Data show that 1 out of 3 (35%) women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime (WHO, 2017). Research on preventive socialization of violence against women indicates that one of the possible causes of such violence is the dominant socialization model that promotes the link between attractiveness and violence (Gómez, 2015). Davis (2003) shows that the relationship between talk and learning has been well demonstrated, likewise in the results it exposes that the girls gained strength through their group, they nevertheless remained the often unconscious victims of boys’ language. Language and communication play a central role in affective and sexual relationships (Rodriguez-Navarro, Ríos-González, Racionero & Macías, 2014). In fact, the link between attractiveness and violence mentioned above is enhanced by the language of desire towards violent models, especially among the youth and teenagers (Flecha, Puigvert & Ríos, 2013). Faced this problem, it is important to provide educational keys for global supply that help transform this reality. The international scientific community highlights the importance of creating egalitarian dialogues, in order to debate and build alternatives, with the aim of promoting spaces free of violence (Valls et al., 2008).

Research already announces that the language of desire towards non-violent models, that is, the union of the language of desire (what is attractive) and the language of ethics (what is good) may contribute to the prevention of gender violence (Soler, 2017). Faced with this reality in this communication, we focused on studying the Dialogic Literary Gathering (DLG), a Successful Educational Action (SEA) evaluated in the framework of the research project INCLUD-ED (6^th Framework Programme, European Commission). SEAs were identified by INCLUDE-ED as being the most successful due to their transferability and universality in achieving the best results for students in schools in different countries and contexts. They are especially but not exclusively applied in Schools as Learning Communities (LC), an educational model that follows international scientific evidence (thus applies SEAs) and focuses on two main factors in order to achieve the best education for all students: interactions and the community’s participation (Ríos, Herrero & Rodriguez, 2013). The DLG is a dialogic learning environment based on dialogic models of teaching and learning through universal classics of literature. DLGs are based on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1962), ‘culture circles’ (Freire, 1973) and the principles of dialogic learning (Soler, 2001). Several studies have proven that interactions with others (Mercer, 2000) and with classical literature (Keidel et al., 2013) shape and transform our brains in a number of ways. Further, the impact of DLGs in the personal and social transformation of participants has also been studied (Soler, 2015). However, there are still few studies that explore the impact that DLGs have on the emergence of interactions where there is language of desire towards non-violent models. Thus, this paper aims at contributing a more in-depth analysis of DLGs as spaces in which interactions with the language of desire towards non-violent models are promoted.  

To analyse this reality, we draw on the following research questions: Do DLGs favour the emergence of the language of desire towards non-violent models? And if they do, how do they do it? In order to find a response to this approach, our goal is: To study the way in which the profound dialogue that children engage in through classical literature in DLGs promotes the language of desire towards non-violent models, which contributes to the prevention of gender violence. 

The methodology that has been used in this study is the communicative methodology (CM), (Gómez, Latorre, Sánchez & Flecha, 2006), as it allows researchers to contribute a deep and rigorous understanding and transformation of reality, going further than just diagnosis (Gómez, Puigvert & Flecha, 2011). The methodological strategy will have communicative orientation by engaging in dialogue with students. It remains important that teachers and the community note the impact of DLGs and that both (researchers and educative community) and their pupils collaborate to improve the chances of all pupils. In this regard, two analysis techniques were implemented. First, a literature review has been done, searching for information and analysing studies carried out by the scientific community both on dialogic reading and on the language, especially, of desire, in Journal Citation Reports database. Second, fieldwork has been done in two Schools as Learning Communities in Catalonia making communicative observations of 8 weekly sessions of DLGs and two focus groups (one with all the class and the other with a group of seven girls). We focus on the last course of primary school. One is based in a neighbourhood located in the suburbs of the center of Catalonia. The LC has an 80% student diversity, many of whom belong to unstructured families and are at risk of social exclusion. Since the school became a LC in the year 2000-2001, only in the first five years the amount of students who reached basic competences in reading comprehension went from 17% to 85%. In this school a DLG in 6th grade of Primary Education has been observed, composed by 19 students, 6 girls and 13 boys between the ages of 11 and 13 and with Moroccan and Ecuadorian nationalities. The second school is located in one of the most socioeconomically complex neighbourhoods in Barcelona. With 95% of students who have a food scholarship and 90% from abroad (there are 28 cultures), the school became a LC in the course 2009-2010. In this school we have observed a DLG in 6th grade of Primary Education, composed by 21 students, 12 girls and 9 boys between the ages of 11 and 12 and with 10 different nationalities. In both DLGs classical book editions suitable for their age were read and commented. The group in the first school read The Iliad, and the other one read Romeo and Juliet and Frankenstein.

The teens’ reflections demonstrated that reading classic books deeply created new concepts regarding love and personal relationships. The DLG contributes to changing the discourse among the participants regarding the issue of gender and masculinities. Indeed, their interactions show how their arguments are now deeper and more reflective, generating a modified vision of love and attraction. These interactions have allowed them to delve into the models that are attractive, while allowing them to understand who they like and why. This has been seen in many interactions in which girls talked with desire about ideal while rejecting violent models, far from the ideal ones. They often expressed desire towards Hector or Romeo, and many revealed their desire and dreams to have an affective relationship with them. This is possible because DLGs do not impose a theoretical framework, but rather provide the space of dialogue, and because importance is given to the interactions participants have through classical literature. Research on preventive socialization of gender violence and the role of language and interactions have many social and political implications that can contribute to its further overcoming. In fact, to foster interactions where there is language of desire towards non-violent models is crucial for the prevention of gender violence in schools, and thus society, and an important step for this is to open spaces in schools where these interactions are promoted. Even though we cannot determine the interactions the children who participated in the DLGs studied will have in the future, their participation in the DLGs has enabled them to have interactions where there is language of desire towards non-violent models, and these interactions can help prevent their potential development of attraction towards violent models in the future, thus contributing to the prevention of violence against women.

Flecha, R., Puigvert, L., & Ríos, O. (2013). The New Alternative Masculinities and the Overcoming of Gender Violence. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 88-113. doi: 10.4471/rimcis.2013.14 Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Seabury. Gómez, A., Puigvert, L., & Flecha, R. (2011). Critical Communicative Methodology: Informing Real Social Transformation Through Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(3), 235–245. doi:10.1177/1077800410397802 Gómez, J. (2015). Radical Love: A revolution for the 21st century. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN: 978-1433126494 Gómez, J.; Latorre, A.; Sánchez, M. y Flecha R. (2006). Metodología comunicativa crítica. Ed. El Roure. Barcelona INCLUD-ED Consortium. (2009). Actions for success in schools in Europe. Brussels, Belgium: European Commission. Keidel, J., Davis, P., Gonzalez-Diaz, V., Martin C., & Thierry, G. (2013). How Shakespeare tempests the brain: neuroimaging insights. Cortex, 49(4), 913-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.03.011 Mercer, N. (2000). Palabras y mentes: cómo usamos el lenguaje para pensar juntos. Barcelona: Paidós. Puigvert, L., Christou, M., & Holdford, J. (2012). Critical communicative methodology: Including vulnerables voices in research through dialogue. Cambridge Journal of Education, 42, 513–526. doi:10.1080/0305764X.2012.733341 Ríos, O., Herrero, C., & Rodríguez, H. (2013). From access to education: The revolutionary transformation of schools as learning communities. International Review of Qualitative Research, 6(2), 239-253. Rodriguez-Navarro, H.; Ríos-González, O.; Racionero, S.; Macías, F. (2014). New Methodological Insights Into Communicative Acts That Promote New Alternatives Masculinities. Qualitative Inquiry, 20 (7) 870-875. doi: 10.1177/10778000414537209 Soler, M. (2001). Dialogic reading: A new understanding of the reading event (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA. Soler, M. (2015). Biographies of “invisible” people who transform their lives and enhance social transformations through Dialogic Gatherings. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(10), 839-842. Soler, M. (2017). Achieving Social Impact. Sociology in the Public Sphere. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-319-60269-1 Valls, R., Puigvert, L. & Duque, E. (2008). Gender violence among teenagers: Socialization and prevention. Violence Against Women, 14(7), 759-785. WHO (2017). Violence against women. Intimate partner and sexual violence against women. November 2017. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/