It is important for learning that both students and teachers are involved in the interactions in the classroom
It is of utmost importance that both teachers and each individual pupil or student in a classroom are involved in the interactions that take place there, both pedagogical and social ones. Otherwise, it will be hard for different projects and models for developing learning to make an impact. This is the conclusion of a new, international study led by Goran Basic, associate professor at Linnaeus University.
An inclusive educational space – a classroom, a lecture room, et cetera – is characterized by an interaction between the people in the room that makes it possible for all individuals to be recognized, both socially and pedagogically. This is a key analytical concept in a new research article written by Goran Basic together with research colleagues from Ukraine.
“We claim that an inclusive educational space and a social pedagogical recognition in educational spaces are two things that are fundamental to achieve. Then, in the next step, you can achieve the learning objectives, or achieve success in the educational space. Various development projects and models that are implemented in schools and at universities have difficulty making an impact, unless the fundamentals are achieved first.”
The social pedagogical recognition is about an awareness of the actors' different social and pedagogical identities, teacher identities, pupil identities, social and pedagogical codes and more. The article exemplifies the educational space with previous research from primary and secondary school and university. The research has concerned pupils who have problems with the use of various substances or are newly arrived, as well as students at universities who study to be actors.
The article also deals with a number of other analytical concepts, such as spatial dynamics in schools, social pedagogical development and educational collaboration. All concepts are missing or invisible in the systematic quality work that is carried out at the school's various levels, both in Sweden and internationally, says Goran Basic. They are also missing from most of Linnaeus University's programmes in pedagogy, didactics and teacher education, he thinks.
“I hope that the analytical concepts will be used in these programmes. Then they can be communicated to the scholastic world through the knowledge our students have gained. Starting this spring, we, the authors of the article, will include the concepts in our teaching.”
The article Inclusive Educational Spaces and Social Pedagogical Recognition is a review of various studies in the areas of symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, ethnomethodology, sociology of knowledge, education, pedagogy and social pedagogy. The analytical concepts discussed in the article are created to be used in future analyses of the empirical material collected within the research projects School success for newly arrived students and School as a protection factor as well.