Session Information
04 SES 11 B, Enhancing Teacher Competencies
Paper Session
Contribution
In this paper we present a research grant by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation led by Parrilla (2008). The general research process aims to contribute to the development of a more inclusive educational system assuming that the transformation and improvement processes must consider the relationship between schools and the educational, political and social context in which these are being developed. This stems from the idea that school alone cannot face up to the change that inclusive education represents.
The study that is being presented is being developed in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain). Three schools and diverse municipal associations and training institutions from the same town are participating, assuming that educational and community development must be considered as being linked and intertwined.
The reference framework for this research is the so-called community-based models. This focus, with a wide international reach, implies that inclusive education does not depend nor will it be achieved by simply improving or increasing participation and collaboration of the professionals and members of the school communities within the school, but rather among schools and education sectors of the community as well. Conceptual proposals and well known experiences of this type are the Accelerated Schools in the USA (Hopfenberg and Levin, 1990), the programmes developed by urban schools in the UK (Ainscow and West, 2008), Latin American Local Development experiences (Nierotti and Poggi, 2004), or the so-called Learning Communities in our country (Elboj, Puigdellivol, Soler, and Valls, 2002).
This study, in accordance with the theoretical framework mentioned, seeks to help transform and improve the reality of each school from a local and community perspective, with the idea of contributing to the strengthening and improvement of schools, but also the social and educational medium in which they are immersed. This goal draws us closer to the concept of communities of interconnected practices described by Hargreaves (2003) and in a more specific way to that of the constellation according to the terminology of Wenger (1998), in that different communities of practices (education services, municipal services, training services, etc.) are related and create relationships of interdependency by virtue of their sharing a common goal and meaning.
More specifically the objectives of the study are::
1- To promote and analyze the processes of change inside schools in which teachers and pupils, via different training and collaborative actions, undertake, develop and evaluate in a shared fashion actions for improvement and institutional change.
2- To promote and analyze collaboration processes between schools of a same geographical or educational unit creating an interschool network that responds to educational needs collaboratively detected and shared.
3- To develop channels and collaboration strategies between the network of schools and the area educational services and agents with the goal of achieving agreements and fundamental guidelines for setting up a Local Inclusive Education Project (in a city, district, or neighbourhood).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ainscow, M. and West, M. (2008). Mejorar las escuelas Urbanas. Madrid. Narcea Bardin, L. (1986) El análisis de contendio. Madrid: Akal Elboj, C.; Puigdellivol. I; Soler, M., and Valls, R. (2002). Comunidades de Aprendizaje. Barcelona: Graó Hargreaves, A. (2003): Enseñar en la sociedad del conocimiento. Barcelona, Octaedro. Hopfenberg, W.S. and Levin,H.M. (1990) – Accelerated Schools. School of Education. Stanford University, Stanford, C.A Miles, M and Huberman, A.M. (1994) Data management and analysis methods. In Denzin, and I. Lincoln (Eds) Handbook of cualitative research, London, sage Publication. Nierotti, N. and Poggi, M (2004). Alianzas e innovaciones en proyectos de desarrollo educativo local. París: UNESCO. Parrilla, A. (2007). Inclusive education in Spain: a view from inside. En L. Barton and F. Armstrong (Eds). Policy, experience and change: cross-cultural reflections on Inclusive Education. London: Springer Books, 19-36. Parrilla, A. (2008) “Análisis de los procesos de inclusión/exclusión educativa en la educación obligatoria. Desarrollo de proyectos locales de cambio y mejora escolar” I+D+I, EDU2008-06511-C02-01/EDUC). Wenger (1998) Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press.
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