Session Information
14 SES 14 B JS, Challenges and Opportunities in Neighbourhoods
Joint Paper Session, NW 05 and NW 14
Contribution
The project presented here arises from the new educational needs that emanate from the changes taking place in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres. The boundaries of formal education, as it has been understood until now, are being breached by new forms of learning, communication, and relationships, which are claiming their place in educational institutions. This is particularly relevant at the level of secondary education where the boundaries of conventional cultural and social systems are constantly being overwhelmed by these new realities (Fernández Enguita, 2016). This makes it necessary to rethink the systems of teaching and working in the educational system. Students at this educational level have a profile and resources closely linked to the knowmadic society (Cobo, 2016, Movarec, 2008), in which there is less and less sense in a teaching model based mainly on the unidirectional transmission of knowledge (Downes, 2017). This, in interaction with families, teachers and other educational agents, generates a world of conflicts of various kinds: curricular, social, attitudinal and expectations, etc.
We are therefore interested in learning about experiences that are being developed in this sense and that are generating proposals that transform either the curricular or organizational dimension, the framework of relations with the community or the involvement of the new virtual spaces (Reig y Vílchez, 2013). To this end, we are developing the research "Nomadic knowledge in emerging pedagogical contexts: mapping innovative community practices in secondary education", over the years 2022 and 2023. Its focus of study is the disruptive, transformative, and emergent experiences that are being developed in secondary schools in Andalusia. We are interested in mapping the fundamental elements that are present in the development of these experiences from the perspective of integral, ubiquitous, and expanded pedagogies that connect and curricularly integrate places, people, and times for learning.
The research is focusing on the analysis of emergent experiences, using participatory and narrative research methodologies that allow for a respectful, hermeneutic, non-invasive, negotiated and openly collaborative approach.
In this paper we present the study of one of the cases studied, which takes place in the secondary school "Cartagineses". This is in a semi-urban area on the outskirts of the city of Malaga, where for the last 10 years an educational project has been developed based on the construction of a professional community, together with the families and the municipality, centred on interdisciplinary and collaborative work projects, openness to the environment and the use of personal technological resources, with the subsequent abandonment of the textbook as an educational tool.
The objectives we set ourselves are as follows:
1. To analyse and evaluate collaborative strategies in the Secondary School environment, offered as creative workspaces where students, teachers, families and/or external social agents configure new citizen, professional and personal profiles in diverse fields of experience and activity (artistic, social, literary, scientific, technical) through the conformation of horizontal architectures of participation and dialogue between expert and profane knowledge.
2. To recognise and recover emerging types of knowledge that act in secondary schools, alternative and/or convergent with the official curriculum, which promote and develop political, social, and cultural models in a social framework of transformation and change in ideological and epistemological proposals.
3. To recognize the guidelines, relationships, models, and knowledge that secondary education centres bring into play in the search for school success and their meaning in relation to the conditions established from the current frameworks of society, as well as the way in which both visions interact, compete, confront, or collaborate, in the achievement of an emancipated, participative and critical citizenship.
Method
The research presented here is qualitative. It is presented as a case study, since "it is the study of the particularity and complexity of a singular case, to get to understand its activity in Important circumstances" Stake (2005: 11). The research is carried out in a junior high school, which has been in operation for 10 years. The school was founded by a group of teachers committed to educational change, who developed an educational project based on the use of technology, project-based learning, and community relations. It is currently a high school of reference in Spain and maintains close collaboration with the University of Malaga. The research project starts in the last quarter of 2021 and will last until September 2023. The research team has had 4 researchers and two collaborators in the first year of the project. A research technician has also collaborated in the computer processing and analysis of the data. Tools used were: - Participant observation: Throughout the research process the high school has allowed the research team free entry, even allowing us to participate in meetings related to the program for educational guidance, advancement, and enrichment (PROA+), funded by the European Union through the Next generation EU program. Different stays have been carried out throughout the academic year, with presence in some classrooms, meetings of the various bodies (management team, AMPA, institutional meetings, etc.). - Semi-structured interviews: Teachers, pupils, family members and members of the school's management team participated. A total of 12 interviews were conducted throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. In the case of the teachers, in-depth interviews were conducted with 3 of them, selected for their different links with the school: one teacher who has been with the school since the beginning, others who have been with the school for a few years and the last one who is in his first year. A minimum of two interviews were carried out in each case, which in turn involved returning the interview and assessing its content in a collaborative process. - Production of a documentary video of the centre, with contributions from the voices of pupils, teachers, and families. This video is being made in the current academic year. - Working groups with teachers, students, and families for joint and shared reflection on the results of the research. This phase is being carried out in the current academic year.
Expected Outcomes
Although this research project is not yet complete, we can highlight some of the categories that have emerged from the analysis of the information at this stage of the project. These must do, firstly, with the weight exercised by the management team, especially the head teacher, in the management and development of the school project, as well as in the reception, training and monitoring of the teaching staff. Regarding these teachers, their personal involvement and commitment to the activities proposed at the high school is significant, which, although they involve an extra effort in their responsibilities, favours the development of collaborative and transversal work between the different subjects, through the projects. This project-based methodology is, according to some of the teachers who took part in the research, the school's hallmark and one of the most notable differences with other high schools of similar characteristics. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the relevance of the use of technological devices in the classroom, and what this implies in terms of learning in this field for both pupils and teachers. The use of this material, although it is a highly recognised aspect of the centre, is still just another tool in the development of the centre's pedagogical project. Another relevant aspect is what it means for the centre to be a Learning Community. It represents a rupture with the traditional organisational model, opting for a more horizontal and participative management where other ways of linking with pupils, families and other people and institutions are key to the constant co-construction of the educational centre. The trajectories of the teaching staff allow us to get to know the people who support and give meaning to the school's educational project, beyond the merely professional aspects
References
Cobo, C. (2016). La Innovación Pendiente. Reflexiones (y Provocaciones) sobre educación, tecnología y conocimiento. Colección Fundación Ceibal Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2008). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds), Strategies of Qualitative Inquire, (pp. 1–43). Sage. Downes S. (2017). New Models of Open and Distributed Learning. En M. Jemni, M. Kinshuk y M. Khribi (Eds), Open Education: from OERs to MOOCs. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology (pp. 1-22). Heidelberg: Springer. Fernández Enguita, M. (2016). La educación en la encrucijada. Santillana. Moravec, J. (2008). Knowmads in Society 3.0. http://www.educationfutures.com/2008/11/20/knowmads-in-society-30, Reig, D. y Vílchez, L. F. (2013). Los jóvenes en la era de la hiperconectividad: tendencias, claves y miradas. Fundación Telefónica/Fundación Encuentro. Stake, R. E. (2005) Investigación con estudio de casos. Morata.
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