General description on research questions:

Working on the multidimensional and multifactorial nature of social exclusion (Jiménez Ramírez, 2008) we reflect on how the school can be a space for social change.
We analyze how a public school can go beyond the logic of the school as an institution (Mc Laren, 2005) and invest in pedagogical innovation to improve a critical reflection of the people about their condition and their context of life.

Objectives:

In this paper we describe the initiative developed in a public school in a neighborhood of the city of Valencia that is experiencing a deep social transformation related to the environment’s degradation and the ghettoization process.
We began a systematic pedagogical and political analysis on the living conditions of students and their families from an ethnic minority.

Despite the fact that the Spanish model of Roma integration is internationally recognized (Padilla Carmona, González Monteagudo & Soria Vílchez, 2017) and despite the inclusion policies promoted at the national and local level, the Roma community remains in a state of cultural, economic and social marginality and this situation is even more critical for the women (Goienetxea, 2017).

The difficulty of participation in social life makes the gypsy woman the most important advocate to organize future projects against exclusion.

The school embraced the challenge of being a space for social change and opened its doors to a group of mothers from the Roma community.

The condition of school-ghetto became a strength and the local school provided an example of collaboration between institutions, scientific research and families. The women, mothers of some of the students who attend the school, began to collaborate in the curricular proposal and participate in the project Te cuento tu historia (Telling your story) in May 2017.
A collaborative project that focused on the life of the first three years of their children.

The project was exhibited in the school and attended by the families, teaching staff and local institutions. Different methodologies were used; graphic tools, narratives and crochet works; creating and activating a process of self-representation as a means of awareness and interaction between different cultures.

The presentation of the project Te cuento tu historia is the first stage in a journey of collaboration between the Roma community and the local school. The issue that the Roma culture are uninvolved in  education was questioned (Padilla Carmona, González Monteagudo & Soria Vílchez, 2017) and for the first time in November 2017, the Roma women were elected on to the school board.

Theoretical framework:

Social change is based on the opportunity to co-construct knowledge (Borda, 2001) and to perceive the community itself as an integral part of society (Touriñán López, 2010).

The formation of critical thinking from early childhood begins with reflection on the context of life, on how it is described and on the possibility of transforming reality through active and conscious participation (Carvajal, 2016).

Establishing a dialogue between the literature of critical pedagogy (Apple, 2004, Biesta, 2012, McLaren, 2005) and the theory of Empowerment (Humphries, 1994; Kabeer; 1992; Léon, 2015; Rowlands, 1997);  we want to reflect how the school can be a space for social change and can play a fundamental role in the development of practices aimed at overcoming the condition of social exclusion (Blanco, 2006).

Through a participatory and transformative Action Research, eight Roma women began a path of Empowerment that involves the individual, close relationships and the community (Rowlands, 1997). Participatory research is considered as a tool to investigate reality and transform it (Fals-Borda, 2001); a process that integrates social research, education and action (Hall, 2001). The emancipatory nature of Participatory Action Research is linked into the role that participants play in the search for practical solutions, on a continuous cycle of action and reflection (Reason & Bradbury, 2001). The whole process: from the analysis of the context and the problems, to the management of the resources, the design of the actions to be carried out and the evaluation of the achieved results, allows the development of the necessary skills to activate a real change in their social life (Roose & De Bie, 2008).

In the process of change, the confluence of cultural, temporal and spatial aspects is important. If the cultural and temporal aspects were determined within the process of action research, the space for this change was the school. This is where the participants in the research project have felt the most important socio-psychological changes and where the women participants have begun to interpret their experience and to perceive the results of their actions. This study examines the relationship between the process of Empowerment, its implications on the sense of self-esteem, the self-efficacy and the school as a space for citizenship education. The Action research has provided a conscious participation in social life, against the prejudice and exclusion conditions. The results of this study are related to the here and now in a given context in a neighborhood of the city of Valencia but at the same time, they contain messages of very broad values and hopes, with an important impact on children, teachers and the community (Freire, 1993). The collaboration between the school and the family becomes an opportunity to reflect on the context of life and how it is described. Photographs, articles and reports in the media continue to highlight the marginalization and the social exclusion. In the classroom, the students experience a situation of interaction and cooperation between different cultures and the protagonists of these changes are the women from the Roma community.

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