Communicative methodology has been acknowledged as having an impact at all levels: social, political, and scientific. The social impact is achieved with communicative methodology by involving the people or communities we intend to study from the beginning to the end of the research. There are positive benefits to those involved, which increases the impact. Therefore, communicative methodology enhances the potential of stakeholders (including those traditionally excluded) for social transformation through the use of egalitarian dialogue. Additionally, those stakeholders co-lead the research and promote change in their own social environments because of their inclusion in all stages of the research process. The theoretical basis of communicative methodology led to the assumption of postulates that enable social transformation. Researchers, taking into account the theoretical principles and postulates, interpret reality through dialogic knowledge while researching with vulnerable populations. This article illustrates how it is possible to attain social impact using communicative methodology in diverse contexts and points out how the communicative organization of research and the communicative analysis of data can be decisive in attaining social impact. Such change contributes to the social and educational transformation of reality and to improving the lives of vulnerable populations.
Background: Interaction, participation and collaboration are thought to be important factors for supporting successful second or foreign language learning. The use of Interactive Groups (IGs) is regarded as helpful in creating the conditions in which interaction, participation and collaboration are increased to create effective dialogic learning. However, there is limited understanding of the role of IGs in supporting second or foreign language learning. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to explore the opportunities that IGs generated for supporting interaction, participation and collaboration in a situation where students were learning English as a foreign language. Method: A communicative methodology was used to collect and analyse observational and interview data from three classrooms where teaching and learning was organised through IGs, each in a different school in Spain involved in Schools as Learning Communities: Successful Educational Actions (SEAs). Across the three classrooms, there were 58 students, three teachers and 14 volunteers, whose role was to support and encourage communication. The schools served low SES communities. We conducted eight classroom observations and 17 semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed qualitatively. Findings: The thematic analysis suggested that, in the classrooms that were studied, there was evidence that participants and observers felt that IGs promoted effective conditions for the inclusive participation of all learners, created a favourable climate for collaborative interactions regarding the target language and raised learning expectations for all students. In addition, the contribution of the volunteers was identified as crucial to the successful functioning of the IGs. Conclusion: This small scale, qualitative study highlights the potential for IGs to create favourable conditions for the learning of English and other languages as a foreign language. More extensive studies are needed to determine the best way to use IGs for the teaching and learning of foreign languages in other contexts.
30 March 2013 in International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences
Research about masculinities gathers different topics from diverse disciplinary perspectives. One of the topics has been the analysis of the perpetuation’s effect of the traditional heterosexual model of masculinity in the violence against women. Recent scientific evidences about the reproduction of this social problem have evidenced the existence of three different types of masculinities (in the sense of the weberian ideal types): dominant traditional masculinity (DTM), oppressed traditional masculinity (OTM), and new alternative masculinities (NAM). The first two types contribute to perpetuate gender violence, while the latter allows preventing it and, consequently, it leads to its overcoming. This article approach the existence of these three types of masculinities and analyzes both, theirs characteristics and their consequences for violence against women. It presents evidences that what makes NAM providing a preventive effect is its linkage between the language of ethics and the language of desire.
(2019). Promoting zero violence from early childhood: a case study on the prevention of aggressive behavior in Cappont Nursery. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal. Ahead of Print.
One of the explanatory factors for the perpetuation of intimate partner violence (IPV) is the socialization process. There is broad literature on the role of family in socializing gender roles and the influence on reproducing IPV. However, less research has been developed on the effects of communicative acts in the family environment as a protective or risk factor in front of IPV. This article presents sound evidence confirming the presence of language of ethics that is reproducing stereotyped models of attraction in heterosexual relationships, which empties good people of attractiveness and indirectly contributes to maintain the link between desire and aggressiveness. The language of ethics is characterized by integrating speech acts that exclusively include ethics and exclude desire when talking about egalitarian boys or men. To analyze this reality, a qualitative study has been conducted framed in the communicative methodology. This methodology has been recommended by the European Commission to conduct research on vulnerable groups and social inequalities, which has the aim to advance knowledge on social transformation. Drawing on this approach, three different data-collection techniques have been implemented: in-depth interviews, daily-life stories and focus groups. The fieldwork includes a sample of 52 young men and women between the ages of 18 and 23 from a vocational training high school, and 4 fathers and 4 mothers of some of these young people. The findings confirm the existence of a model of socialization that replicates family relations based on the maintenance of the double standards. Thus, mothers used to employ the language of ethics with their daughters fostering a controversial effect, that is, the latter prefer to start affective and sexual relationships with boys who are aggressive and not egalitarian. On the other hand, fathers used to employ language of desire with their sons stimulating the performance of chauvinist behaviors that denigrate women and girls.