Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case

12 Pages·2014·1.19 MB·English

doi:10.5477/cis/reis.148.157
Conditions Allowing the Possible Development
of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case
Studies in the Andalusian Context
Condiciones de posibilidad y desarrollo para una educación intercultural
crítica. Tres estudios de caso en el contexto andaluz
Esther Márquez-Lepe and María García-Cano Torrico
Key words Abstract
Change Agents This paper presents research findings that focus on analyzing the
• Social Change conditions that enable and/or complicate the development of the critical
• Elementary Schools intercultural approach in Pre-schools and Primary schools. To this end,
• Multicultural three case studies were conducted in schools in the Spanish Autono-
Education mous Region of Andalusia. The main data production techniques used
• Inmigrants were: participatory observation, interviews and documentary analysis.
• Qualitative Methods The results are organized around three dimensions of analysis: the
• Cultural Pluralism concept of inequality and/or diversity as a driving force for change in
schools and the opening-up of the school setting as a challenge/
reproduction of cultural homogeneity and hegemony. The findings show
how the dynamics and interactions that exist within these schools
provide opportunities but also create limitations when it comes to
shaping new intercultural realities.
Palabras clave Resumen
Agentes de cambio Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación cuyo interés
• Cambio social es analizar las condiciones que posibilitan y/o dificultan el desarrollo del
• Educación básica enfoque crítico intercultural en centros educativos de Infantil y Primaria.
• Educación Para ello, hemos realizado tres estudios de caso en colegios de la
multicultural Comunidad Autónoma Andaluza. Las principales técnicas de
• Inmigrantes producción de datos han sido: la observación participante, entrevistas y
• Métodos cualitativos análisis documental. Los resultados se han organizado en torno a dos
• Pluralismo cultural dimensiones de análisis: el interés de la desigualdad y/o la diferencia
como motor del cambio escolar y la apertura del escenario escolar
como desafío/reproducción de la homogeneidad y hegemonía cultural.
A través de ello mostramos cómo las dinámicas e interacciones de
estos centros suponen oportunidades pero también límites para la
configuración de nuevas realidades inter-culturales.
Citation
Márquez-Lepe, Esther and García-Cano Torrico, María (2014). “Conditions Allowing the Possible
Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context”.
Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 148: 157-170.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.148.157)
Esther Márquez-Lepe: Universidad de Sevilla | [email protected]
María García-Cano Torrico: Universidad de Córdoba | maría.garcí[email protected]
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
158 Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context
I This is the case of the experiences in German
ntroductIon
schools and the remedial practices in the
Studies on multi-intercultural education have Spanish context aimed exclusively at the
had a solid track record both in the United other (Dietz, 2009). For example, the “Educa-
States and Europe since the seventies. This tional Orientation, looking at diversity and
extensive development makes them a theo- special education” programs, included under
retical option from which to approach the
the priority line of the LOGSE (Peñalva,
health of schools in democratic societies
2009).
(Gundara, 2010: 231).
These two models converge, to our un-
Both their origin and their principal inter-
derstanding, in the meaning granted to the
ests have been associated with the percep-
cultural aspect, in such a way that the mee-
tion, treatment and position of groups that
ting of different cultures in school is eviden-
are traditionally marginalized or minoritized
ced through a different national passport and
(Rex, 1995; Verlot and Pinxten, 2000; Terrén,
how foreign immigrant students are unders-
2011). From this perspective, the answers in
tood to be the bearers of a different/unequal
the school setting have been diverse, being
culture compared to the national student
supported by different ways of understan-
body and teachers (Dietz, 2009). Therefore,
ding the collective identities and cultural re-
although these two models have different
presentations. In general terms, we identified
goals -assimilation in the first case and se-
three positions that we will now look at: assi-
gregation in the second- they respond to a
milationist, segregationist-compensator and
similar conceptual framework that links the
the critical intercultural approach (Gorski,
arrival of immigrant students to multi-inter-
2009; Walsh, 2010), the latter being the ob-
culturality proposals. We place the majority
ject of study of this paper in three specific
discourse on intercultural education, maintai-
schools1.
ned both by Spanish society and on the part
Firstly, we will indicate the assimilationist
of the teaching body, (Colectivo IOÉ, 1999;
models, founded on the Dyad cultural identi-
García and Rubio, 2011) in this debate.
ty - national identity, which are aimed at pro-
However, for more than a decade this po-
moting the adaptation process of immigrant
sitioning has been strongly questioned. On an
students towards the dominant culture. We
international level, the works of Wright (1986),
find examples in the United States -and its
Gundara (2000) and Banks (2005) clearly
postulated Americanization- (La Belle and
highlight the homogenizing cultural orienta-
Ward, 1994), the French case with measures
tion of school institutions, especially in school-
founded in republican universalism (Pan-
draud, 2007) or in the Spanish context (Co- community relations with students from diffe-
lectivo IOÉ, 1999), especially before the pro- rent ethnic origins, in prioritizing the very
mulgation of the LOGSE (General Organic values of the majority culture, usually mono-
Law on the Education System) (1990). lingual and of a single religion and culture.
Secondly, we will highlight the segrega- On the other hand, the works of Gorski
tionist and compensation models, which (2008; 2009) show that under the umbrella of
have been fundamentally based on the intercultural treatment -understood as com-
theories of deficit and cultural deprivation. pensating- a national-school hegemonic dis-
course is prevailing in detriment to minority
cultures, which promotes invisibilization and,
as a result, the reproduction of the structural
1 Research financed by the national R+D+i programme
conditions on which the processes of in-
(ref. EDU2010-15808) and the programme of Excellence
of the Regional Government of Andalusia (ref. SEJ-6329). equality within schools are based.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
Esther Márquez-Lepe and María Carcía-Cano Torrico 159
As a result of this criticism and inspired enable or limit development of the critical in-
by classic education models for teaching tercultural approach through the analysis of
(Freinet, Freire, Apple...) we have recognized discourses and school practices.
a third approach to interculturality which opts To this end, we will focus on two issues:
for transformational, critical and democrati- the reasons for which the process of change
zing education (Van Zanten, 1997; Dietz, or transformation in schools begins and the
2009). These are approaches that address relations between the different groups invol-
interculturality from a procedural perspecti- ved in said changes. Through both we could
ve, looking at the different structures that find out how inequality is dealt with and the
justify and reproduce the mechanisms of so- level of openness and participation of diffe-
cial inequality and discrimination, and there- rent agents in schools, fundamental aspects
fore move the focus of attention from the for the development of the critical intercultu-
subjects to the school institution itself, its ral approach.
goals and organizational structures as well as
the ways and discourses in which the cultural
diversity and education policies that accom- MethodoLogy
pany them are interpreted.
We have opted for a methodology of qualita-
These approaches, which, following
tive research through the conducting of three
Gorski (2009) and Walsh (2010) we classify
case studies (Coller, 2000), since we unders-
as “critical interculturality”, point to three ty-
tand that this is only way we can discover the
pes of fundamental aspect in intercultural
dynamics produced within the school setting
work: a) these are political-educational stra-
and understand the way in which each actor
tegies that question the processes of inequa-
makes use of these settings, reproduces
lity and therefore visibilize the structures and
and/or modifies the discussions and posi-
conditioning that determine them transversa-
tions traditionally assigned by school institu-
lly; b) they focus on the intercommunicative
tions (Martín Criado, 2010).
and experiential processes, so their goal is
In order to select the case studies we fo-
not so much instruction in certain contents
llowed the criteria of the theoretical sampling
as experience of interculturality; and c) they
theory within the Grounded Theory model. In
challenge cultural homogeneity and hege-
other words, we chose different schools that
mony with a vocation of transformation ba-
met the conditions to development the criti-
sed on the emergence of areas for participa-
cal intercultural approach and thus enabled
tion and democratization.
us to maximize or minimize the similarity/dis-
On a national level there is abundant aca-
similarity of the information (Glaser and
demic literature that includes these theoretic
Strauss, 1967).
assumptions (García-Castaño, et al., 2000;
Specifically, we selected three Pre-school
Essomba, 2006; Dietz, 2009; Aguado, 2011;
and Primary schools that share three funda-
Terrén, 2011; Márquez and García-Cano,
mental criteria: a) they work with students in
2012; Antolínez, 2013; Besalú, 2012) but the-
a situation of inequality, b) they are in the pro-
re are not so many studies that do so taking
cess of transforming their school structure
school practices into account.
and organization, and c) their transforma-
This paper intends to discover the hole in
tions are aimed at creating greater presence
this type of investigation, in an attempt to
of families and the community within the
advance knowledge in this field.
school setting. At the same time, these three
The general objective of this work is to schools differ in various aspects: ownership,
identify conditions and/or processes that student profile, transformation project model
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
160 Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context
TABLE 1. Case selection criteria and characteristics (Schools A, B and C)
Selection criteria SIMILARITY DISSIMILARITY
Pre-schools and Primary Schools located School A and School C are publicly owned.
in Andalusia Located in province capitals (more than
Ownership/loca- 500,000 inhabitants)
tion School B is state-assisted. Located in a mu-
nicipality of the province (between 50,000
and 100,000 inhabitants)
Remedial Plan2 School A: 25% foreign students
Located in Areas with Social Transforma- School B: 68% national gypsy ethnic group
tion Needs (ZNTS)3 and 25% foreign students
Inequality Socio-economic and Cultural Index (ISC)4: School C: 26% foreign students and 40% na-
within the “Low” category of the five esta- tional gypsy ethnic group
blished categories: “Low, Average-Low,
Average, Average-High, High”
Planned educational change (Fullan, 2001), School A (from 2006) and School B (from
with continuity through time (spread) and in 2010) are Learning Communities (hereinafter
Transformation which most of the teaching body participa- referred to as LCs)
te (depth) (Hargreaves & Fink, 2003). School C is a reference in pedagogical inno-
vation5
Transformations aimed at greater commu- Schools A and B (LCs) teaching strategies
nication between schools, families and the protocolized in activities like «Interactive
community groups», «Mixed committees», «Social gathe-
rings for dialogue», «Training with families»
(Elboj at al., 2002)
Opening strategies
School C: activities designed by the teaching
team such as “Meetings”, “Open Clas-
srooms”, “Work by projects”, “Coffee mee-
tings”, “Children’s mornings”, “Mums’ thea-
tre”, “Literacy and IT classes”
Source: Own production
and diversity of strategies to open up to fa- we will refer to the schools as: School A,
milies and the community. Table I shows the School B and School C.
case study selection criteria in more detail. The data production techniques in the
With the goal of guaranteeing their anon- three cases were: semi-structured interviews,
ymous nature and in accordance with Table I participatory observation and documentary
2 Decree 167/2003 regarding the organisation of educa- number of books in the family home) status of the
tional care for students with special educational needs schools. The ISCs of the three schools fall within a ran-
associated with unfavourable social conditions through ge of -2.16 to 0.47 on a scale of -2.16 to 1.49, used to
the Remedial Plans (BOJA no. 118 of the 23rd of June). classify schools in Andalusia in the “Scale Evaluation
Tests” on reading, writing and calculation abilities (Anda-
3 Classification of Andalusian territories (BOJA no. 31 of
lusian Education Evaluation Agency, 2011, available-
2006) in relation to the concentration of excluded house-
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/agaeve/c/
holds, structural situations of poverty and social margina-
document_library/get_file?uuid=738e1b71-8660-4745-
lisation. bdcc-46bd256a564c&groupId=35690).
4 In relation to the socio-economic (occupation of the 5 Examples of its public recognition are as follows: 2010
mothers and fathers and the household’s resources) and Ecoescuela Award; Award for the promotion of innovation
cultural (educational level of the mothers and fathers and and investigation, Regional Government of Andalusia, 2010.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
Esther Márquez-Lepe and María Carcía-Cano Torrico 161
TABLE 2. Data production techniques
Individual interviews Participatory observation Document review
Management
Family Intra
Team and Inter Dimension
members Dimension
Teaching Staff
«Social gatherings
for dialogue» «Trai-
School A 11 8 Classrooms, ning sessions» Education Project
School “Provincial com- Coexistence Plan
mittees” Remedial Plan
Classrooms, «Training ses-
School B 13 6
School sions»
Classrooms, «Coffee Meetings»,
School C 12 1
Centre «Mums’ theatre»
Total 51 interviews 84 Field records 9 documents
Source: Own production
analysis. For the interviews, we selected the In addition to the above techniques, we
same informant profiles (management, tea- also gathered and analyzed documentation
ching body and family members of the stu- produced by the centers themselves (see Ta-
dents) which allowed us to promote the emer- ble II).
gence of analysis categories as well as the
Information was produced to the point of
possibility of comparing the categories desig-
saturation (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Sub-
ned. In total, 51 interviews were conducted6.
sequently it was transcribed and encoded in
Participatory observation took place over six
a single hermeneutic unit within the Atlas.ti
months in Schools B and C (2011/2012 school
6.2 qualitative analysis program, enabling us
year) and during one school year in School A
to handle the volume of information and
(2010/11)7. This technique allowed us to con-
make the analytic process by the various
textualize the discourse gathered in the inter-
members of the team more precise and relia-
views, in addition to looking at the interaction
processes between the teaching body, fami- ble. At first, the encoding was carried out in
lies and students in more detail. For better an open manner and the information from the
systematization of the observations, we dis- three schools was organized in relation to
tinguished between two dimensions: “Intra” three general codes: a) history and characte-
(teacher and student relations in the school ristics of the contexts and schools, b) family,
and classroom) and “Inter” (relations with the school, community relations, and c) the
presence of other actors from the community) school’s transformation processes. Through
(see Table II). these, we were able to confirm both the re-
currence of discourse and the absence the-
reof.
6 We would like to say thank you for the collaboration
Later on, two aspects we had encoded
of Ramón Cid, Raquel Guzmán and Inmaculada Antoli-
nez. selectively interested us to achieve our goal:
7 The time difference was due to the financing conditions the reasons for the school change or trans-
of the research. Despite this, there were no significant
formation and the relationships between the
changes in the national and autonomous regions’ edu-
cation policies between these two periods. parties involved.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
162 Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context
r growing up in. “”what a shame” doesn’t exist in
esuLts
our school, ok? It’s a sentence that we don’t
use (...) because these children can do an-
Inequality or difference as a driving
force for change? ything, and they will be able to do it with just a
little help” (Teacher, School C, 2012).
The reasons indicated for the beginning of the
On the other hand, in School B, with
change that most of the teachers of the three
around 68% national gypsy and 25% foreign
schools agreed on were: poor academic per-
students, said attribution is established in
formance, coexistence problems, the stigma-
terms of otherness relations between the
tization of the center and a lower rate of enrol-
marginal group(s) and the school institution:
ment of national students. Together with this,
we would highlight a factor around which all
“these are poor people, not just poor in terms of
the discourse regarding the beginning and dri-
money but more importantly, lacking in values”
ving force of school change has revolved: the
(Teacher, School B, 2012). In this perspective, the
social conditions of the students linked to
individual is conditioned from the start by their own
their environment. Statements that relate to
group, which is responsible for their fate and suc-
“considerable family destabilization” (Reme-
cess/failure, according to the distance between
dial Plan, School A), “students from a very
their values and the demands of school. A teacher
unfavorable social scale (...) who require so-
from School B described this as follows: “on the
cial integration which is increasingly urgent
scale of values, for them education has no value,
and difficult as a result of the influence of
they don’t value it, they have their kids here becau-
drugs and marginality” (Coexistence Plan,
se they have to have them here, (...) education is the
School B) or “dysfunctional families with se-
key to the future, they don’t have this..., yes, we do
rious social, economic, cultural and emotio-
have it” (Classroom observation, School B, 2012).
nal deficiencies” (Education Project, School
C) were frequent.
This conception of students’ possibilities
operates parallel to their cultural ascription.
It is important to understand that these
Therefore, in the discourses of the teachers
lines of discourse occur in environments with
who opt for closed stereotyping, the gypsy or
a strong situation of vulnerability and social
foreign cultural category is indicated as the
inequality. We must not forget that the three
main attribute both of the group and on an
schools have a low score at Socio-economic
individual level.
and Cultural Index (ISC), (Regional Govern-
ment of Andalucía, 2014) as we saw in Table
Romanians...you’ve got everything, there are
I and are classed as Areas with Social Trans-
some very courteous children, very quiet, very
formation Needs.
like that, but they generally share more characte-
Despite this consensus regarding the re- ristics with the gypsies, they’re more self-confi-
levance of the situation of inequality of the dent, more... You’ve got everything, because
student bodies, we observed how this line of there are times that this depends on the persona-
argument is backed up by different examples lity of each one whoever you are, it’s just like that,
depending on the school.
but generally they act more like them, and they
On the one hand, we found that in Schools have more characteristics like them..., they have
A and C, the main aspects used to describe the more temper, worse temperament, if others mess
students are the unequal socio-economic con- with them, they defend themselves, not like the
ditions in which they live, so students and their Pakistanis who keep their heads down and if they
families are not described based on what they get hit just take it, no, not them, they defend
are “like” but rather by the conditions they are themselves and if they have to go after you or if
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
Esther Márquez-Lepe and María Carcía-Cano Torrico 163
they have to say something, they will (Teacher, School B, both part of the LC project, they
School B, 2012). are driven by the teaching model itself and
In these statements, the student body is the protocol they establish (Ferrada and Fle-
categorized within a group based on its ethnic cha, 2008). Statements like “this school stays
and/or national ascription, to which a series of on track thanks to the teaching staff” (Direc-
particular typical characteristics are assigned. tor of School A, 2010) or “being a Learning
This indicator is therefore used to naturalize Community is a training process, a process
the difference, understanding that inconsis- for reflection, to be debated by the whole
tency within the group, i.e. students that do teaching staff” (Teacher, School B, 2012)
not behave according to said indicators, is the show the driving force behind the relations-
exception. These approaches are consistent hips between actors.
with the mainstream discourses that objectify For its part, School C, where the teaching
identity sustained by both the assimilationist staff designs the activities and determines
and segregationist-compensator models and the sense thereof, promotes a continuous
the results of the studies conducted in Spain process of non-protocolized self-analysis:
on intercultural education (Colectivo IOÉ, “it’s important not to give up... If something
1999; Garcia and Rubio, 2011). is going well we run with it and keep making
Therefore the positions taken by the other improvements so it doesn’t become routine,
two schools are significant for us, where cul- because if it becomes routine the sense is
tural ascription is more permeable and con- eventually lost” (Director, School C, 2012).
textualized, and where the presence of foreign Together with this, they carry out a process
or gypsy students is interpreted as another of collective reflection which, as we saw,
example of the unequal position that the indi- takes the form of meetings, becoming the
viduals occupy in different areas of social stra- management system of the school and sym-
tification (Martínez, 2013), including the school bol of its organizational identity (Education
environment. We mainly found these lines of Project, School C). This constantly reflective
argument, closer to the critical intercultural way of working promotes a practice in accor-
approach, in Schools A and C, where the tea- dance with the critical intercultural approach
ching body particularly highlighted the condi- and, in the way it adapts to the characteris-
tions of exclusion the students experience tics and problems of its particular context,
beyond the cultural difference. One teacher transcends the risks that could be involved in
described it as follows: the standardization of the change (Har-
greaves, 2003).
why am I trying to change things? Right? Someti-
Together with these actions, we identified
mes it’s like we look for a difference where there
other elements that limit the development of
isn’t really any and other times it’s true that we
said approach. Of particular relevance in the
don’t see it when it is there, right? (Classroom ob-
cases studies is, on the one hand, the uncer-
servation, School A, 2010).
tain stability of the teaching team in the schools,
which makes it difficult for the projects to move
Opening-up of the school setting as
forward (to a greater extent in the cases of pu-
a challenge/reproduction of cultural
blic schools A and C than in the state-assisted
homogeneity and hegemony.
school, School C). On the other hand, the diffi-
Through the analysis conducted on the rela- culty in maintaining dynamics that make co-
tionships between different actors in the llective work the emergence of distributed lea-
three schools (in the Inter and Intra dimen- dership processes, not making them depend
sions) we found that both in School A and on specific people (Bolivar, 2010).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
164 Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context
The collective work encouraged amongst forcing them to reach a better understanding
the teaching staff of the three schools also of the context and the way in which the va-
extends to the rest of those involved in edu- rious key figures interrelate and, secondly,
cation, students, families and volunteers, fa- new possibilities to incorporate “situated
voring interrelation activities outside the knowledge” linked precisely to the presence
school. of different actors in the classroom (Rodri-
The strategies we identified for the case of guez, 2008). Both aspects in principle beco-
the two LC centers (Schools A and B) are me enabling conditions of the critical inter-
“meetings” amongst the student body, “mixed cultural approach.
committees” (teaching staff, students, families From the first we’ve seen a questioning of
and volunteers), the holding of “literary social roles in the classroom in view of the relations
gatherings” (with students, amongst the tea- with families and volunteers, which questions
ching staff, with families and volunteers) and the legitimacy of the traditionally established
“interactive groups” (with the presence of fa- roles, i.e., who is who within the education
milies and volunteers in the classroom). In the setting and the school environment -learner/
case of School C, the “coffee meetings” bet- teacher vs. learner/I learn- and who has con-
ween the teaching staff and families, “open trol over what8 is learned (knowledge or eva-
classrooms” where students from different luation, for example). The following extract
year groups get together to work on a com- from the field diary, in relation to School A,
mon project, “group leader courses” to boost illustrates the debate we are referring to and
relations between children of different ages which we interpret as a questioning of the
and “Mums’ theatre”, to name but a few of hegemonic curriculum, an enabler of the cri-
these programs. In addition, in the three
schools we identified an interest in participa-
tion in exchange networks and activities that
8 For the specific case of the school curriculum in Spain,
allow relationships with other schools (in the Organic Law 2/2006 on Education (BOE of the 4th of
May 2006), in force during this investigation, establishes
case of LCs in provincial and autonomous re-
its open nature in such a way that the education centres
gion committees), Universities (in all three ca- themselves are responsible for specifying such in accor-
ses), public administration bodies and other dance with the characteristics of the social and cultural
environment of the school. The education Administration
associations operating in the area.
bodies are also responsible for favouring the creation of
The opening up and presence of various open programming models that meet the needs of the
teaching staff and students (LOE, Title V. Participation,
actors in the school demonstrates a de facto
independence and governing of the schools, Chapter II.
change in the organizational model with res- Independence of the schools, Article 121. Education
pect to the previous model but, at the same Project). Therefore in Spain the teaching centres are res-
ponsible for developing the principle of «academic inde-
time, brings up certain contradictions in rela-
pendence», developing and completing the curriculum
tion to the hegemony of school culture. One established by the education Administration Bodies in
good example of this is the discourse regarding order to make this «a valid instrument to respond to the
characteristics and the educational reality of each
the presence of other adults in classrooms.
school» (Royal Decree 1513/2006 of the 7th of Decem-
In the three schools, we found that the ber which establishes the minimum curriculum for Pri-
mary Education. BOE no. 293, 8th of December 2006:
teaching staff had achieved the presence of
pp. 43053). The recently approved Law for the Improve-
families and volunteers in classes. This dyna- ment of the Quality of Education, LOMCE (BOE of the
10th of December 2013) establishes the distribution of
mic, new to them, carries with it a process of
powers with respect to the curriculum in the same way
reflexivity, understood as a critical distancing in its articles, allowing the independent operating of the
from their actions (Giddens, 1990), with va- teaching centres in areas such as: completing content,
designing and implementing teaching methods and de-
rious implications. We identified two: the
termining the weight of each subject in terms of hours
questioning of their role in the classroom, (Chapter III Curriculum and distribution of powers).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
Esther Márquez-Lepe and María Carcía-Cano Torrico 165
tical intercultural approach: “A teacher took rent year groups (...) this time they are working on
the floor to suggest that the activities worked “The Interculturality” project. (...)It is explained that
on in interactive groups are the same ones they will tell their personal story as there are seve-
worked on in class only with more people ral boys and girls from other countries, so they will
within the classroom. She asked why they are talk about how they were received in the school,
not able to make a bigger change, to really how they were received in other schools before
design a different type of activity beyond the this one and how the other children perceive these
exercise books, text books and the things new boys and girls from other countries or from
that they are supposed to teach” (Observa- another school. After the children’s contribution,
tion, provincial committee of School A, 2011). the parents started the discussion based on the
In the specific case of the schools which comments made by the class. (Name of parent)
are Learning Communities, the education started the discussion by saying that what they
model provides the school with an itinerary saw in the experiences related by the children was
of phases and methodological tools that ser- that, regardless of the country they came from
ve as a guide to move forward in the change (Romania, Bolivia, Bulgaria or Paraguay), both in
process. In some cases we find that this gui- the school and amongst themselves, the children
de is used as an area for reflexivity, however, considered them as just another child... (Observa-
in others, the presence of family members tion, School C, 2012).
and volunteers in the classroom means the
continuity of the roles prior to the change, as In this case, we observed how, through
shows information recorded in School B: an ongoing process of reflexivity and interac-
tion with the community, School C has ac-
The volunteers are two women and one man, all
cepted that the challenge of transformation
middle-aged, they go round the tables helping the
and openness leads to changes in the domi-
children, but it’s the teacher who keeps order and
nant and homogenizing values that have tra-
a minimum of control over behavior which allows
ditionally characterized school institutions.
the tasks to be carried out. She does this by rai-
Thus, reflexivity and the relations with the
sing her tone of voice, individually calling the at-
different actors each favor recognition of the
tention of the class in a loud voice (...) (Observa-
other and become enabling conditions close
tion, School B, 2012).
to the critical intercultural approach.
With regards to the second element, the
opportunity of incorporating “situated
d c
knowledge” linked to family-school relations, IscussIon and oncLusIons
although we note a predisposition to said
Despite the fact that we are aware of the im-
dialogue, especially in Schools A and C, it
portance of the longitudinal continuity of the
was in School C that we recorded processes
study to understand the medium and long-
to exchange family and student experiences
term effects of these experiences, with this
most evidently. An example of this is the fo-
investigation we have glimpsed signs of the
llowing extract that corresponds to an obser-
practicing of the critical intercultural ap-
vation from a “coffee meeting” session in
proach and new lines of work in this field.
which national and foreign students, tea-
chers and families participated, allowing the In the first place, we observed a concep-
visibility of situations of exclusion and tion of interculturality and practice in rela-
knowledge experienced by them: tion thereto which, especially in two of the
centers studied (Schools A and C) does not
the coffee meetings with families are organized mainly understand the diversity associated
jointly on a subject which also involves the diffe- with immigration or ethnic minorities in
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170
166 Conditions Allowing the Possible Development of Critical Intercultural Education. Three Case Studies in the Andalusian Context
terms of a deficiency and/or a threat to cul- on are numerous and varied, occasionally
tural homogeneity (Cea D’Ancona, 2009; referring to said argument to justify the low
Solé, 2000), but rather as just another pos- performance or bad climate in schools and,
sible form of making intra and intergroup in others, to cultural identity to explain beha-
heterogeneity visible. The problems of the vior contrary to regulations or the values of
student body are not conceived so much the school institution.
based on their cultural variability but rather
For this reason, we consider that in the
in relation to the structural conditions -stig-
same way that people do not maintain a single
matization, exclusion, employment or resi-
social position and category within the school
dential segregation- that produce this. This
environment through time, the relationships
is a finding that we find interesting because
are redefined depending on the numerous di-
despite the fact that in these schools there’s
fferentiation axes (Dietz, 2009). Hence, as a
very significant visibilization of students
line of work, we should note the advantage of
from different ethnic backgrounds, their ac-
studying these schools situated in areas of
tual presence is not discussed as a trigger
social disadvantage as well as the way of ar-
for school transformation, although the une-
ticulating their goals of overcoming inequality
qual structural conditions in which diversity,
with practices of non-indifference towards
in a broad sense, manifests itself, i.e. the
ethnic-cultural differences (Verhoeven, 2011)
justified domination relations in the cultural
from a broader perspective such as intersec-
difference, are.
tionality (Crenshaw, 1991).
We interpret the discourses recorded re-
On the other hand, collective work and
garding students and their context as posi-
the development of participatory strategies
tions diverging towards difference that tend,
in different scenarios (amongst teachers,
in the case of School B, towards construc-
with families and students) show a desire for
tions close to the “myth of internal consisten-
openness in communication and the demo-
cy” (Duschatzky and Skliar, 2001) and in the
cratization of school life (Terrén, 2011) which
case of Schools A and C, towards other less
opens new possibilities to identify hegemo-
binary conceptions, which dilute and compli-
nic aspects and reveal their various meanings.
cate the terms of differentiation between the
In the three cases studied, actions such as
groups (Dietz, 2009) and which we unders-
those mentioned make new areas emerge
tand better according to the critical intercul-
that allow a different distribution of roles
tural approach (Gorski, 2009).
which is more symmetrical with respect to
In the debate on the difficult articulation
the symbolic aspects of school culture (Ari-
between cultural diversity and equality in a
ño, 1997), which in theory favors the develo-
context that we define from the start as in-
pment of the idea of openness of the critical
equality for different social collectives (Dubet,
intercultural approach.
2004), the discourses analyzed are consis-
Our study indicates that the schools with
tent in explaining the unequal position of mi-
greater reflexivity processes allow, to a grea-
nority groups (foreign immigrant or gypsy
ter extent, the emergence of questioning re-
minority students) derived from structural
garding hegemony, another characteristic of
rather than cultural differentiation, i.e. gene-
the critical intercultural approach, both in
rated by power structures and social axes of
relation to the school’s socializing function
inequality and not so much by their cultural,
and the ways and means of transmitting cul-
ethnic or religious variability (Martínez, 2011).
tural patterns.
However, our analysis concludes that the
settings and dimensions from which inequa- Also, in these areas there is more possibi-
lity processes can be addressed and worked lity of transforming learning-teaching
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. Nº 148, October - December 2014, pp. 157-170