Cultural Intelligence to Overcome Educational Exclusion

Abstract

The critical communicative methodology (CCM) is based on the premise that each person, regardless of their educational, cultural, or socioeconomic background, possesses cultural intelligence. That is, they can analyze their experiences of being excluded and propose ways to reverse their situation. In this article, we explore the fact that everyone, regardless of background, can help to develop scientific knowledge, and this is essential in transforming the situation being studied. To illustrate this, we examine a case in which families from cultural minority groups become involved in transforming their neighborhood school. We also show how the CCM made it possible to include the knowledge and interpretations of these community members through egalitarian dialogue with researchers. The knowledge obtained from this dialogue calls into question the dominant discourse in Europe, which states that having high proportions of migrant students in schools will have a negative effect on both academic results and living together.