Dialogic Learning in Interactive Groups: The Importance of Local Culture in Disenfranchised Spanish Schools

• In Event: The Whole World’s Talking: Conceptualizing the Universality of Dialogic Learning in Localized Contexts

Abstract

Objectives This paper explores learning in Interactive Groups (IG), a classroom arrangement employed by more than 150 schools across Spain, and others in Brazil and Chile. In IG, students work in small heterogeneous groups with the support of volunteers from the community who promote dialogic interaction to solve curricular tasks. INCLUD-ED (2006-2011), the largest research study on schooling in the Framework Program of Research of the European Union, has identified IG as one of the most successful classroom environments for raising academic achievement and fostering social cohesion. This paper sheds light on the interactive processes that lead to such results, emphasizing the relevance of a dialogic attitude in teachers to include in their classroom discourse the voices that are silenced in the “official knowledge” (Apple, 2000).
Theoretical Framework Dialogic theories share the idea that learning is most effective when students are engaged in the dialogic construction of knowledge (Mercer, 2000; Wells, 2006). The theory of dialogic learning (Flecha, 2000) used in this study incorporates that premise but also recognizes the importance of socio-cultural principles, such as egalitarian dialogue, cultural intelligence, solidarity, and equality of differences; qualities that raise the ability of dialogue to generate socio-cultural transformation and, therefore, learning.
Methods and Data Sources This project is a case study of a second-third grade classroom in an elementary school located in Albacete (Spain), in one of the most marginalized Roma neighborhoods in Southern Europe. Interactive groups were observed with and without video and audio recording. Focus group interviews were conducted with students, and in-depth phenomenological interviews and life stories were enacted with volunteers and teachers. Following the critical communicative methodology (Gómez, Puigvert, & Flecha, 2011), data in dialogues with the participants were elaborated and analyzed using a coding scheme that worked to develop a theory of learning in IG.
Results Dialogues in IG are egalitarian, that is, the validity of the arguments provided by teachers and Romani volunteers to support student learning prevails over differences in status. Teachers capitalize on the cultural intelligence of the Romani volunteers to design instruction and encourage volunteers to use such intelligence to guide children’s dialogic meaning-making. In so doing, these teachers move Romani adults from the periphery of school involvement, to the center, becoming intellectual contributors and integral agents in the classroom. The new interactions and dialogues between teachers and community volunteers transform mutual expectations and trigger further socio-cultural transformations.
Significance Different than other dialogic learning environments, IG is not limited to teachers generating discussion among students about curricular tasks. A dialogic stance is implied that involves socio-cultural elements beyond discourse, per se, that enhance the efficacy of classroom dialogue towards the attainment of educational objectives. The cultural intelligence of Romani families is central in promoting dialogic learning; the perspective of teachers from the mainstream culture is insufficient. This pedagogy successfully works to counteract the notion of deficit thinking (Valencia, 2010) widely applied to the Roma.

Author

• Sandra Racionero-Plaza, Loyola University Andalusia