In this presentation, I consider findings and methodological issues generated by a research called THE WINK OF THE POWER, THE SMILE OF THE CHANGE: Pedagogical study of resilience Identity in situations of social, cultural and legal disadvantage. The study draws upon narrative life history methods to understand the social experience of disadvantage and change. As an illustrative example, the paper will focus on Semi, a 32 years old man with a history of childhood and Youth difficulties as a drugs addiction, school absenteeism and failure, detention centre sentences and complex and hostile relationships. Semi now coordinates an unconventional rehab house in the hills of Malaga and acts as mediator to other social projects.
Theoretical framework is based on the concepts of social exclusion, education, resilience, experience and justice. The method developed in this project is the biographical one, where the narrative perspective situated the voice of the participant as the principal evidences to be considered; without which the research would not have the same impact. Therefore there is a clear point to be made: in order to look at this work with a critical eye we need to understand the perspective of the people who live in the neighbourhood and then we can share and develop the theories from the field.
Thus, in the complete report you can find the combination of the two voices – Semi's as the subject and main character of the research and mine as the researcher. Though in this report appear others voices in different phases. The report shows the interaction between different people about one subject. For this reason, it is not an issue of delimitation of voices; it is an issue of subjectivities and the convergence of them. Finally, the results are set up in some conceptual discussions and theories around the social and educative actions in order to understand how people live and can be change in difficult circumstances and how develop urban schools practices