Abstract
In Europe, to make the dream of social cohesion possible, society must take on the challenge of educational exclusion, especially for those living in particular in impoverished and marginalized neighbourhoods. Several schools and communities around Europe are already leading the kind of transformative processes that can overcome educational and social inequalities. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a successful transformation in the La Paz primary school, located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Spain. La Milagrosa neighbourhood is located in the outskirts of Albacete, a city in south-eastern Spain. Most of the people living there are poor Roma families who have very low educational levels, higher unemployment rate and problems associated with drug addiction. The school, located in the centre of the neighbourhood called La Paz, is one of the cases being analysed in the integrated project called Strategies for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe from Education (INCLUD-ED 2006–11), part of the 6th Framework Programme of the EU. Its objective is to analyse educational actions that contribute or hinder social cohesion and identify key elements that can be used to improve educational and social policy. Before implementing the project at La Paz, the school was in crisis; significant numbers of children were failing academically, and members of various social groups were in conflict. Just one year after the school implemented some of the successful educational actions (SEAs) identified in the INCLUD-ED project and discussed below, it experienced a radical transformation that has had an impact on other areas of society.
We couldn’t go through the door. I knew that my children learnt nothing. Now we are seeing that it was not a problem with the children, because the school has changed and now they learn a lot. We can see it because now we have a lot of freedom to come whenever we want. We can talk with any teacher, or volunteer, or share a lesson with our children. This is like a big family.
— Lucía, a Romaní woman
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aubert, A., Flecha, A., García, C., Flecha R., and Racionero S. (2008). Aprendizaje dialógico en la sociedad de la información. Barcelona: Hipatia.
Aubert, A. (2011). “Moving beyond Social Exclusion through Dialogue”, International Studies in the Sociology of Education 21 (1): 63–75.
Avramov, D. (2002). People, Demography and Social Exclusion. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Press.
Baudelot C., and Establet, R. (1976. La escuela capitalista en Francia. Madrid: Siglo XXI.
Bell, D. (2004). Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bowles, S., and Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Carcelén, D. (2006). “Los profesores del colegio San Juan piden protección”. La Verdad De Albacete, 6 March 2006, 10–11.
Castells, M., Flecha, R., Freire, P., Giroux, H., Macedo, D., and Willis, P. (1994). Nuevas perspectivas críticas en educación. Barcelona: Paidós.
Centre for Research in Theories and Practices That Overcome Inequalities (CREA) (2006–11). INCLUD-ED: Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education, 6th Framework Programme, European Commission, http://www.ub.edu/includ-ed (accessed 10 December 2010).
Centre for Research in Theories and Practices That Overcome Inequalities (CREA) (2009). Working papers: Case studies of local projects in Europe, 3rd round, Spain. INCLUD-ED project, http://www.ub.edu/includ-ed (accessed 10 December 2010).
Coleman, J. S., Campbell, E. Q., Hobson, C. J., McPartland, J., Mood, A. M., Weinfeld, F. D., et al. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Comer, J. P. (1989). “Child Development and Education”. Journal of Negro Education. 58 (2): 125–39.
Council of Europe (2001). Promoting the Policy Debate on Social Exclusion from a Comparative Perspective: Trends in Social Cohesion. Germany: Council of Europe Publishing.
Davies, P. (1999) “What Is Evidence Based Education?” British Journal of Educational Studies 47 (2): 108–21.
DOCM (2006a). Decreto 75/2006, Consejería de Educación y Ciencia. http://docm.jccm.es/portaldocm/verDisposicionAntigua.do?ruta=2006/06/09&idDisposicion=123062712326440125 (accessed 10 December 2010).
DOCM (2006b). Resolución de 15–06–2006, Consejería de Educación y Ciencia. http://docm.jccm.es/portaldocm/verDiarioAntiguo.do?ruta=2006/06/15 (accessed 10 December 2010).
EAPN (2010). European Anti-Poverty Net work in Spain. http://www.eapn.es/ (accessed 10 December 2010).
Elboj, C., and Niemela, R. (2010). “Sub-communities of Mutual Learners in the Classroom: The Case of Interactive Groups”. Journal of Psychodidactics 15 (2): 177–89.
European Commission (2010). Europe 2020: A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Brussels: European Commission.
European Council (2000). Presidency Conclusions: Lisbon European Council. Lisboa: European Commission.
Flecha, R. (2000). Sharing Words: Theory and Practice of Dialogic Learning. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Flecha, R. (2009). “The Dialogic Sociology of the Learning Communities”, in M. W. Apple, S. J. Ball and L. A. Gandin (eds), The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education. New York: Routledge.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the Heart. New York: Continuum.
Galton, M., Hargreaves, L., and Pell, T. (2009). “Group Work and Whole-Class Teaching with 11 to 14 Year-Olds Compared”. Cambridge Journal of Education 39 (1): 119–40.
Ganz, M. (2010). “Leading Change: Leadership, Organization, and Social Movements”, in N. Nohria and R. Khurana (eds), Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Giroux, H. (1990). “Rethinking the Boundaries of Educational Discourse: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Feminism”. College Literature 17 (2/3): 1–50.
Gómez, A., Puig vert, L., and Flecha, R. (2011). “Critical Communicative Methodolog y: Informing Real Social Transformation through Research”. Qualitative Inquiry 17 (3): 235–45.
Gómez, A., Racionero, S., and Sordé, T. (2010). “Ten Years of Critical Communicative Methodology”. International Review of Qualitative Research 3 (1): 17–43.
Gómez, J., Latorre, A., Sánchez, M., and Flecha, R. (2006). Metodología comunicativa crítica. Barcelona: El Roure Ciencia.
Gómez, J., and Vargas, J. (2003). “Why Romà Do Not Like Mainstream Schools: Voices of a People without Territory”. Harvard Educational Review 73: 559–90.
Green, A., Preston, J., and Janmaat, J. G. (2006). Education, Equality and Social Cohesion: A Comparative Analysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Habermas, J. (1987). The Theory of Communicative Action. V.2. Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Boston: Beacon Press.
INCLUD-ED Consortium (2009). Actions for Success in Schools in Europe. Brussels: European Commission.
Jencks, C., Smith, M., Acland, H., Bane, M. J., Cohen, D., Gintis, H., et al. (1972). Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. New York: Basic Books.
Kemmis, S., and McTaggart, R. (2005). “Participatory Action Research: Communicative Action and the Public Sphere”, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lynch, K. (2000). “Research and Theory on Equality in Education”, in M. Hallinan (ed.), Handbook of Sociology of Education. New York: Plenum Press.
Mercer, N. (2000). Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together. New York: Rout ledge.
Mircea, T., and Sordé, T. (2011). “How to Turn Difficulties into Opportunities: Drawing from Diversity to Promote Social Cohesion”. International Studies in Sociology of Education 21 (1): 49–62.
Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping Tracking: How Schools Structure Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Padrós, M., García, R., de Mello, R., and Molina, S. (2011). “Contrasting Scientific Knowledge with Knowledge from the Lifeworld: The Dialogic Inclusion Contract”. Qualitative Inquiry 17 (3): 304–12.
Shuayb, M., Judkins, M., Sharp, C., and Hetherington, M. (2009). Using Appreciative Inquiry in Educational Research: Possibilities and Limitations. National Foundation for Educational Research.
Soler, M. (2004). “Reading to Share: Accounting for Others in Dialogic Literary Gatherings”, in M. Bertau (ed.), Aspects of the Dialogical Self: International Cultural-Historical Human Sciences. Berlin: Lehmanns Media.
Tate, W. F., Ladson-Billings, G., and Grant, C. A. (1993). “The Brown Decision Revisited: Mathematizing a Social Problem”. Educational Policy 7: 255–75.
Tellado, I., and Sava, S. (2010). “The Role of Non-expert Adult Guidance in the Dialogic Construction of Knowledge”. Journal of Psychodidactics 15 (2): 163–76.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind and Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Willis, P. E. (1977). Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wilson, W. (2003). “Race, Class and Urban Poverty: A Rejoinder”. Ethnic and Racial Studies 26 (6): 1096–1114.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Rocío García Carrión
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carrión, R.G. (2012). Achieving Social Cohesion in Europe through Education: A Success Story. In: Shuayb, M. (eds) Rethinking Education for Social Cohesion. Education, Economy and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283900_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283900_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33602-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28390-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)