Educational Relationships Between Children and the City: Empirical Notes and Conceptual Debate.

Author(s):

Elisabete Xavier Gomes

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

15. Research Partnerships in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

15 SES 07 A,

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

15:30-17:00

Room:

JUR, HS 16

Chair:

Philippe Masson

Contribution

This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the educational dimensions of contemporary European cities, namely regarding the possibility of an educational relationship between children and the city. It comprehends different parts; the first will develop the context and relevance of the theme and research problem, the second will give empirical evidences of an on-going study case and the final part will introduce some issues of debate. Given the centrality of cities in the definition of an idea of Europe, as Steiner (2005) elaborates it, and the data about the urbanization and ageing of the European societies (UE, s.d.; Steinbucka, 2008) we lack systematic thinking and policy about the educational potentialities of contemporary cities. There are different ways to ground this statement; ours depart from evidences of the increasing amount of institutions that develop educational programs and activities, specially targeting children. We refer to the rise of educational services in cultural, artistic and scientific institutions (ACS), like museums, theatres, galleries or institutes of science – this, like schools, are modern institutions, but, unlike schools, they were not meant to the education of all, but to the enhancement of the high culture of societies’ elites. How can the educational services of ACS institutions be understood? In what ways do they bound to school education? How do these educational dynamics affect life in cities? Given this specification of the research theme, we will analyze the adequacy of educational sciences to comprehend it - analyzing both theory and evidence in educational research about this phenomenon. We consider, here, the trilogy of formal, non-formal and informal education (Belle, 1982; Poizat, 2003; Rogers, 2005), the educating city (Trilla Bernet, 1990; Gomes, 2008 a) and urban education (Colom Cañelas, 1990). The empirical context of the research is Lisbon, where I’ve been developing a case study with a group of children of a public primary school, whose teacher has a remarkable work regarding the diversification of pedagogical experiences in out-of-school premises (Gomes, 2008 b). In this paper, I will introduce a first attempt of triangulating children’s, parents’, teachers’ and ACS educators’ perspectives about potential specificities of children’s educational processes in the context of urban institutions – ACS and schools. Within the above mentioned framework, these preliminary findings will give ground to the discussion about whether or not the established knowledge in educational sciences allows the comprehension of this dimension of contemporary life in the cities.

Method

The preliminary findings introduced by this paper arise from a case study. This methodological option aims to correspond to the complexity and the assumed novelty of the research problem and context (Gomes, 2008 a). As all case studies in the educational research field (Yin, 2005), this made use of an assembly of techniques – relying mainly on direct observation of children in pedagogical situations, interviews to teachers, ACS educators, children and parents, as well as questionairies to parents were also used. In this context, the paper will present the author’s first attempt to cross the perspectives of the engaged children and adults, exclusively about the underlying hypothesis of a particular kind of educational relationship between children and the city. This means that data will be shown deriving from: - Parents’ questionnaires; - Teacher’s interview; - ACS institutions educators’ or coordinators’ interviews; - Children’s diverse instruments of participant observation.

Expected Outcomes

Drawing on an on-going research process, this paper aims no more than to promote a debate over the need of further investigation about children’s learning lives (Biesta, 2008) in the context of contemporary cities. Placing children’s educational processes in the context of European urbanized and aged societies and in the framework of a so called lifelong learning paradigm, we intend to verify whether or not educational sciences knowledge offers a comprehensive approach to the aimed empirical phenomena. On the other hand, we expect also to have the feed-back of an international audience about the validity and relevance of the research theme and the methodological options as well as the theoretical ground. Alternative approaches to the problem would be welcome to the improvement of the work.

References

AAVV. (2008). Educación y vida urbana. X Congress Interrnacional de Ciudads Educadoras. Barcelona: Associación Internacional de Ciudads Educadors. Bekerman, Z., Burbules, N. C., & Silberman-Keller, D. (2006). Learning in Places. The informal education reader. New York: Peter Lang. Belle, T. L. (1982). Formal, Non-formal and Informal Education: a Holistic Perspective on Life Long Learning. International Review of Education , 28, nº2, 159-175. Biesta, G. (August de 2008). Teaching and Learning Research Briefing: Learning Lives: learning identity and agency in the life course. Obtido em 15 de January de 2009, de Learning Lives: http://www.learninglives.org Colom Cañelas, A. J. (1990). Urban Pedagogy: the conceptual framework to the educating city. In A. d. Barcelona, The educating city. I Congrés Internacional de Ciutats Educadores (pp. 113-125). Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona. Gomes, E. X. (2008 a). Children's educational processes in contemporary cities: preliminary findings and insights from a case study deloped in Lisbon. Paper presented at Pre-Conference. From Teaching to Learning. European conference on Educational Research. Selected by the review comitee of the Best Paper competion to be submited to the European Educational Research Journal. Gomes, E. X. (2008 b). Do Estado Educador à Cidade Educadora. «Complexidade: um novo paradigma para investigar e intervir e educação?»Actas do XIV Congresso AFIRSE/AIPELF (pp. CD-ROM). Lisboa: AFIRSE-AIPELF. Karsten, L. (2003). Family Gentrifiers: chalenging the City as a Place simmultaneously to build a carrer and to raise children. Urban Studies , 40, nº12, 2573-2584. Lima, J. Á. (2007). Redes na educação: questões políticas e conceptuais. Revista Portuguesa de Educação , 20 (2), 151-181. Mayall, B. (2007). Children's lives outside school and their educational impact. Primary Review Research Briefings 8/1. Cambridge: Universidade de Cambridge. Poizat, D. (2003). L'éducation non formelle. Paris: L´Harmattan. Rogers, A. (2005). Non-formal Education: flexible schooling or participatory education? Hong Kong: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Steinbucka, I. (June de 2008). The Urban Audit. Measuring the Quality of Life in European Cities. Obtido em 4 de February de 2009, de www.urbanaudit.org: http://www.urbanaudit.org Steiner, G. (2005). A ideia de Europa (2ª ed.). Lisboa: Gradiva. Trilla Bernet, J. (1990). Introduction. In A. d. Barcelona, The Educating City (pp. 13-21). Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona. Yin, R. (2005). Estudo de caso. Planejamento e métodos. Porto Alegre: Bookman. UE. (s.d.). Urban Audit Perception Survey. Local Perceptions of Quality of Life in 31 European Cities. www.urbanaudit.org.

Author Information

Elisabete Xavier Gomes

UniversidadeNovaLisboa

UIED

Lisboa

174

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