Images for Innovation and Research. Students’ Experiences as Windows for Curriculum Co-Creation
Author(s):
Ignacio Haya (presenting / submitting) Susana Rojas (presenting) Teresa Susinos
Conference:
ECER 2017
Network:
22. Research in Higher Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 D,

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
13:30-15:00
Room:
K5.19
Chair:
Tamás Kozma

Contribution

This paper is the result of the joint development of two projects: the first being ‘Innovation networks for social and educational inclusion’, R+ D+ i Project founded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (EDU2011-29928- C03-03), and the second ‘Images through dialogue. Innovation in Higher Education’, approved in the 3rd Call for Innovation in Teaching at the University of Cantabria (Spain).

This paper is concerned with the commitment we do have in order to mantain and feed significant links between our teaching practice and the research we carry out in schools or other social entities. In both, research and teaching, the promotion of improvement processes according inclusive education are at the core of our activity (Sapon-Shevin, 2013). More specifically, in this paper we aim to extract and analyse how both, our innovative proposal for teaching and our research practices are committed and also can be considered “levers for inclusion”. We describe here a teacher training innovative experience in which various lecturers and final-year students of an Education Bachelor Degree participated. More precisely, we will develop in this paper two research questions.

 

Firstly, What aspects of the innovation developed in our teacher training favour real models of inclusion? Our teaching proposal hinges on three fundamental aspects which allow us to try out new ways of relating to knowledge and participating students within the context of university classrooms. We investigate (1) the type of relations that we establish with students, (2) the possibilities for curriculum co-construction processes between teachers and students (Bovill, 2013) and (3) the introduction of new forms of support and opportunities of communication which act as innovative social research methodologies. The collective creation of images enable in this experience to expand the traditional formats of communication, amplify student voice opportunities and reveal barriers and supports for inclusion (Banks, 2001). 

 

Secondly, the teaching innovation proposal provides an opportunity for  teachers and students to try out more inclusive research practices. In order for this to happen we need to ask a new question, What makes educational research more inclusive? In this regard, the classroom becomes a research space from which valuable learning can be extracted  enabling us to establish links with non-university contexts where our research is carried out. The research together with the named innovation itself allows us to understand in greater depth and gives us some clues on how to practice  inclusive and collaborative research (Rojas, Susinos y Calvo, 2013). Specifically, it allows us to practice more horizontal ways of relating to participants. The way the research is designed, the mixed composition of the work team, the identification of needs and decision making throughout the deliberative dialogue constitutes an opportunity for testing (1) authentic inclusive participation strategies (2) promoting safe spaces for deliberation and (3) recognising the possibilities for transformation and impact that the research generates in the participants and their social  contexts.

Method

This research is based on a qualitative approach. We use ethnographical and visual research methods with the main objective of knowing, understanding, promoting and facilitating student participation in the curriculum at the University. Through visual compositions created by students in final year of Education Bachelor Degree we can get to know their conceptual world of inclusion, their knowledge and experiences of inclusive education and their concerns in the school. These creative and participatory productions (Pauwels, 2010) enable us to access their discourses and dialogically review their concerns about other social and educational contexts, mainly schools. The experience presented here covers two academic years involving five teachers and two groups of students (n=70) in the Diversity and Education Course. The research Project began during the 2015/16 academic year with the design and creation of audiovisual material about diversity in education in which 3 students and 5 teachers (different educational contexts) participated. This material is being used during the 2016/17 academic year by the students in order to explore and research what should be the most relevant issues to the development of more inclusive education systems. Seminars, supported by a range of different resources, are organised over 14 weeks with the aim of exploring and discussing exclusion, equity, evaluation, a sense of belonging or bullying, among other Later on, students create still and moving images, supported by different techniques and resources (photography, collage, drawing or video), with the objective of generating questions and dialogue with other members of the educational community, mainly teachers and families in schools. Thus, as some authors point out, (O’Donoghue, 2011; Mannay, 2016), the diffusion of these images provides us with an opportunity to explore spaces that go beyond what is permitted in an ordinary academic context. The process of creation is systematically recorded by students and culminates in the production of a written document in which the decisions taken in relation to the image are analysed and discussed. Furthermore, naturalistic observations, interviews with teachers and discussion groups with students have also taken place. These methods allow us to compile a set of situations and strategies that we define as opportunities for student participation. Some of the creations or visual pieces will form part of a visual catalogue and an exhibition on different educational contexts. The latter is intended to be offered as training material for teachers.

Expected Outcomes

University provides valuable contexts for reflecting on the concepts or meanings that shape the model of inclusive education which are sometimes distorted or blurred in discursive practices. Aware of the need to start from the experience of the students, it has been suggested that the activity cannot be based soley on what the teacher does but rather on what happens in the classroom (Contreras y Pérez de Lara, 2010). Some of the results we will highlight in this paper are: Firstly, the innovation proposal demonstrates the value of a process of curriculum negotiation in wich contents of instruction are permeable to students concerns (Zeichner, 2015). The results reveal some aspects of the teaching and learning process that illustrate the possibilities for the co-construction of the curriculum between students and teachers. Secondly, we will show that the students participation needs some formal channels and deliberative discussion spaces that permeate pedagogical relationships between teachers and students. Thus, classrooms become a scenario for rehearsing new ideas both for teachers and students. The results of this work reveal some collaborative research strategies that we have documented during the different phases of the process: the creation of mixed work groups (students and teachers), collegial decision making, the collective creation of images or the joint writing of research reports among others. Finally, the set of visual material created with students serves as a tool for building bridges between the university context and other educational scenarios. Moreover, students perceive that their productions, which are taken to schools, can contribute to the transformation and improvement of teaching practices in schools and in the university itself.

References

Banks, M. (2001). Visual Methods in Social Research. London: Sage. Bovill, C. (2013). Students and staff co-creating curricula: an example of good practice in higher education? En Dunne, E. y Owen, D. (Eds.) The student engagement handbook. Practice in higher education. (pp. 461-476). Bingley: Emerald. Contreras, J. & Pérez de Lara, N. (2010). Investigar la experiencia educativa. Madrid: Morata. Mannay, D. (2016). Visual, narrative and creative research methods. Routledge: New York. O’Donoghue, D. (2011). Doing and disseminating visual research: visual arts-based approaches. Margolis, E. & Pauwels, L. (Ed), The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods (pp. 638-650). Sage Publications: London. Pauwels, L. (2010). Visual sociology reframed: an analytical synthesis and discussion of visual methods in social and cultural research. Sociological Methods & Research, 38 (4), 545-581. Rojas, S., Susinos, T. y Calvo, A. (2013). ‘Giving voice’ in research processes: an inclusive methodology for researching into social exclusion in Spain. International Journal of Inclusive Education , 17 (2) , 156-173. Sapon-Shevin, M. (2013). La inclusión real: una perspectiva de justicia social. Revista de investigación en Educación, 11 (3), 71-85. Zeichner, K.M. (2015): Democratizing Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 66 (2), 122-135.

Author Information

Ignacio Haya (presenting / submitting)
University of Cantabria
Education
Santander
Susana Rojas (presenting)
University of Cantabria
Education
Santander
Teresa Susinos
University of Cantabria, Spain

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