Scientific research shows the necessity of implement educative reforms and practices based on scientific evidence (Slavin et al., 2021; European Commission, 2007). The challenge identified by Elmore (1996) decades ago, and other authors (Cohen-Vogel et al., 2015) on successful replication of larger educational scale projects remains understudied. Top-down approaches developed by most Public educative Administrations are achieving limited deep and long-lasting transformations specially by the lack of shift in ownership (Coburn, 2003). This means that the educational policy is feel as external, controlled by the public authorities, instead of an own transformation of practices that schools are able to sustain and spread.

This contribution advances knowledge to demonstrate that on one hand, to scale-up educational practices based on scientific evidence with social impact contribute to this shift of ownership and, on the other hand, shows the benefits of dialogic policy process implementation where this evidence is recreated in egalitarian dialogue with all the stakeholders.

The objective of the research was to understand the Portuguese case of implementation of educational policies co-created with the educational community based on the best scientific evidence with social impact. And the research question was to identify the improvements for students, families, trainers and teachers involved in this dialogic co-creation and implementation.

The paper presents the case of the Ministry of Education in Portugal that has promoted the implementation of dialogic policies (Álvarez et al., 2020) based on scientific research with social impact (Sordé et al., 2020). Meaning that it has been a sustained effort to stablish an egalitarian dialogue between decision makers, centres of professional teacher development, schools, families, and other beneficiaries of the policy and that this dialogue have been based on the scientific evidence that achieves the best results.

The Directorate General of Education has promoted since 2017 the implementation of Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) and the training of trainers in those actions. SEAs were identified through the INCLUD-ED research (FP6, 2006-2011), coordinated by CREA (Community of Research in Excellence for All), which analysed case studies and European education systems in which students with low SES were achieving the best educational and socio-emotional development outcomes. These actions, based on dialogic learning and educational participation of the community (Flecha, 2015) have already demonstrated a broad social impact (Morla-Folch et al., 2022), sustained over time and transferred to many different contexts.

This paper will present, on one hand, the dialogic methods used to co-construct the scale; It will explain how the constant and equal dialogue between the different stakeholders was established both, in the training of trainers and in the implementation of the schools, to recreate these SEAs in each of the contexts (Vieites et al., 2021). On the other hand, will present evidence of social impact (improvement) in the professional and personal development of the trainers and in the teachers, students, families and communities in which those SEAs were implemented. It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Portugal chose to scale up these actions first in schools categorised as TEIP, which stands in Portuguese for Educational Territories of Priority Intervention. Despite the complexity of the territories and the great impact of the COVID pandemic, the results are very positive and may help other policy makers to reflect on the content and the form in which reforms are implemented.

This research was carried out using a Communicative Methodology (Gomez et al., 2011) in both, the research design and the collection and analysis of data, which implies an intersubjective and egalitarian dialogue among all potential participants involved in the communities and realities being studied (Roca, Merodio, Gomez & Rodriguez-Oramas, 2022). The Communicative Methodology is recognized at international level by two clear contributions. First, its orientation to social transformation and second, a research design based on a communicative organization of the research (co-creation process) between researchers, research participants, social agents and policy makers (Munte, Serradell & Sorde, 2011). Participants and development The Portuguese Ministry of Education started the pilot implementation in 11 School Clusters (30 schools) in 2017. Following its social and educational success, extended the project in 2019 to 41 more Clusters (157 schools) reaching more than 8,000 students and 1,300 teachers with the support of Structural reform funds of the EC. Also, 36 trainers were trained for 180 hours in SEAs by CREA. Data collection techniques - Official evaluation data provided by the Portuguese Ministry of Education. - Survey of the 157 schools involved in the SEAs scale. - Reports submitted by the 36 trainers trained in SEAs. - Eight semi-structured interviews with a communicative orientation on the reports delivered to eight trainers who had also implemented the SEAs in the schools to which they belonged. Communicative data analysis The data was analysed using the transformative and exclusionary dimensions of the Communicative Methodology. Emerging categories were created and applied to categorize all qualitative data following the main obstacles and barriers detected during the work (exclusionary dimension) and the ways to overcome it (transformative dimension) (Pulido, Elboj, Campdepadrós & Cabré, 2014). Ethics To protect the identity of each participant, pseudonyms were used throughout the coding and analysis process. Consent forms were signed by all participants with detailed information of the research and the possibility to withdraw from the research at any time. The research passes the evaluation of the Ethics committee at CREA, that is in line with the with the Ethics Appraisal Procedure required by the EC. Finally, the research also complies with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the EU new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The scale of this policy based on scientific evidence, which has been discussed in egalitarian dialogue and recreated by all stakeholders involved, has proven to generate ownership of the policy by schools, teachers, and families, with no sense of top-down imposition. The data analysis reveals relevant results in three domains a) The dialogical methods used for scaling b) The professional and personal gains reported by the trainers c) The positive benefits for the teachers, students, families, and the community where SEAs were implemented. In the first domain, the data analysed reveal the existence of a continuous multidirectional dialogue between all educational agents (public administration, teachers, head-teachers, trainers, researchers, educational community) at different times and in different spaces, which allows the SEAS to be re-created in each context, favouring the maintenance of the social impact previously demonstrated. A dialogue that has been identified as egalitarian, improvement-oriented and based on the discussion of the best scientific evidence of social impact. Regarding the capacities created in the country to extend the policy, trainers reported professional improvements related to empowerment and leadership skills. Improved educational practices now based on scientific evidence and therefore on a dialogic conception of learning. Improved collaboration between teachers, and a new creation of meaning for the teaching profession. The trainers who participated in the interviews and in the report, writing was not asked about personal improvements, although these did appear as an emerging category. Thus, transformations in personal relationships, improvement of self-concept, new dreams, values, and feelings, as well as a dialogical turn in their personal lives were reported. Finally, the promotion of this policy in the schools had a positive impact on students' academic performance, inclusion, and socio-emotional development; a reduction of conflicts in the participant´s school; and a clear increase of family and community involvement.

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