Juana M. Sancho-Gil

A learning process within an education research group: an approach to learning qualitative research methods

This paper builds on the history of Esbrina, an established research group in Spain with almost 20 years’ experience and a deeply-rooted tradition of self-reflection and learning. We start by analysing the academic and social contexts in which the group was created and recognised. We make explicit team members’ backgrounds, dispositions and positionalities, to provide insight into the tensions aroused in deciding research topics, methodological approaches and research methods. Then we focus on two specific projects and explore the learning processes of those engaged in them: the first involves micro-ethnography, for which we examine our apprenticeship process through interviews, observation, inferential analysis and visual documentation. The second involves collaborative ethnography, for which we give an analytical account of how we created different ways of learning through collaborating and narrating. Throughout the paper, we reflect on our determination to create a methods-learning environment in which we constantly challenge our comfort zone by trying to do research on topics involving authentic learning. The most innovative aspect of the process is that senior and junior researchers, including group directors, play both the role of teachers and learners.

Research-based insights on initial teacher education in Spain

Abstract This paper builds on two research projects on initial and in-service education of teachers, their professional experience, and the pathways they travelled to become teachers. The policy documents analysed and the teachers’ professional histories, the micro-ethnographies and the discussion groups developed, allowed us to draw a broad picture of the development of the initial teacher education in Spain. Three fundamental stages were identified: (a) developmentalism and the last stage of Franco’s dictatorship; (b) constructing democracy and (c) the implementation of the European Higher Education Area. Our research shows that the reform implemented in each period represented a clear intention to professionalise teachers’ work and to move beyond the view of initial education as vocational training by transferring it to the university. Meant a move towards improving the relationship between theory, educational research and practice; and left a set of unfulfilled challenges.

Researching on and with Young People: Collaborating and Educating

Resumen es: Este articulo da cuenta de una investigacion colaborativa realizada con y sobre los jovenes. En este trabajo, cinco grupos de estudiantes de cuarto de Ed...This paper reports on collaborative research on and with young people. In this study five groups of students in the final year of their Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) from five different schools developed five ethnographic studies about how they communicate, express themselves and learn inside and outside school, with the support and collaboration of teachers and members of our research group. The paper begins by discussing the dimensions of collaboration in education, taking into account the contribution of collaborative and cooperative learning, and the potential of digital resources, situating earlier influences and characterizing the work carried out. Then there is a description of the research carried out on and with the young people we invited to perform as investigators. The results focus on the description and conceptualization of the different types of collaboration that have emerged while carrying out the ethnographic studies in each of the schools using digital technologies. Finally, we discuss the implications and limitations of the work as a contribution to anyone interested in researching on and with young people, collaborating, educating and using digital resources.

Using meta-ethnographic analysis to understand and represent youth’s notions and experiences of learning in and out of secondary school

ABSTRACT In the last four years, we have been researching how five groups of young people were learning inside and outside secondary schools. The novelty of this proposal was to invite these young people to act as researchers by carrying out their own ethnographic cases. As a result we produced 10 ethnographic reports – 5 prepared by students and 5 by the university research team. In this paper, we show part of the conversation between the five ethnographic reports written by us giving account of the processes and results of the studies implemented by students. This meta-ethnographic process tries to accomplish two main objectives: (a) to characterise the variety of youth’ learning experiences in their mobilities and transitions in and outside schools and the ways of giving account of them in the ethnographic reports; (b) reporting own learning about the possibilities and limitations of the meta-ethnographic analysis.

The Socio-Economic Evaluation of a European Project: The DIYLab Case

This paper builds on the results of a 3-year long European project, the main aim of which was to deeply and sustainably transform teaching and learning practice in primary and secondary schools and higher education, by introducing Do it Yourself (DIY) philosophy in order to expand digital competence and foster students’ agency and collaborative learning. Three universities and three primary and secondary schools have been involved in a Collaborative Action Research (CAR) process in order to analyse their current institutional context and perceive needs, strengths and weaknesses; to undertake professional development activities and the design of DIYLabs; implement DIYLabs in the selected courses; and reflect upon ways of improving the institution’s performance. This paper offers a global vision of the research and implementation processes and the results achieved, from the perspective of the socio-economic dimensions involved in a project aiming to make a difference in teaching and learning to meet the challenges of a society highly permeated by digital technology (DT).

La profesión docente en la era del exceso de información y la falta de sentido

espanolEse articulo comienza con una panoramica sobre la proliferacion de informacion propiciada por las tecnologias digitales y sus posibles consecuencias y efectos para la generacion de conocimiento. Ademas de para la comprension de la complejidad de una realidad que se nos ofrece filtrada y ruidosa en ese alud de informacion. Sigue con el analisis de como esa realidad repercute en la educacion formal. Aqui se exploran algunos de los desafios que han sido formulados tanto para replantear las finalidades de los sistemas educativos, como los modos de aprender y ensenar. A continuacion, se presentan diferentes investigaciones realizadas por el grupo de investigacion Esbrina. A partir de ellas se da cuenta de como estudiantes y docentes estan experimentando esos cambios en sus vidas y como afectan las relaciones pedagogicas en las que participan. Finalmente, se pone en cuestion algunos aspectos del propio relato. Especialmente el determinismo adaptativo y acritico que se genera desde los organismos e instituciones, que asumen lo nuevo sin analizar sus consecuencias en los modos de conocer, las relaciones sociales, los enfoques del trabajo y las desigualdades sociales. Lo que nos lleva a concluir urgiendo a la necesidad de debatir y plantear un proyecto de vida en comun. EnglishThis article begins with an overview of the proliferation of information provided by digital technologies and their potential implications and effects on knowledge generation. In addition to understanding the complexity of a reality that we are offered filtered and noisy in this avalanche of information. It continues with the analysis of how this reality affects formal education. Here we explore some of the challenges that have been formulated both to rethink the aims of educational systems and the ways of learning and teaching. The following is a presentation of different research projects carried out by the Esbrina research group. From them, we see how students and teachers are experiencing these changes in their lives and how they affect the pedagogical relationships in which they participate. Finally, some aspects of the narrative itself are questioned. Especially the adaptive and uncritical determinism that is generated from the organisms and institutions, which assume the new without analysing its consequences in the ways of knowing, social relations, work approaches and social inequalities. This leads us to conclude by urging us to debate and propose a project of common life

When the Other Arrives to the School

In the last 40 years, Spain became from a country of emigrants to a destination for immigrants. The 0.46% of immigrants of 1975 (165,000 of 36,012,682 people) went up to 12% (5,598,691 of 46,063,511) in 2009. The sudden demographic, economic, social, cultural, political and educational consequences of this move have been considerable. In this chapter, after offering an impressionist picture of this new scenario, we focus on the implications of this phenomenon in the educational system during two periods of the recent Spanish history, before and after the social and economic crisis. In these two periods, the arrival of immigrants was considered as a problem and maybe now could be an opportunity to rethinking schooling and develop a more comprehensive curriculum. Immigrants have arrived to school to remain, and that opens the possibility of promoting a more inclusive education for all in a more open and fair society.

Innovación y enseñanza. De la “moda” de innovar a la transformación de la práctica docente

El mundo esta constituido por un conjunto de cambios permanentes y el ambito de la educacion no es una excepcion. Este articulo comienza situando las (in)constancias del cambio, sus derivas y paradojas y sigue con un breve apunte sobre la evolucion de las ideas educativas, para plantear los desafios que supone el imperativo de la innovacion en el momento actual. A partir de ahi, se argumenta que ir mas alla de la innovacion como “moda”, requiere una profunda transformacion de la practica, para lo que se precisa tener en cuenta cinco elementos clave: quienes son los docentes y estudiantes, como aprenden y cuales son sus necesidades; que tipo de conocimiento se considera importante ensenar para que al alumnado le resulte personal y socialmente valioso; que tecnologias educativas se tendrian que utilizar o desarrollar para contribuir a alcanzar las finalidades planteadas; que experiencias de aprendizaje habria que implementar para promover la implicacion de los estudiantes y el sentido de aprender; que sistemas evaluacion se necesitan para dar cuenta del aprendizaje realizado.

Transforming teaching and learning in Higher Education

This article focuses in part of the results of the implementation of the European project DIYLab in five bachelor’s degrees at the University of Barcelona (Primary Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Education, Education and Fine Art). The project was carried out in six elementary and secondary schools and two Universities of Spain, Finland and the Czech Republic. The main focus was to incorporate learning modalities related to the Do it Yourself (DIY) culture, fostering creativity, collaboration, self-regulation, authorship and a critical use of digital technology. Following a methodology based on the principles of participatory action-research (PAR), we first organized discussion groups with teachers, students and, in the case of elementary and secondary schools, families. Then, we defined the implementation, based on the characteristics of each institution and the formative actions organized with the teachers. During the teacher’s professional development, the participants proposed that students create audio-visual productions collaboratively about their learning and the processes that propitiated it. Simultaneously, we created the open digital platform DIYLabHub with the aim of sharing the productions created by students. During the implementation at the University of Barcelona, 471 students collaboratively created and shared 76 audio-visual objects in the Hub and the researchers carried out observations, recordings, field notes and discussion groups. In this article, we present the results of the analysis and the conclusions of how teaching and learning practices were transformed, how teachers’ and students’ attitudes and roles were reconfigured, and the possibilities of sustainability of the DIY culture in Higher Education.This article focuses in part of the results of the implementation of the European project DIYLab in five bachelor’s degrees at the University of Barcelona (Primary Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Education, Education and Fine Art). The project was carried out in six elementary and secondary schools and two Universities of Spain, Finland and the Czech Republic. The main focus was to incorporate learning modalities related to the Do it Yourself (DIY) culture, fostering creativity, collaboration, self-regulation, authorship and a critical use of digital technology. Following a methodology based on the principles of participatory action-research (PAR), we first organized discussion groups with teachers, students and, in the case of elementary and secondary schools, families. Then, we defined the implementation, based on the characteristics of each institution and the formative actions organized with the teachers. During the teacher’s professional development, the participants proposed that students create audio-visual productions collaboratively about their learning and the processes that propitiated it. Simultaneously, we created the open digital platform DIYLabHub with the aim of sharing the productions created by students. During the implementation at the University of Barcelona, 471 students collaboratively created and shared 76 audio-visual objects in the Hub and the researchers carried out observations, recordings, field notes and discussion groups. In this article, we present the results of the analysis and the conclusions of how teaching and learning practices were transformed, how teachers’ and students’ attitudes and roles were reconfigured, and the possibilities of sustainability of the DIY culture in Higher Education.

APRENDER A ENSEÑAR: LA CONSTITUCIÓN DE LA IDENTIDAD DEL PROFESOR EN LA EDUCACIÓN INFANTIL Y PRIMARIA

El estudio acerca de la construccion de la identidad del profesor en los ultimos 20 anos ha mostrado la importancia de la formacion y de las primeras experiencias docentes para el proceso de aprender a ser profesor. Las evidencias recogidas mediante el analisis de 23 microetnografias y 13 grupos focales, en que han participado un total de 88 profesores, siete de ellos especialistas en Educacion Fisica, nos ha permitido explorar los componentes macro, meso y microsistemas en que los profesores interactuan y dan sentido a su aprender a ensenar. La discusion y contextualizacion de las experiencias de los docentes en relacion a: (a) el ingreso a la formacion, (b) la experiencia de la formacion inicial y permanente, (c) el concepto de conocimiento y aprendizaje y (d) como han aprendido a ensenar, pone de manifiesto la complejidad de ser docente en los dias actuales y nos posibilita elaborar recomendaciones para la mejora de la formacion y de la insercion en las escuelas.