Aitor Gómez

Critical Communicative Methodology: Informing Real Social Transformation Through Research

The critical communicative methodology (CCM) is a methodological response to the dialogic turn of societies and sciences that has already had an important impact in transforming situations of inequality and exclusion. Research conducted with the CCM implies continuous and egalitarian dialogue among researchers and the people involved in the communities and realities being studied. To this dialogue, researchers bring existing scientific knowledge, and the researched subjects contribute knowledge from their lifeworlds. In this process, new understandings emerge informing solutions to many social problems. Later, social actors lobby for the development of effective social policy based on those solutions. This article presents the CCM, its main principles, techniques, and achievements relating them to the life and person of Jesús Gómez (“Pato”), who deeply engaged in the development of this methodology, always with passion and intellectual rigor and a profound commitment to social justice.

Transforming Schools Through Minority Males’ Participation Overcoming Cultural Stereotypes and Preventing Violence

Violent and racist behaviors are transforming schools into highly controversial sites. A key factor in this phenomenon, though not the only one, is the continued dominance of hegemonic masculinity. While researchers have considered a myriad of strategies to prevent violence, including community involvement, few have focused on the value of having male community members engage in the schools, especially males from minority backgrounds. Drawing from two longitudinal case studies conducted in elementary schools, this article explores the effects of such participation. The authors report on two major benefits: a reduction in the prevalence of cultural stereotypes related to males, and the development of spaces where bullying and other violence can be prevented.

Beyond Action Research: The Communicative Methodology of Research

In this article we show how the communicative methodology of research (CMR) makes it possible to implement evidence-based policies to improve peoples lives. Drawing on theories and methods developed under other paradigms and based on dialogue, the CMR is now a solid body of theory that researchers can put into practice. As researchers engage in egalitarian dialogic interactions with the members of society who are engaged in the research with them, they construct knowledge together. The researchers contribute empirical knowledge to the dialogue, and the social actors contribute by describing, and reflecting on, their life experiences. The final results are oriented toward transforming society through actions based on this jointly developed evidence.

How Friendship Generates Key Research Questions That Help to Overcome Gender-Based Violence A Personal Narrative

The concept of new alternative masculinities (NAM) is an alternative to the dominant traditional masculinity (DTM) and oppressed traditional masculinity (OTM) concepts. The difference between these three concepts is that while the NAM constitutes a way to overcome gender-based violence, the OTM and DTM lead to its perpetuation. This ideal typology emerges from decades of interdisciplinary research. The three concepts were articulated in the first “masculinities and attractiveness” conference organized by the group Men in Dialogue. This group started in 2007, 1 year after the death of Jesús Gómez, who created the communicative methodology and who, through his research approach, inspired the NAM. Drawing on a personal narrative that connects friendship to methodology, this article delves into the way transformative friendship has enabled the rise of critical questions and reflection. These reflections were the prelude to what years later would be demonstrated by research on gender-based violence and sexual-affective relationships.

Luisa, Transforming Personal Visions to Ensure Better Education for All Children

The biography of Luisa, a teacher participating in the dialogic pedagogical gatherings of Valencia, allows us to analyze those elements associated with these Dialogic Gatherings (DGs) that made it possible to radically transform Luisa’s feelings and thoughts, becoming a protagonist in the socio-educational movement in Valencia. This biographical study under a communicative approach shows how the gatherings led Luisa to initiate a process of transformation, not only becoming a happier and freer person, but also to dream of utopias of social creation. In this communicative biography, the key elements that enable teachers such as Luisa to become capable of leading educational movements based on validity claims, equality, and commitment to high quality education for all children are analyzed.

What Do We Want for the Next 10 Years?: Different Actors of the ICQI Community Answering This Question Within the Framework of the 10th Anniversary of ICQI

This article introduces the special issue to celebrate the 11th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at Urbana-Champaign in 2015. The theme of the congress was “Constructing a New Critical Qualitative Inquiry.” The best way to introduce this special issue is with a T.S. Eliot quote Norman Denzin used to welcome the ICQI participants to the congress in 2015: “We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.” In this special issue, scholars from different views, perspectives, frameworks, and places reflect on what we want for the next 10 years. We invite you to listen to them.

Radical Love: Remembering Freire, Joe, and Pato

This article introduces the readers to the notion of radical love that Paulo Freire, Joe Kincheloe, and Jesús Gómez (Pato) conceptualized at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. The theory of radical love by Pato was published at the beginning of 2015, and it has had a great and positive repercussions in different fields of research. We will explain how this concept could be constructed in an active dialogue among the three above mentioned authors and how the application of Patos concepts have opened up the path to new areas of studies, such as new alternative masculinities.

Social and Political Impact Through Communicative Methodology: Working With the Roma Community

Research in social sciences and humanities (SSH) have suffered a crisis since its utility and impact in the citizenry has been questioned. This questioning appears at a European level, but also worldwide. In this framework, the 7th Framework Program from the European Commission (EC) approved the project “IMPACT-EV: Evaluating the Impact and Outcomes of EU SSH Research.” The main objective of this project is to define a monitoring and evaluation system of scientific policy and social impact in SSH research. The project is following a communicative methodology, identified as one of the more successful methodologies to reach social and political impact. In this article, we show three examples of political and social impact reached through research conducted with communicative methodology and working with the Roma community.

Communicative Methodology: Researching “With” Rather Than “on” the Romà Community

While a part of the international scientific community has just ignored the Romà, another part has researched about their social exclusion but has excluded their voices. This fact, far from contributing to the social improvement, has only promoted prejudices and racist stereotypes, increasing their exclusion. Romà reject the exclusionary inquiries that exclude them. The communicative methodology of research (CMR) includes the voices of the group researched during the entire research process through the egalitarian dialogue between researched groups and researchers, thus constructing knowledge together. CMR, looking beyond the mere description of a social inequality, is oriented toward contributing to social transformation to overcome the inequality researched. This article shows how researching “with” instead of “on” the Romà conducted with CMR allows the improvement of the lives of the group studied and generates social impact.

Ten Years of Critical Qualitative Research at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry

This special issue celebrates the 10th anniversary of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry that took place May 21–24, 2014, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Norman Denzin wanted to celebrate these 10 years by organizing three special sessions centered on social transformation. Particularly, the theme of these invited sessions would raise critical issues about how we can contribute through qualitative research to transform our reality and reach a more equal society fighting for social justice with an international perspective. The 10th Congress was built around the changes that have occurred in the field of qualitative inquiry in the last decade. During the Congress, it was also very important to engage all presenters in debates on how qualitative research could be used to advance the causes of social justice. At the same time, it was encouraged to present in new different presentational formats using traditional and new methodologies. The three sessions were established to think about how we could contribute to social transformation through qualitative inquiry, taking into account the last developments on the matter and thinking toward the future. In that sense, all of them have contributed to advancing the causes of social justice from different methodologies and formats. The first session was called ‘Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of ICQI: Critical Pedagogy and Qualitative Research Methods Oriented Toward Social Transformation’. Session papers included in this special issue are: Reading Qualitative Inquiry Through Critical Pedagogy: Some Reflections. In this paper, Greg Dimitriadis analyses from the work of Paulo Freire how critical pedagogy is contributing to the current debate in ‘postqualitative inquiry’. He argues that working and interpreting reality through the lens of Freire and critical pedagogy