Ángel Pérez Gómez y cía: La investigación acción en España tras la muerte de Franco. Traducción y presentación realizada por Silvia

RESUMEN

A lo largo del capítulo se describe cómo  la Investigación-Acción ha evolucionado y se ha transformado en las escuelas españolas. Para ello es necesario situarse al final de la Dictadura de Franco. A lo largo del capítulo se examina el impacto de la Investigación-Acción en las instituciones escolares, en materia de política educativa. Finalmente se describe el marco actual de la Investigación-Acción en la práctica escolar y algunas iniciativas en este ámbito, que prometen mejorar la práctica educativa en el futuro.

La aparición de la Investigación-Acción en España

Varios son los acontecimientos históricos que han impregnado el sentido de la Investigación-Acción, debido a los tintes políticos e ideológicos que se derivan del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, ésta ha evolucionado de una manera lenta.

Recorrido histórico

La posguerra estuvo presidida por la represión y la persecución política, la escasez de alimentos y productos de primera necesidad y el juego de influencias de las distintas familias que habían formado el bando victorioso en la Guerra Civil.

La Dictadura de Franco rechaza el ideario educativo de la II República y la única idea que predomina es que la educación debe ser católica y patriótica. Sin embargo, el régimen político que se impone en España a partir de la guerra civil no se preocupa de diseñar un sistema escolar distinto del preexistente.

Así, proliferan decretos y órdenes ministeriales con un rechazo frontal a la política educativa de la República.  Se produce una ruptura total con la época anterior, rechazándose todos los avances de la república en cuanto a renovación de los métodos pedagógicos y mejora del nivel intelectual de la enseñanza. Esta se va a ver influenciada totalmente por los valores ideológicos que defiende y promulga el Movimiento Nacional: la unidad de la Patria y la religión católica. Así, la preocupación en la enseñanza primaria residirá principalmente, en los contenidos religiosos, morales y patrióticos que impulsan el glorioso Movimiento Nacional, que, han de tener en la escuela primaria su más fiel expresión y desarrollo.

Centros de Colaboración y Escuelas de Verano

Durante la 2ª República se crean los Centros de Colaboración y las primeras Escuelas de Verano. Estos fueron los primeros lugares de encuentro de los docentes.  Propiciaron:

Formación del profesorado

Desde mediados de los años 60 los Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica (MRP’s) ofrecían sólo la posibilidad de formar a los profesores, hasta que a mediados de los años 80 aparecieron los conocidos (CEP’s) Centros para Profesores.

Los Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica

Es un movimiento social de profesores, con una perspectiva histórica que converge con otros movimientos sociales en la transformación de las escuelas, y en definitiva de la sociedad.

Democracia española y conferencias

La democracia es una forma de organización social en la que los miembros son libres e iguales y las relaciones sociales se establecen de acuerdo a mecanismos contractuales. La titularidad del poder es atribuible al conjunto de la sociedad.

Con la entrada de la democracia, tras la muerte de Franco en 1975 tuvo lugar la proclamación del Rey Don Juan Carlos I, como rey de España. En el verano de 1977 se celebraron las primeras elecciones democráticas. Y en 1978 se aprueba la Constitución.

Con el mandato del Partido Socialista Obrero Español en 1982  muchos de los  líderes de los Movimientos de Renovación Pedagógica fueron promovidos a puestos directivos de la administración educativa, otros a Centros de Profesores (CPR’ s), y otros muchos a Universidades del país.

Esto trajo consigo cambios significativos en materia de  política educativa:

-Incorporación de ideas de renovación pedagógica en leyes futuras.

-Tintes ideológicos en los principios y estrategias de reforma educativa y educación docente del momento.

-Pérdida de líderes docentes e investigadores, capaces de innovar en el día a día.

El primer Congreso sobre el Currículum y la enseñanza tuvo lugar en La Manga del Mar Menor en 1982 y contó con la participación de John Elliot (que sustituyó a Lawrence Stenhouse). Desde este momento el interés por la I-A fue en aumento por parte del cuerpo docente, políticos y otros profesionales vinculados en esta área.

Carr y Kemmis, 1986

Publicaron el libro titulado Becoming Critical (. Kemmis fue invitado a asistir a un seminario, en la Universidad de Oviedo, en este mismo año.

Conferencia

El segundo simposio Internacional de Teoría Crítica e Investigación-Acción tuvo lugar en Valladolid. Asistieron grupos consolidados de las Universidades de Barcelona, Málaga, Oviedo, País Vasco, Valencia y Valladolid.

En este se trataron temas muy variopintos:

Ø  Educación de los niños

Ø  Educación primaria

Ø  Formación del profesado

Ø  Educación adulta

Ø  Pedagogía de aula para la docencia de asignaturas.

Ø  Educación social

Ø  Educación innovadora

Ø  Currículum escolar

Ø  Etc.

Las ideas a las que se llegaron para mejorar las políticas, reglas y prácticas a través de la esfera educativa fueron:

1. La influencia de la I-A en el discurso y la discusión de las ideas.

2. El papel de los maestros como profesionales autónomos que llevan a cabo una investigación de su práctica a través de la reflexión y la autocrítica.

3. Investigación-Acción para la formación del profesorado: Un ejemplo ilustrativo a través de un Proyecto.

4. La Construcción de comunidades educativas a través de la acción participativa de la investigación: Cooperación en enseñanza y en la investigación sobre la misma.

5. La influencia de la Investigación-Acción sobre políticas, reglas y práctica.

6. La situación actual

En las siguientes páginas resumiré brevemente los puntos expuestos en los documentos, algunos puntos están unificados al tratar temas parecidos y con el fin de sintetizar la información.

1,2.-Investigación sobre la acción crítica y reflexiva para el enriquecimiento profesional

Para generar ideas es necesario reflexionar sobre la práctica. Por lo que se hace necesario por parte de los docentes reflexionar sobre su ejercicio en el aula, para desarrollar sus propias teorías. Esto no significa dejar a un lado a otros autores; sino en utilizar la base de sus cimientos para poder construir una realidad basada en la propia experiencia.  En este sentido existen autores que defienden las investigaciones previas como fuente y herramienta para los docentes, sin desligar su conocimiento; y otros como Kuhn (1975) o Nuthal(2005) que consideran el conocimiento como algo abstracto e irrelevante, que aleja la teoría con la práctica real.

Es necesario que los maestros puedan diseñar, desarrollar y evaluar su propia acción, adquiriendo un protagonismo. En ocasiones el docente presionado por las instituciones, la cultura y el entorno cae en la repetición de sus quehaceres, generando estereotipos menos resistentes al cambio, reproduciendo la ideología dominante, reflejando las tradiciones y costumbres sin percatarse del peligro que entraña para los estudiantes, que han de asistir durante al menos 10 años de sus vidas a una formación impuesta, impregnada de valores y de una cultura que formará sus percepciones y organizará sus vidas en el devenir.

Se hace necesario encontrar otras vías, que alejen de la rutina a gran parte de los docentes. Y éste cauce comienza con identificar la cultura inmersa, a través de la colaboración con otros facultativos y trabajando a través de la investigación sobre la acción. Se hace necesario un distanciamiento, que permita la racionalidad sobre las emociones, para poder identificar los procesos de cualquier fenómeno educativo y los ciclos que sigue de poder ser generalizables las medidas para enfrentarse a cualquier problema social real.

En este sentido el horizonte de la I-A abarca una enseñanza y aprendizaje mucho más enriquecido, gracias al trabajo de investigadores y educadores sobre la reflexión de su trabajo, la utilidad y la calidad de la enseñanza.  Berry (2004:1308)

En este sentido el papel de la comunidad es relevante para construir un aprendizaje significativo sobre el contenido y también sobre la experiencia. 

3.- Investigación en la Acción para la formación del profesorado: Un ejemplo ilustrativo desde un proyecto

El lugar escogido para poner en marcha esta investigación fue el colegio “Nuestra Señora de Gracia. Esta investigación fue puesta en marcha con el nombre de “Creaciones colectivas”. Un grupo de 8 maestras de educación primaria fueron las elegidas, más dos profesores y dos estudiantes de la Universidad de Málaga como investigadores externos con estudios de Pedagogía, estudiantes de los grados de Magisterio y Educación Social en esta Universidad.

El informe extraído del grupo de maestras da muestra de los enormes beneficios obtenidos de la actividad <<Piensa en colores con Picasso>>, entre los que destacan el alto índice de participación por parte del alumnado, una elevada muestra de motivación, creatividad en alza y un cambio significativo en las relaciones escolares; así como el tratamiento de conflictos, a través de la práctica educativa y personal.

Uno de los grandes interrogantes en esta actividad ha sido discernir las variables que han influenciado el éxito de esta actividad. Se han analizado diferentes variables:

     Estrategias comunicativas y expresivas.

     Construcción de la identidad personal.

     Relaciones interpersonales.

     Relación con el conocimiento.

     Relación con el entorno.

     Integración de familias en los procesos educativos.

El trabajo llevado a cabo por las estudiantes de la Universidad tuvo una doble función. Por un lado, investigar con el propósito de entender, diseñar  y por otro, para desarrollar planes de acción para llevar a cabo esas prácticas educativas. En este sentido el uso de diarios fue la clave como herramienta de análisis y comparación para este grupo de maestras.

Las creaciones colectivas

De esta investigación se concluye que es necesario personalizar y dar un significado al trabajo. Son procesos flexibles, que implican una mente abierta al cambio, a lo inesperado; son procesos que permiten mejorar las relaciones, producir conocimiento y engendrar reflexión; son actividades que invitan al cambio, pero sobre todo son espacios creativos y procesos compartidos por diferentes grupos y de distintos niveles. Es un trabajo que se dirige a resultados de manera gradual, lo que estimula el proceso, según el segundo informe del grupo de maestras en la escuela. En definitiva el clima se vuelve más dinámico y participativo, los niños se sienten involucrados en su aprendizaje. Lo que se traduce en una transformación profunda a nivel cognitivo y emocional.

El proceso reflexivo ha permitido descubrir los déficits y errores y el desarrollo de un pensamiento activo, que utiliza la praxis combinada con la teoría, para reflexionar y crear nuevos entornos.

4.-Investigación Participativa en la Acción (IPA) a través de la cooperación en la enseñanza

La investigación participativa en la acción o PAR según las siglas inglesas se refiere a la acción de programas sociales, el desarrollo de la comunidad y análisis institucionales promovidos por diferentes movimientos sociales, organizaciones no gubernamentales, asociaciones de vecinos, etc. Asociados en casi todos los casos con sectores privados o movimientos cerrados de trabajadores. El máximo representante de  la aproximación de la corriente participativa es Jesús Ibáñez (1979,1985).

El desarrollo de IPA ha sido asociado fundamentalmente a intervenciones sociales y desarrollo de la comunidad; poco a poco ha ido conquistando la esfera educativa, especialmente en la formación práctica de educadores sociales. Este ha sido el caso de la Universidad de Málaga en donde se llevo a cabo un proyecto en un suburbio  (‘La Palmilla’), coordinado por Tomas Villasante, con la participación de estudiantes y maestros.

La característica básica en este tipo de acciones sociales viene determinada por la implicación de todas las personas en el contexto, que se quiere realizar la IPA, intentando superar los sentimientos de resistencia y oposición. Se empieza por un análisis de necesidades, realizando un diagnóstico de partida y definiendo los problemas,  prestando especial atención en involucrar a todos los implicados para conocer la compleja red que existe en el escenario.

La IPA permite descubrir y construir la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las relaciones, y adquirir un aprendizaje significativo, gracias a la comprensión social de la rutina y culturas que impregnan un determinado contexto.

No hay que olvidar que a lo largo de estos 70 años los colegios han contratado profesores a través de  un proceso burocrático, como resultado de una tradición histórica en donde se accede a los puestos a través de un procedimiento selectivo y evaluación social. IPA en educación puede contribuir a la construcción de comunidades de aprendizaje, promoviendo la participación, integración y cohesión social. Utilizando el diálogo y la crítica constructiva como telón de fondo.

5.-La influencia de la I-A en políticas, reglas y práctica

Las ideas de la IA han impregnado la teoría y práctica, a través de la política educativa y la orientación; así como la intervención diaria de maestros.

En 1984, el gobierno socialista del PSOE promulgó diferentes leyes sobre educación, lo que generó una gran transformación escolar. En 1985 el gobierno regional de Andalucía influenciado por la participación de los MRP s y académicos que apoyaban la IA como proceso innovador que había que poner en práctica, elaboró  un documento en el que expresaba su deseo de poner en marcha una reforma de la educación primaria para los menores de entre 12 y 14 años de edad.  El documento da nombre a su autor “El documento de Carboneras” supuso el principal pilar de la reforma oficial educativa.

El documento de Carboneras

Constituye una propuesta curricular abierta para la experimentación. Fue una propuesta sin precedentes con un gran valor y muestra la influencia de la IA en el pensamiento de esta reforma andaluza llevada a cabo. Estas influencias se perciben en tres conceptos:

Investigación entendida como un método para diseñar y evaluar el proyecto curricular y una herramienta para el docente.

Evaluación entendida como una investigación del trabajo realizado, que permite mejorar la práctica.

El maestro, entendido como un guía que orienta y estimula el aprendizaje autónomo de sus estudiantes y reflexiona sobre su práctica y ejercicio profesional.

La LOGSE

Con la entrada de la LOGSE (1990)  se vuelve a la precisión y centralización política. Se abandona la línea experimental, algunas ideas se conservan como: la autonomía, la colaboración, investigación y reflexión de los docentes de su práctica, entre otras.

Los MRP s y los Centros de Profesores son los instrumentos competentes preferidos por los maestros para  promoverse profesionalmente.

6.-La situación actual

La práctica de la IA en la enseñanza y en el sistema educativo está muy ligada a la ideología social dominante imbuida con la necesidad inmediata de eficiencia ha llegado a ser una importante referencia práctica y teórica en nuestros días.

The SAGE Handbook of

Educational Action Research

The Impact of Action Research in

Spanish Schools in the Post-Franco Era

Contributors: Susan E. Noffke & Bridget Somekh

Print Pub. Date: 2009

Online Pub. Date: July 19, 2009

Print ISBN: 9781412947084

Online ISBN: 9780857021021

DOI: 10.4135/9780857021021

Print pages: 481-495

This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination

of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.

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10.4135/9780857021021.n44

[p. 481 ↓ ]

Chapter 39: The Impact of Action Research

in Spanish Schools in the Post-Franco Era

Àngel I. Pérez Gómez, Miguel Sola Fernández, Encarnación Soto Gómez and José Francisco Murillo Mas

Overview

In this chapter we describe how and to what extent ideas on Action Research (AR)

have helped shape current schools in Spain. To this end we first provide some historical

background, essential in order to understand the evolution of schools as institutions,

particularly since the end of the Franco dictatorship. Next we examine the impact of AR

on the ideas and discourses assimilated and disseminated to schools mainly by agents

of the universities. This is followed by a brief analysis of how AR really impregnates

educational policy and practice in the Spanish State. Finally, we briefly describe the

current state of penetration of AR in school practice and some initiatives which promise

greater development in the near future.

Historical Milestones: The Emergence of

Action Research in Spain

Experiences of participatory research in education have been developed in Spain

since the 19th century, promoted by socialist and anarchist currents, although popular

movements were aborted during the Civil War and quelled throughout the [p. 482 ↓ ]

Franco dictatorship. The Spanish Civil War began on 18th July 1936 with an uprising

by troops loyal to Franco, ending with the military victory of the rebels on 1st April 1939.

The Franco dictatorship lasted up to the death of the dictator in 1975, when the process

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of transition to the current parliamentary monarchy began. It should not be forgotten

that amongst the interesting events which took place during the Second Republic

(1931–1939), we find the creation of Collaboration Centres and the first Summer

Schools. These were meetings organized by and for teachers, through pedagogical

innovation groups, held during the summer break in order to share experiences and

learn about new methodologies, ideas and experiences. The Summer Schools, which

were very well attended by members of the teaching profession, would become the

ideal instrument for the dissemination of a new pedagogical culture, different from the

official line, and often in direct opposition to it. From the mid-1960s we could say that

the Pedagogic Renovation Movements (MRPs) offered the only true possibility for

teacher training until the Teacher Centres (‘CEPs’) appeared in the mid-1980s.

The MRPs in fact comprise diverse collective groups, each of which is autonomous

and independent, brought together in a confederation. They are characterized by being

social movements, which defend a high level of commitment to quality education in

state schools, in order to achieve a democratic society, with the goal of influencing

the educational sphere from outside the officialdom of the Administration. The first

common declaration in defence of quality state schools was made at an MRP meeting

held in Seville in 1981. ‘An MRP is a social movement of teachers which, from a

historical perspective, tries to converge with other social movements in the liberating

transformation of schools and society’ (Martínez Bonafé, 1993: 104).

The activities of the MRPs passed through different stages over time, in keeping

with political events which would ultimately lead to the change of regime and the

consolidation of democracy. The different authors who have studied the period concur

to a large extent in identifying the first era (up to the mid-1980s) as the most dynamic,

not only in terms of activity but also with regards to political significance.

With the advent of democracy, and in particular during the first term of government

of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), many leaders of these educational renovation

movements, who had opposed the Franco regime and built up significant recognition,

were promoted to posts in the educational administration or in Teacher Centres

(‘CEPs’), or took up positions in universities. There were two significant consequences:

first, they brought about substantial changes in educational policy, incorporating the

ideas of renovation into future laws, whilst impregnating the principles and strategies of

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school reform and in-service teacher education. Moreover, many schools and teacher

groups were left bereft of innovative staff and, in particular, of people with leadership

skills and ideas to transform day-to-day practice.

Towards the mid-1990s, having suffered several crises as a result of the co-optation

of part of the discourse of the MRP by the educational administration, we can see

[p. 483 ↓ ] a revival, which goes hand in hand with evolution ‘towards theoretical and

practical reflection on the function of critical pedagogy and implementation strategies

in schools’ (Martínez Bonafé, 1993). At this point we can say that the MRP had been

transformed into base-level collective teacher groups which received the ideas of Action

Research, introduced in Spain at that time.

The concepts of Action Research have gradually influenced both progressive teaching

practice and theory in spain over time since 1982, the date on which the first Congress

on Curriculum and Teaching was held in La Manga del Mar Menor, counting on the

participation of John Elliott in place of the late Professor Laurence Stenhouse, as was

his express wish. Not without difficulty and from a minority position, Action Research

has slowly aroused growing interest from those teachers, professional groups and

politicians involved in education who are concerned with and involved in the complex

processes of pedagogical renovation in post-Franco schools.

In 1986, with Spain now a fully fledged democracy, the first Action Research training

and work seminar was held in Malaga, developed by J. Elliott and Bridget Somekh.

Subsequently, throughout the rest of the 1980s, seminars and workgroups proliferated

and extended the ideas and practices of Action Research through other Spanish

universities and regions. In 1986, the Wilfred Carr and Stephen Kemmis book Becoming

Critical was published in Spanish, with great repercussions in the university sphere, and

soon after Kemmis was invited to the University of Oviedo to attend a seminar.

In March 1992, the 2nd International Symposium on Critical Theory and Action

Research was held in Valladolid, bringing together consolidated research groups

from the universities of Barcelona, Málaga, Oviedo, Basque Country, Valencia and

Valladolid, along with researchers and teachers from other regions. The Symposium

saw the presentation of Action Research projects in diverse fields, such as children's

education, primary education, teacher training (both initial and ongoing), adult

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education, classroom pedagogy for different subjects, social education, educational

innovation, school curriculum and so on.

For the purposes of this work, the following conclusions of this Symposium are worth

highlighting:

We shall now indicate how Action Research has brought about improvements in

discourse, policies, rules and practices throughout the educational sphere in Spain.

The Influence of Action Research on

Discourse and the Discussion of Ideas

The idea of the teacher as a researcher who reflects upon his/her practice, the

deliberation processes and the action/research programmes as instruments for the

professional development of the teacher, the creation of educational communities,

the epistemological critique of the different models of educational research and the

proposed principles which should govern educational research are, amongst others,

topical issues which, given their critical and suggestive nature, have provided suitable

positions for educational practice and theory in Spain over the past 25 years (Mena,

2007). Over time, two main issues have been the centre of attention of AR work and

studies carried out in our sphere:

Teachers as Autonomous Professionals

Who Carry Out Research by Reflecting

upon Their Own Practice

The predominant academic formula at the start of the 1980s extended the image of the

teacher as a technician, applying pre-established routines to standardized problems.

The image of teachers as researchers into their own practice came to re-affirm itself and

take on special relevance in pedagogical theory and educational practice. The idea that

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the rational intervention of the teacher, as occurs in any other social practice, is always,

to a certain extent, a true research process, began to be more widespread, at that time

from the perspective of the practitioner.

For these social practices, impregnated with values, which do not have any strictly

predictable consequences and whose results cannot be established clearly as they

are open to individual and collective creation, the Action Research approach proposes

deliberation as the most rational intervention method (Elliott, 1985). [p. 485 ↓ ] Thus

conceived, practical deliberation could be a similar process to that which Schön (1983,

1987) offers in his concept of practical knowledge, with an interesting accompanying

nuance: the emphasis which Elliott places on the cooperative character of practical

deliberation. The professional knowledge of teachers should form a complex and

prolonged process of knowledge in action, ‘savoir-faire’ and of reflection in and about

action ‘action research’. Thus, relevant knowledge to orientate the practice of the

teacher in the changing and uncertain world of the classroom appears when we

propose facilitating the development of students' understanding, and is generated

through reflection on the characteristics and processes of one's own practice, in all

its aspects and dimensions: design, development and assessment. This conviction

does not imply any devaluation of theory or accumulated knowledge, but rather allows

positioning within a permanent process of confrontation and recreation from practice.

As stated by Elliott (1985, 2004), teachers who develop their theories based solely on

reflection on their own experiences, leaving aside the past and present reflections of

others, end up reinventing the wheel.

This has been a topical dilemma in Spain over recent decades: the need to understand

the accumulative character of the knowledge generated in reflection on practice,

respecting the singularity of the processes and the hypothetical character of

applications (Zeichner, 2007). Should the quality of the academic research and the

quality of the Action Research be valued with different criteria? Should we maintain, as

has happened in the international sphere and in particularly in the Spanish context, the

classic separation between practitioner research, orientated mainly towards improving

the practice of teaching, by those who participate in each specific teaching/learning

situation, from traditional academic research, orientated mainly towards increasing

theoretical knowledge of an area or field of study?

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Maintaining this perverse dualism, which is deep-rooted in the Spanish academic

sphere, only leads to stagnation in two extreme points of view, both of them inoperative.

On the one hand is a positivist conception of the development of knowledge in social

sciences, now clearly obsolete and questioned since Kuhn (1975), which, in education,

has only achieved complex sets of sophisticated artificial plays, never replicable but

always abstract and irrelevant (Nuthall, 2005) and which have distanced practitioners

from the enrichment which the theories may offer. On the other hand are intuitive and

anti-theoretical positions which renounce any procedure involving systematization

and internal and external checking of the value and consistency of the propositions

affirmed, legitimized only by the obscure affirmation of ‘everything goes’? The scientific

and cultural knowledge accumulated in the history of humanity in general and of the

teaching profession in particular is an essential tool to support the reflection of teachers,

not to replace it.

Moreover, it is evident that social practices show a clear trend towards a repetition

of routine processes, and that the institutional character of educational practice

restricts the possibilities of critical comparison and enriching dialogue. It is thus

easy to understand that isolated reflection and practice by teachers can [p. 486

↓ ] generate and reproduce a deformed self-understanding of reality, and that

these deformations can be easily maintained and fed by the inertia of professional,

institutional, cultural and environmental pressures. Much research on the evolution of

the pedagogical knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of teachers coincides with highlighting

the inexorable trend by the majority towards impaired thought, developing ever less

flexible stereotypes which are ever more resistant to change, feeding off the tacitly or

explicitly dominant ideology, the undiscriminating reproduction of professional tradition

(Halkes and Olson, 1983; Pérez Gómez and Gimeno, 1988, 1992; Sola, 1999, 2000),

the ritualized myths and routines of school culture (Nuthall, 2005; Russell, 2006;

Loughrand, 2007) and the codes of classification and rigid structuring of the traditional

teaching curriculum (Berstein, 1975).

Teaching is a ritual that we all assimilate through at least 10 years of

participation as students. Despite changing teacher education programs

and many attempts to reform teaching methods, the core of the ritual

remains largely unchanged, sustained by a ‘stable web of beliefs and

assumptions that are a part of the [wider] culture’ (Stigler and Hiebert,

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1999: 87) […] Culture becomes so much a part of ourselves that we

lose awareness of how it shapes our perceptions and organizes our

lives […] The problem is to find ways to stand outside the ritualized

routines and myths to identify how they control what we perceive,

believe, and do about reforming teaching and learning. (Nuthall, 2005)

Collaborative Action Research, which stimulates a process of contrasting one's views

with others'and with the results of the action, is a powerful tool to understand the hidden

influences which are present in school culture and which subtly permeate the thinking,

feeling and practice of all those immersed in this culture, provided suitable procedures

are established to break free from them and allow the appearance of new perspectives

and different interpretations. The processes and cycles of AR provide a privileged

tool to stimulate the complex integration of the two poles of the dilemmas which all

innovative teachers, dedicated to their profession, face: commitment and distancing,

emotions and rationality, oneself and others.

Perhaps this is the richest and most promising scenario in which teachers in the context

of Spain currently find themselves. AR has opened up a promising horizon which is

becoming ever more firmly established in the minds of the people concerned with

improving teaching and learning practice, since it deals with specific problems, in real

scenarios, whilst at the same time achieving a certain status of legitimacy amongst

education politicians and even in the difficult sphere of the Spanish pedagogical

academic environment (Mena, 2007). It is promising since it induces teacher

researchers and teacher educators to deal with educational reality, carrying out

research into our own practice, questioning the significance, utility and quality of our

teaching, along with the effects which the educational contexts and strategies we lay

out have on the learning processes and products of the students. As stated by Berry

(2004: 1308), ‘How can I be credible to those learning to teach if I do not practice what I

advocate for them?’

Fortunately, AR in Spain, in a similar manner to the movement developed over the

past decade in the United States known as Self-Study (Zeichner, 2007), [p. 487 ↓ ] is

beginning to take shape as a relevant teaching strategy in teacher education university

programmes, requiring the integration of action and reflection both in the development

of students and the professional development of teachers and of teacher educators.

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Likewise, it is promoting the coming together of three spheres, which have traditionally

been isolated in the history of education in Spain: practice, teacher education and

academic research (Pérez Gómez et al., 1995).

Action Research for Teacher Training: An

Illustrative Example from a Project

To illustrate this kind of learning partnership we draw on a project which combines

training and teaching proficiency, both in initial and in ongoing training: The Collective

Creations for Change Project. The primary school Nuestra Señora de Gracia is the key

agency facilitating praxis and reflection for current and future primary school teachers

and university teachers who are looking to give a common sense to their teaching and

research practice.

A research and reflection group was established by the project to explore the

pedagogical qualities of a kind of educational activity created by them and called

Collective Creations. A group of eight primary school teachers was set up, plus two

teachers and two students from the University of Malaga as external facilitators with

support from Pedagogy, School Teaching and Social Education undergraduates at this

university.

With the activity Think in colours with Picasso there was a before

and after in the life of the school. The motivation it brought about, the

reflection processes it caused, the creativity it aroused in pupils, the

frenetic level of activity in which the entire school was immersed … all

led to significant changes in relations at the school […] We discovered

that these practices led to internal transformation processes in our

children when it came to dealing with conflicts, along with a personal

bond with the educational practice. (extract from the teachers' group

research report)

However, not all the activities designed and developed have had the same impact

on the lives and interests of the pupils. Which variables have had an influence? The

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focus of our reflections has been on analyzing and delimiting the characteristics of

the Collective Creations, along with the possibility of introducing qualitative changes.

Our concern has been to change the conditions and the relations and the learning of a

group of pupils and parents who, given their highly disadvantaged social background,

have remained on the edges of education with high levels of truancy and educational

failure. We are submerged in an action research process in which we analyze different

variables: communication and expression strategies, construction of personal identity,

interpersonal relations, relations with knowledge, relations with surrounding spaces and

the integration of families in the school education process.

The result is that university students not only observe educational practices in schools,

but also collaborate with the teachers and students in order to understand, design

and develop action plans for developing these educational practices. [p. 488 ↓ ] Their

diaries are useful not only for their university training, but also as a tool for analysis

and comparison by this group of teachers. University teachers have a dual role in

the reflection group: first, as external facilitators and second, as tutors in the practical

training of university students; in other words, as with the primary school teachers and

the pupils, they have the dual function of researching and practising.

Some conclusions from this work have allowed us to draw up new kinds of action: the

Collective Creations have an overall purpose, but require each teacher to customize

them and give them local meaning; they are flexible processes, involving opening the

mind to the new, to the unexpected; they are processes which aim to enhance relations,

produce knowledge and engender reflection; they are thus activities which generate

change, but above all they are creative spaces and processes shared by different

groups and levels. This work gradually leads to results which stimulate the process:

our children actively take part in school dynamics; they go to school

happy and feel they have a role as part of it; behaviour crises are less

and less frequent and of lesser intensity; children's levels of reflection

and acceptance of the rules, which they themselves have helped to

draw up, are on the up. (2nd report of the teachers group of the school)

From the point of view of university students, the experiences and processes witnessed

at Nuestra Señora de Gracia school have had a profound impact not only on a cognitive

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level, but also, more significantly, on an emotional level. This has led to the students

relating to, stimulating and giving sense to their training and to their future, whilst

the possibility of reflecting on and participating in an innovative experience and real

research along with teachers from different educational sectors has led to a climate of

partnership and a learning environment very different from those commonly found in

university environments. The reflective process has enabled analysis of preconceptions,

discovery of gaps and errors, and the construction of reflexive thought from practice,

using theory as a tool for analysis, reflection and creation.

The Construction of Educational

Communities Through Participatory Action

Research: Cooperation in Teaching and in

Research on Teaching

Since the period of transition to democracy, it has also been possible to recognize

in Spain several research developments with a participatory approach, Participatory

Action Research (PAR), related to social action programmes, community development

and institutional analyses promoted by different social movements, non-governmental

organizations, neighbours associations and so on, associated in almost all cases

with deprived sectors or close to workers movements. Thanks to his theory, practice

and dissemination in Spain, the leading academic exponent has been Jesús Ibáñez

(1979, 1985). The development of PAR has been associated fundamentally to social

intervention and community development, and is only now beginning marginally to

become incorporated into the sphere of education, especially in the practical training of

social educators. [p. 489 ↓ ] This, for example, has been the case at the University of

Malaga, where the Curriculum and Teaching Department has participated actively in a

community development project in an underprivileged district (‘La Palmilla’), coordinated

by Tomas Villasante, with the participation of students and teachers.

The emphasis on promoting and ensuring the participation of all the agents involved

in a specific social context is the basic characteristic that determines the pedagogical

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value of Participatory Action Research. The action and reflexion cycles are diversified

and take shape in the form of ever more elaborate techniques and procedures in

order to encourage participation and try to overcome the inevitable (and apparently

irresolvable) resistance and opposition. From the start of the analysis of needs,

diagnosis of situations and definition of problems, attention is concentrated primarily

on methodology for widen participation of everybody involved in that context in order to

take on board the most diverse voices and interpretations, in particular those which are

most unheard, marginal and out of sight. The relationship maps, the workgroups and

the assemblies are decisive in the methodological basis of the PAR, as an outstanding

tool to understand the complex network of human and social relations in each specific

scenario.

Participatory social research as a form of collective knowledge construction, which

promotes creativity in the networks of each context, can be applied in school scenarios.

It is an outstanding tool to understand the complexity of the educational function in the

information society, and also to uncover the routines, myths and rituals which make

up the culture of schools as institutions. Furthermore, and more importantly, it allows

us to understand and overcome any obstacles and possibilities we come across in

the process towards change, discovery and construction of new teaching and learning

relations, and to perceive the construction and application of knowledge in a new way.

The ultimate goal of PAR is the production of knowledge for transformation through

the participation of all those involved. For this reason, the focus of the research is not

only the problem to be resolved, but also the processes of change, the resistances

and obstacles, and the procedures for the shared diagnosis and assessment of

contexts, processes and products. As Villasante states (2000, 2002), PAR must lead

to understanding, the application of the generated knowledge and the involvement or

social mobilization of the agents involved in each scenario.

PAR thus has significant potential in the educational institutions change process,

through building learning communities. We must not forget that for over 70 years

Spanish schools have recruited teachers by way of a very bureaucratic procedure

for the training, selection and appointment of public employees, who assume, as a

result of a long historic tradition, that passing public entrance exams places them in

unchangeable, lifelong work posts, which are beyond any control procedure or social

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assessment. In this manner, as the appointments in each school are made by way of

seniority, it is very difficult to find conditions which are conducive to the development

of work teams or professional life communities orientated towards shared projects and

goals. PAR in education may contribute to the construction of learning communities,

since universal participation promotes community integration [p. 490 ↓ ] and social

cohesion by favouring open communication and constructive criticism of opinions and

interests, as well as understanding of similar or differing interpretations.

Another project in which the authors of this chapter are involved and in which we

bring together research and teaching in Social Education is the Home Project. This

is a Participatory Action Research project for community development in an underprivileged

district, dependent on the involvement of political leaders, social workers,

university staff, university students and citizens.1 An interesting line of development of

this methodology is the recent initiative by researchers at the Sociology Department

of La Laguna University (Canary Islands), in which Participatory Action Research

methodology has been transferred to schools as a way of developing these supposedly

educational environments into learning communities.

The Influence of Action Research on

Policies, Rules and Practice

The ideas from AR developed above have impregnated theory and practice, curricular

and educational policy discourse and orientation, and the daily intervention of teachers,

but have penetrated thinking more deeply about theory than about practice.

In 1984, the Socialist government started the transformation of schools by promulgating

different laws on education. As of 1985 the regional government of Andalusia, perhaps

influenced by a more intense participation of the MRPs and of academics close to AR,

takes a different course. The most elaborate expression of the proposals upon which

the experimental reform of primary education for ages 12–14 in Andalusia is based can

be found in what has become known as the ‘Carboneras Document’, proposed in 1987

as the main pillar of the official reform. (Spain has a central government for the whole

of the State, but is also divided into autonomous regions, of which Andalusia is one,

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which have responsibility for education. The result is that there is an education ministry,

in addition to each autonomous region having its own regional ministry or department.

This situation allows the autonomous regions certain levels of freedom when carrying

out central directives.)

The Carboneras Document ‘reflects the conclusions of the collective debate carried

out around the experimental process by teachers, coordinators and advisers through

different meetings and contacts’ (p. 17) and constitutes an open curricular proposal

for experimentation. In our opinion, the document should be considered a curricular

proposal of unprecedented political, social and educational value in Spain, and shows

the influence at the time of the penetration of the ideas of AR into the thinking of those

who designed and implemented the reform in Andalusia. The influences can be found

most clearly in the following aspects:

Research, understood as a ‘method to design and assess the curricular

project’ and a ‘teacher's tool’. By converting research into this new

meaning, we have been frontally attacking some of the most strongly

held beliefs amongst professional teachers, who, up to this point, had

unquestionably accepted the role of individual technical application

which had been entrusted to them.

[p. 491 ↓ ] Assessment, understood as ‘the research process in which

explanations are obtained with regards to the working of the learning

and teaching process, in order to subsequently introduce appropriate

changes for improvement’ (p. 92).

The teacher, understood as an independent and cooperative

professional, who grows and develops by carrying out research into his/

her own practice, facilitates, stimulates and orientates the autonomous

learning of students.

In 1990 the LOGSE (Education Act) was promulgated, definitively abandoning the

experimental line implemented around the Carboneras Document and bringing a return

to ‘precision’ in curricular design and centralization of policy. Nevertheless, practically

all the watchwords introduced in the beginnings can be found in the new law: autonomy,

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collaboration, research, reflection by teachers on their practice and so on. Action

Research is no longer a model proposed for the majority, whilst its philosophy and

methodology remain in the heart of minority groups with extensive discourse but a

merely testimonial level of practice.

The panorama of in-service teacher education is quite different. Along with the MRPs,

the Teacher Centres are the most important event in the recent history of ongoing

teacher training in Spain. They are described as ‘preferential instruments for teacher

proficiency and the promotion of professionalism’. Ever since they were first set up,

they have been entrusted with the ongoing education of teachers. Without renouncing

models of a transmissive nature, it is worth highlighting the predominance of an

autonomous model which places emphasis on self-education by teachers. With

regards to Andalusia in particular, following a period of dependency, the 2nd Formative

Plan (Several Authors, 2002) once again opened up perspectives and recovered

with its declarations of interest in education focused on the problems, dilemmas and

contradictions of daily practice, to which end annual meetings for research projects

were created.

… research will be carried out to extend knowledge of the educational

situation, based preferably on in-depth studies (case studies,

biographies, observations, interviews and research). (Order of 2006)

The Current Situation

Although the practice of Action Research, both in teaching in general and in the teacher

education system in particular, is not a generalized or predominant orientation, there

are indeed many indicators which allow us to affirm its influence on the current Spanish

educational system:

Since the start of the 1980s, when Spain began to awake from a long period of lethargy,

a very long road has been followed in terms of Action Research. This road which has

not been exempt from difficulties, changing direction in line with the orientations of

the National and Regional Governments and having to overcome the obstacles of

professional thinking, which is plagued with ideological beliefs that are not subject to

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any form of reflexive scrutiny, and to the influence of the dominant social ideology,

imbued with the need for immediate efficiency. AR, no longer unknown, neither an

anecdotal nor marginal practice, has become an important theoretical and practical

reference.