by university professors and primary teachers have used as methodological core strategy the use of the inquiry technique. For such purpose, an “ad hoc” questionnaire has been elaborated. With participation of the involved university researches and teachers working on the field, a draft instrument was initially designed. By subsequent phases such instrument was submitted to validation process, mainly of content analysis type: fur such purpose, opinions and discourse analysis produced by teachers, families, students and experts was considered. Opinions, observations and rectifications have been included in the final edition of the questionnaire. This instrument included data referred to identification of the considered student and his/her family, such as the next ones:  Data referred to the student: o Name o Age o Country of origin o Flexible group where s/he is included o Data of members of his/her group (number of students, in general and in every flexible level; number of students from foreign countries)  Data of the student ´s family: o Father ´s and mother ´s origin country o Father ´s and mother ´s age o Father ´s studies o Mother studies The relevant dimensions included in the questionnaire and used for the evaluation implemented by teachers have been assessed according to a scale, from 1 (minimum) to 6 (maximum). The dimensions are the following ones:  Context:  Student ´s immigrant family  Immigrant student ´s features  Teachers and their didactic implementation  Interculturality  Intercultural didactic material design. The questionnaire has been used, mainly its basic dimensions, to elaborate interviews and to produce a scenario of detailed study of every teacher, as principal collaborator and promoter of an innovative atmosphere created within the schools. The questionnaire use, as an instrument of diagnostic evaluation and of assessment of the research initial situation, has been completed with observation processes: self and co-observation and narratives produced by the teaching staff are expression of the innovative reality projected to the three groups of organised flexibility, of analysis of formative quality of the implemented programme and of explanation and understanding of the improvement project of students´ education, teachers´ professional development, school transformation and permanent effectiveness. The implemented methodological process has been emerging and consolidating itself throughout a didactic-heuristic process, which has integrated the model of innovative seminar, based on collegiate discussion, and the analysis of quality tasks, together with the content analysis of meetings quality, the updating of didactic discourse and complementariness of methods and techniques of research and didactic proceedings.

 Family’s attitudes towards school. Families usually show favourable attitudes towards the school and to their children educational progress.  Families concern with their children ´s competences. Families are interested in their children ´s acquisition of knowledge, methods and competences.  Educational intervention and student´ s orientation. The families whose children attend this school commit themselves, with low intensity, with their children ´s orientation and education progress. Although teachers try to improve family ´s participation and even intervention in educational activities, the former involvement is still low.  Students´ satisfaction. Students say that their families concern themselves with their children ´s process of learning and give them the necessary means for their optimal personal development. Nevertheless, reality shows that, once families delegate education on school responsibility, their participation is, in general, low.  Student’s competences domain. Teachers express that, in general, students are interested in basic competences acquisition. The highest progress usually appears within students inserted into the “reinforcement” group.  Conflicts solving. Teachers express their opinion that students mostly collaborate with the school in order to solve possible conflicts. In general, students´ emotional and colleagues acceptance level is appropriate.  Collaborative work. The innovation project been given impetus and estimated by this project has promoted collaborative work among students, particularly within the “reinforcement” group, where solidarity is, in general, more intense than in the other groups.  Student ´s involvement in their education. Students forming flexible groups and receiving assistance to their working style in such groups have improved their performance and have more actively committed themselves to continue their effort in order to advance towards their own integral education. Most of the students included in such flexible groups have improved their school culture and they feel themselves identified with the implemented educational tasks.  Teachers. Teachers participating in this innovation and research project have expressed their intense commitment to the project and, particularly, to the idea of setting up flexible grouping and of developing teaching practice through action research. The involved teachers express themselves this way: “We have designed the project as we are initially very sure of its effectiveness to optimally help our students according to their diversity, not only cultural but also meta-cognitive” This initial teacher ´s security is being checked by this project.  Students´ learning improvement. The project has promoted a significant advance in the students´ learning process, in the school culture and atmosphere and in the favourable attitude of learners facing their own development and integral education”.  Students´ performance improvement. The flexible groups have given impetus to students´ school performance, particularly on students with less ability. As a consequence, the groups with the most outstanding performance have been those included in the group called of “reinforcement”.  Competences acquisition. The project has made evident that the formative innovation of developing competences is more effective when working with flexible groups  Interculturality assumption. The flexible grouping functioning has also shown evidence that interculturality is better assumed and most appropriately kept up by working with those set up students groups. Their functioning has shown that they are a highly suitable way of respecting and taking care of every culture  School culture .The school particular culture has been consolidated with the influence of this way of working with flexible groups: those have contributed, not only to increase solidarity among students, but also to expand commitment to the permanent improvement of school, students, teachers and other staff members.  Classroom atmosphere. The school has improved empathy, collaboration and emotionality, as a cohesion increase has emerged among all members together with a high commitment to maintaining an empathetic relationship and an irretrievable tendency towards permanent institutional and self-improvement.  Accommodation to students. The biggest success of the educational process when working with flexible grouping has been the accommodation, not only of activities design but also of the whole global programme, to every student included in any one particular group: “reinforcement”, “average” and “enrichment”.  Context integration. Tasks generated by team working and in each one of the students´ three groups have reinforced and expanded the relationship of the school with the Mora de Toledo ´s locality context and of the region in general, due to the fact that some tasks related to the locality, region and their people ´s development were included in the school programmes.  Community development. Students forming the respective flexible groups have worked on tasks connected to the community development. Such tasks have also been useful to offer new practical ideas to optimize the global advancement of the locality and the region.  Intercultural discourse. The project implementation has had a big repercussion on communication styles and, particularly, in verbal and non verbal codes, and has facilitated the mutual knowledge of diverse cultures. Collaborative activities have also contributed to the continuous improvement of intercultural and interpersonal communication.  Didactic means. The flexible grouping materialises itself in programme and didactic units accommodation to every student ´s development and learning style. The didactic means have been improved and have been widened to adapt themselves to every student ´s rhythm and knowledge style, to his/her maturity and to the personal and collective life project.  ICT support. Didactic means have included the use of specific software, particularly the one offering stories, poems and narrations of every culture.  Grouping suitability. Every flexible working group, particularly the one of “reinforcement”, has meant a clear contribution to every learner and to all studends´ groups as a whole.  Groups flexible interchanging. Teachers participating in this experience express that every group, in its own entity, has offered within itself the possibility of flexible interchange of every student ´s role and placement. Apart from that, some students have changed from one to another group. Nevertheless, those changes to another group have been less than those expected to be.  Improvement within every group. Te group that, till now, has showed higher improvement, particularly in academic performance has been the one of “reinforcement”. The second one has been the “average” group. Although this evidence deserves a more profound study, most probably the assistance to these students was more intense due to the fact that the needed more help.  Cultures influence/interculturality. Cultures have been enriched by the system of working with flexible groups: this enrichment has been produced, not only within each students´ flexible group, but also in the school general atmosphere.