Session Information
99 ERC SES 05 D, Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance
Paper Session
Contribution
It is since the time of the Sumerians (3500 BC) that the world has felt the need to pass on acquired knowledge in teaching and learning actions that have become increasingly structured and defined. A need that perhaps arose to make sense of the chaos of the outside world, to orientate, to delineate paths, and to educate the new generations so that they can make the world in which we live better. Undoubtedly the school represents, then as now, one of the pillars of the world and one of the elements that defines the quality of life in a country, and in our complex world, educational institutions are indispensable and necessary for everyone (Ingold, 2019). About quality, Elshaer (2012, p. 8) states: "Quality is a situation in which a set of intrinsic characteristics constantly satisfies the changing requirements of the organization’s customers and other stakeholders". And, if we want to relate this defining principle to the world of schools, we could say that school quality is what is achieved when the internal characteristics of the individual school under evaluation contribute to the satisfaction of the - constantly evolving - demand made on the school itself not only by students but also by society. But the picture of today's school appears dramatic. The data relating to access, attendance, and completion, as well as those relating to learning, scholastic well-being and teacher preparation, highlight numerous elements of weakness in the functioning of the world's schools. The UNESCO Statistical Institute (2022) states that 64 million children of primary school age do not attend school, most of them from marginalized groups, and of the 92% of children who start primary school, only 61% complete it (UNICEF, 2021). In addition to not being accessible to all, school also does not always teach. Even in countries with a high and medium level of economic development, the deficits in basic learning in reading, calculation and science are considerable. The results of PISA 2022, report that although about three out of four 15-year-old students demonstrate attainment of basic skills in reading and science in OECD countries, only 7% of students have attained the highest proficiency levels and only 69% of students are at least substantially proficient in mathematics (OECD, 2023).The data presented allows us to consider the needs and necessities for school intervention to improve the operations and direct the objectives in a new and changing society. Indeed, Sidorkin (2011) tells us that, at the crossroads where the world of mass education finds itself, we lack sufficient theoretical understanding to see where it can and cannot go next. Speaking about quality, the last theoretical aspect we wish to consider is the project Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN, 2015), with Goal 4: to provide quality, equitable and inclusive education, and learning opportunities for all. 2030 Agenda represents a milestone in the research, as it is the document that binds the four case studies selected, whose countries are signatories to the document, and is the script on which the research tools are based. The research we intend to present, therefore, aims to identify meanings and quality perspectives for the school of the future from the analysis of data collected in four case studies, which involved pupils, teachers, heads of school and families from four primary schools in the world, in comparison with the fundamentals of goal four of the 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015); and it has attempted to the tortuous but necessary path towards achieving a quality school by outlining some perspectives on quality for the future of schools.
Method
The research aims to identify meanings and quality perspectives for the school of the future starting from the analysis of data collected in multiple-case-studies which involved pupils, teachers, heads of school and families from four primary schools in the world, in comparison with the fundamentals of goal four of Agenda 2030 (UN, 2015). The subjects involved are part of 4 primary schools in the world located in Italy, the Russian Federation, Ghana and Sierra Leone, countries in different levels of economic development and whose public expenditure investment, in relation to GDP in education, is not proportional to their income and to total public expenditure. About the first factor, according to data compiled by the World Bank (2023), the countries of the world can be divided into four economic income classes: high-income countries, upper-middle-income countries, lower-middle-income countries and low-income countries. For each of these categories, a reference country was selected and then a primary school, the case study. The research methodology involved the conduct of multiple case studies in an ethnographic perspective in four mixed, public and government primary schools and, for each of these, the intentionally chosen sample consisted of pupils, teachers, school principals and families of pupils in the last two-year classes (school grades three, four, five or six depending on the school system of reference). Specifically, the selected schools are located in Padua (Italy), Moscow (Russian Federation), Elmina (Ghana) and Freetown (Sierra Leone) respectively. In total, the sample of subjects reached is 210 pupils, 21 teachers, 5 school managers and 122 families. The multiplicity of research and observation tools, constructed within the trajectory of the 2030 Agenda, allows us to investigate the prospects of quality for the school of the future starting from a reasoning that involved the subjects in defining characteristics and meanings of the school of the present. The data analysis, which considered a specific model for data analysis, was based on the principles of phenomenological interpretative analysis (Pole & Morrison, 2003) and Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS) with Atlas.ti.
Expected Outcomes
From the combination of what was codified for each primary school, an overall analysis was then reached. The results broaden the view considerably from the 10 sub-goals of Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda, thus providing to the scientific community, but also to schools, with a bottom-up perspective, new meanings and new actions, to re-construct the school's future from a quality perspective. In particular, a dialogue was opened with respect to the accessibility of the school and the recognition of its importance; to the need for structures and learning spaces appropriate to education and to the needs of the people living in the school; to rethinking the conformation of the classroom environment, which can also be structured by discipline, by students' ability levels and by psycho-physical needs; to the adjustment of school times; to the involvement of pupils and families in decision-making processes; to the implementation of real, concrete lessons that help pupils orientate themselves in the future and to the care of pupils' education in multiple aspects of life; to the development of healthy relationships and a serene learning environment in which there is well-being for all involved, without exclusion. Finally, to the allocation of adequate financial aid. The research therefore sought to move away from the usual to venture into the unprecedented. What has been arrived at can hopefully represent a tension towards change, towards new horizons and new minds, to reorient objectives, in terms of reflection and praxis, in the direction of an intercultural change, desirable or possible, in the face of the criticalities, the cracks, the limits, of today's school, to outline a new educational paradigm. Understood in this sense, the school is all to be built and in an always open building site.
References
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