Sociopolitical Impact of INCLUD-ED: The Role of the Critical Communicative Methodology

• In Event: Promoting Social Transformation From Education: The Role of Successful Educational Actions

Abstract

1. Objectives

This paper is focused on the socio-political impact of the INCLUD-ED project and how it has been favored by the use of the Critical Communicative Methdology (CCM).

2. Theoretical framework

The critical communicative methodology is framed within the dialogic shift of societies (Flecha, Gómez & Puigvert, 2003) and focuses on overcoming social inequalities based on critical reflection and intersubjectivity. CCM starts from the premise that scientific knowledge is constructed through dialogue and interaction taking into account that all human beings are capable of language and action (Habermas, 1984). People as transformative social agents problematize their reality through dialogue and communication where critical reflection is essential to empower them to alter social structures (Freire, 1970) and interrupt reproduction tendencies of society. Freirian theory is included in CCM as participants in research are conceptualized and treated as subjects of its own transformation through egalitarian dialogue with the researcher.

3. Methods and data resources

The use of the CCM in the INCLUD-ED Project has implied involving teachers, students, family and community members from the design of the research until the interpretation of the results, including the dissemination. It has also implied using communicative methods of data collection: Communicative Daily Life Stories, Communicative Focus Groups, and Communicative Observations, and the creation of an Advisory Committee.

4. Results
The use of CCM in research projects has already yielded political impact that confirms the methodology’s capacity to identify and promote social transformation. The first INCLUD-ED conference took place in 2009 at the European Parliament. The entire room was full of members of the representatives of European organizations, researchers, policy-makers, and stake-holders from all around Europe. Throughout the conference and even when it was done, all participants engaged in intense dialogue about the results presented. INCLUD-ED has already had important socio-political impact. Its main results have been included in almost all recent documents on education by the European Commission and the European Council. For example, last February 2011 the European Commission published a document recommending the Member states ways to overcome school failure and abandon in Europe, and suggested the implementation of successful actions identified in INCLUD-ED and prtesented in this panel. The results of INCLUD-ED have informed other resolutions and documents from the European Commission, such as the Strategy of the EU to favor the integration of the Roma, approved by the European Parliament in January 2011, and the Resolution of the European Parliament on the Education of Children of Migrants approved in April 2, 2009.

5. Significance

CCM does not focus on the analysis of inequalities but on the analysis of what is already overcoming those. Such analysis of transformative actions is deepened through ongoing dialogue between researchers and the social agents involved in the realities studied. This type of dialogic research increases the chances of transfer of scholarly knowledge to the lives of teachers, students, families, and schools, for example contributing tools to teachers to act as intellectuals (Giroux, 1988) who can better serve the needs and dreams of the most vulnerable.

Authors

• Rocio Garcia-Carrion, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

• Carmel Ann Mulcahy, Dublin City University

• Òscar Prieto, University of Girona