Session Information
15 SES 08, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Within Spain and internationally there is a growing concern about the training, leadership and professional development of teachers and the importance of research and education policies in relation to the practices of innovation and change of school systems (Darling-Hammond, 2001; OECD 2012, 2013) Even since the 80's many authors have shown that action research methodologies as well as the partnership research between the university and the school are valuable forms of teacher development and school improvement in general (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988; Carr, 1993; Elliot, 1990; Ander-Egg, 1990).
In this context, our paper reports on a major action research project running from 2008-2013 in various schools from south of Spain. The overall objective of the research was to “to identify, to analyse, to gain a better understanding and to change educational practices of each participating school, through cooperative work and shared critically reflective practice, in order to find the necessary conditions /enablers schools have to fulfil and promote in order to include and reach every child, no matter what his or her differences are (e.g. race, ethnic group, social class, gender, cognitive feature, religion and other perceived differences)
Our theoretical perspective and the research design of the macro research project were outlined in a previous paper at the EERA-ECER 2013 Conference in Istanbul (López Melero, M. et al, 2013) In this particular paper however, we are going to focus on only one case study of a primary school carried out within the macro action research project. Based on the empirical evidences we will describe the research process, the results and its implications for the participants themselves and their school context. We will highlight two new elements that emerged in this process and we consider of great methodological value to promote and support change in educational practices and to enhance teacher professional development. We refer to cooperative research groups (GIC) and pedagogical reflection sessions between families, students, teachers and researchers.
The GIC is the cooperative research action group formed by researchers from the Research Group of the Junta de Andalucía (HUM -246) and members of the educational community of the school involved in research. GIC´s components assume different roles within the research: reflexive, research oriented, practice based oriented, professional learning.
Pedagogical reflection sessions are continuing professional learning meetings within school, based on topics and demands from the own school community and it is a two way process as it connects theory with practice and practice with theory. Through these meetings researchers, teachers, parents and students have engaged in a series of systematic shared development learning activities like conceptual/ reflective thinking, planning, reading relevant literature and dialogical conversation, reflective journals about the daily classroom practices and auto/evaluation. We consider pedagogical reflection sessions as an innovative element in Spain because they have followed a socio- constructivist perspective´s model (Rogoff, 1990; Kozulin, 2001; Daniels, 2003; Daniels, Cole & Wertsch, 2007; López Melero, 2003, 2004) to respond to the needs felt by the educational community and to benefit the school.
Although in the beginning phase, these meetings started with the participation of researchers and teachers only, it ended up joining them other actors like parents and students to build a real living and learning educational community among families and the school. Hence, one of the conclusions of this research is that the GIC must incorporate not only teachers but also families, as this partnership would give a value of greater scientific rigor and authenticity.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Carr, W. (Ed.). (1993). Calidad de la enseñanza e investigación-acción. Sevilla: Diada. Carr, W, & Kemmis, S. (1988). Teoría crítica de la enseñanza. La investigación acción en la formación del profesorado. Barcelona: Martínez Roca Daniels, H. (2003). Vygotsky y la pedagogía. Barcelona: Ed. Paidós. Daniels, H., Cole M. & Wertsch, J. (2007) (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Darling-Hammond, L. (2001). El derecho de aprender. Crear buenas escuelas para todos. Barcelona: Ariel. Ander-Egg, E.(1990). Repensando la investigación – acción – participativa. Bilbao: Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco. Elliott, J. (1990). La investigación-acción en educación. Madrid: Morata Kemmis, St. & Mctaggart, R. (1988). Cómo planificar la investigación-acción. Barcelona: Laertes Kozulin, A. (2001). La psicología de Vygotsky. Alianza. Madrid: Editorial. López Melero, M. (2003). El Proyecto Roma: una experiencia de educación en valores. Málaga: Ed. Aljibe. López Melero, M. (2004). Construyendo una escuela sin exclusiones. Una forma de trabajar con proyectos en el aula. Málaga: Aljibe. López Melero, M et al (2013).The Action Research in education: Pedagogical ideology and learning strategy, paper at ECER 2013, Istambul, Turkey, 10-13 September OCDE( 2010). The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice. OECD Publishing. OECD(2013).Leadership for 21st Century Learning, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing. Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.
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