Participación familiar en los centros educativos situados en contextos socioeconómicamente vulnerables

This research seeks to determine the attitudes and behaviors of teachers from schools in challenging contexts and understand how some become socially just teachers. A case study approach was used in five schools: three public schools and one privately run but state-funded school in Spain and one public school in Portugal, with a sample made up of teaching and non-teaching staff from the schools. Document analysis, non-participant observation, and semi-structured interviews uncovered two types of teacher profile—one committed to education and social justice, and the other exhausted and unmotivated—and provided insight into the practices, motivations, and leadership of teachers working toward social justice. Thus, the study shows a clear need for targeted social justice training and increased awareness of inequalities.

Background Many studies show a positive link between student achievement and family participation in school. Family participation in school can also benefit the whole educational community, contributing to a shared community responsibility for education. Despite this, in many schools, family participation can be incidental or superficial. There are also different understandings of the role of families in schools, with the term ‘family participation’ being ambiguous and complex. Purpose This study aims to analyse how family participation in school is understood in one region of Spain. It explores different forms of family participation by giving voice to a range of different groups involved in students’ education – not just families and teachers. The questions guiding the study are as follows: 1) What role does communication play in family participation in schools?; 2) What are the actions taken by different stakeholders when participating?; 3) How do families approach their rights and duties when participating in school?; 4) What are the barriers to family participation?; and 5) what are the actions for improvement that favour a participatory culture? Method A qualitative, participatory methodology was used, drawing on data collected through semi-structured interviews, both group and individual, with 44 multi-stakeholder participants. A thematic content analysis was carried out using Maxqda22, a qualitative data-analysis programme. A deductive system that generated categories was combined with an inductive system that generated codes. Findings The key factor to achieving participation was effective communication. Sometimes, this was initiated by the school towards the family, and at other times, at the request of the family. In either case, the key to success lay in the design of communicative strategies that went beyond the transmission of information about urgent events occurring at school. Suggested solutions for improving family–school interaction included trusting in families, and training them, or providing them with the necessary tools to approach their participation. Conclusions Participation varies in its nature and occurs when there is a shared school-family project in which attitude and communication play an important role. Barriers to participation include ideological differences, and a lack of genuine awareness of the importance of the role that families can play in school. The main proposal to promote family participation is to find ways to overcome individualism through shared projects.

The focus of this study was to explore the impacts of the COVID-19 on the work-life balance of employees at the Univerity of Namibia Rundu Campus. The study was conducted by choosing 10.participants who were purposively selected according to the departments where they work. The study used a qualitative research in which a case study approach was adopted. The data generation.processes was obtained through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and narratives to get insight and quality data. During interviews, open ended questions were used and other questions arose naturally. The semi-structured interviews were used to enable us to get deep information by probing participants’ responses. This has assisted to elaborate on incomplete answers by being flexible and getting clarification on the perceptions of workers during the challenging times of COVID-19. Participants were grouped in 2 groups comprised of teaching and non-teaching staffs. The particpants were given questions in advance ahead of group discussions to be aware of the topic concerned and to make them feel comfortable during discussions. The narrative approach also called ‘story telling’ was used by the researchers to give voice to the participants to elaborate on their own experiences. Thus asking the respondents questions about their understanding of work-life balance and how the COVID-19 has impacted their lives added valuable data to the research. The overall findings of the research show that the COVID-19 pandemic has actually added more pressure to the already strained situation of the employees and has some how compromised on the work quality.The findings also reveal that dealing with pandemics especially those that restrict movements of people is a complex task because each organization is unique and different. Therefore, workers experiences of coping with the situation differ from one another because every organization experiences the daily challenges differently in various contexts.

Charter schools are perhaps known to many people as community schools that are publicly funded. Educators and policy makers of the United States consider public schools in which tuition for primary and secondary students is free. A few community leaders and public officials have disclosed that selected charter school providers have too much flexibility in how they operate the schools. Perhaps their beliefs are such because most of the charter or community schools are operated under a contract in partnership with a sponsoring entity (Center for Education, 2008). According to educators and political leaders located in the Midwest region of the United States, charter schools were designed to address the current state of educational programs and to introduce an alternative model to traditional public education for economically disadvantaged students. For the last decade, research has shown that the goals and objectives of charter schools and charter school providers and leaders have been a contentious subject matter for United States educators and policy makers (Center for Education, 2008). The reason is perhaps linked to personal beliefs that charter school providers or leaders drain funding from local public school districts and do not offer disadvantaged students a better education. The case study provides an overview about Duke and Duchess Technology Centers as well as Triumph Management Company and their, products and services, competition, management structure, leadership styles, and recent challenges. Questions appear at the end of the case study for students to discuss and debate.

Cyber Schools, digital schools, online schools, virtual schools, internet schools, and e-learning, no matter what it is called online education is a new phenomenon in education that is not fully understood. A new trend that is hard to comprehend by just reading or hearing about it. The investigator of this study did not solely rely on the literature and decided to visit a cyber charter school district and visit the homes of cyber charter school students to gather observational data for this study. The investigator was aware of a new learner type that is called “Screenagers” in the literature. A case study approach was used to develop insights into the phenomenon, in this case, the present and future of cyber education. Qualitative inquiry methods were used in this study. These methods allowed the researcher to capture an understanding of the perspectives of the CEO’s, cyber charter parents and education academics regarding cyber education. Consisted with its theoretical framework, Constructivism, this study has followed a qualitative approach to explore the nature of construct. The goal of this qualitative case study was to explore what the charter school directors, cyber charter school parents and education academics believed the current situation of cyber schools in a US State to be and what their visions of cyber schools were for the future. Through this search, the researcher examined the effects of the progresses that are currently taking place in the cyber schools and across this US state. Three different methods of data collection were used; site visit and interviewing charter CEOs, home visits to cyber charter students’ homes and interviewing parents, and information sessions and interviewing education academics. A leadership group consisting charter school CEOs, including the researcher visited the cyber charter school district led by one of the CEOs to learn how cyber curriculum can be integrated into their existing academic programs. The leader of the group was the president of the state’s coalition of public charter schools and CEO of one of the charter schools in the state. The investigator also visited homes of fourteen cyber charter school students as a second step of data collection. Cyber charter parents were interviewed on the subject; The investigator visited the homes of 14 cyber charter school students in the state and took observation notes as they were either receiving a box full of instructional materials from the cyber charter School or working on the computer connected to their online classrooms. Later, information gathered from the site visit and home visits were presented to thirty-six education academics in six different information sessions. After the information sessions, education academics were interviewed on the subject. Three different questions asked during interviews; How cyber curriculum can be integrated into existing academic programs of brick and mortar charter schools? What is your role as a cyber charter school parent? What do you believe the present state of cyber schools in your state is? Cyber charter school CEOs reported on a conceptual change in schooling, from two extreme end of schooling; traditional brick and mortar schools and futuristic cyber schools to combination of both; Brick and Click Schools. Parents reported that while some of public school parents are accused of using schools as baby-sitting services, cyber charter schools required full time supervision at homes. Education academics reported heavy criticism on social development of cyber school students.

Background/Context The concept of scale has gained purchase across social sectors in recent years as organizational leaders and funders seek to maximize the impact of promising social innovations. Purpose/Objective We apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to explain how the idea of “getting to scale” intersected with political opportunities and human and financial resources in the early diffusion of the charter management organization (CMO). Research Design As the birthplace and a political locus of the CMO form, California is an ideal vantage point from which to understand the early years of the form's diffusion. We conducted interviews with California CMO and non-CMO leaders, principals, and funders. Our interviews were designed to understand when and why CMO leaders thought about growth, the challenges and opportunities associated with growth, organizational goals and strategic priorities, and whether and how funders shaped CMO development and plans. In addition, we constructed a school-level panel dataset for the 1991–92 to 2006–07 school years using data from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and the California Department of Education. We included charter organizational form, enrollment, and school founding and closure years. We also joined multiple Foundation Center datasets to create a grant-level dataset for the years 1999 to 2006 that includes grant amount, grant type, recipient, and funder. Finally, we conducted participant and nonpar-ticipant observations at CMO board meetings, foundation staff meetings and presentations, and charter school conferences and meetings. Findings/Results Understood and framed as the vehicle for getting to scale, the CMO form drew a disproportionate share of private philanthropy dollars, appealed to a new class of professionals from outside of education, and was successfully distinguished from alternative charter forms, all of which contributed to its early diffusion. Conclusions/Recommendations We develop a fuller understanding of the charter school movement, describing how the diffusion of the CMO form displaced ideas about school-level autonomy and decentralization in favor of ideas about getting to scale and tipping the system. The study also offers insight to scholars analyzing current and past efforts at educational reform by emphasizing the roles played by ideas, opportunities, and resources.

Reading is a core competency in learning processes of higher education as a tool for accessing discipline-specific knowledge. The aim of this case study is to analyse the impact of text group discussions on the academic skills of students at the Universitat d’Andorra (UdA). Qualitative techniques -non-participant observation, interviews and discussion groups- were applied to UdA students and faculty. Five student groups belonging to the Bachelor of Teaching and Learning (BTL), Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) were studied. After processing the data with Atlas.ti, the first results were obtained. Evidences of a positive impact on the academic skills are identified. Firstly, both students and faculty indicated an improvement of the text comprehension mainly because of the peer interactions. Improvement of the critical and analitycal attitude, the own speech as well as the metacognitive learning are also highlighted as areas on which dialogic reading has positive impact.

BackgroundOrthopaedic procedures, such as total hip replacement and total knee replacement, are among the commonest surgical procedures in England. The Getting it Right First Time project (GIRFT) aims to deliver improvements in quality and reductions in the cost of NHS orthopaedic care across the country. We will examine whether the planned changes have delivered improvements in the quality of care and patient outcomes. We will also study the processes involved in developing and implementing changes to care, and professional and organisational factors influencing these processes. In doing so, we will identify lessons to guide future improvement work in other services.Methods/designWe will evaluate the implementation of the GIRFT programme, and its impact on outcomes and cost, using a mixed methods design. Qualitative methods will be used to understand the programme theory underlying the approach and study the effect of the intervention on practice, using a case study approach. This will include an analysis of the central GIRFT programme and local provider responses. Data will be collected via semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, and documentary analysis. Quantitative methods will be used to examine ‘what works and at what cost?’ We will also conduct focus groups with patients and members of the public to explore their perceptions of the GIRFT programme. The research will draw on theories of adoption, diffusion, and sustainability of innovation; its characteristics; and contextual factors at provider-level that influence implementation.DiscussionWe will identify generalisable lessons to inform the organisation and delivery of future improvement programmes, to optimise their implementation and impact, both within the UK and internationally. Potential challenges involved in conducting the evaluation include the phased implementation of the intervention in different provider organisations; the inclusion of both retrospective and prospective components; and the effects of ongoing organisational turbulence in the English NHS. However, these issues reflect the realities of service change and its evaluation.

This paper considers local activists’ efforts to initiate public discussions about contested territories in St. Petersburg, and to resist political decisions about their (re)development. It also questions to what degree such grassroots efforts become political and analyzes different contexts of, and barriers to, politicization. By complementing sociological theorization about civic engagement and civic participation with French pragmatism, we examine how these activists constantly shift between informal, context-specific forms of protest and more institutionalized and politicized ones. Using a case study approach, we describe and compare two recent conflicts in St. Petersburg where local residents resisted (re)development projects imposed by political and economic elites: the defense of the Yurgens House in the historic city center against its expected demolition, and the protest against renovation in Alexandrino, a park area on the city’s periphery. Our analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with local activists, participant and non-participant observation at public rallies and other gatherings, and qualitative analysis of protesters’ communication practices on social networks. We demonstrate that external political and social constraints encourage activists to be flexible in their forms of engagement, deploying a wide repertoire of tools of contestation: using local knowledge tactically, operating rationally within legal frameworks, and addressing broad audiences in search of public justification and support. We conclude that, whether these local activists remain at the level of informal place-based initiatives or opt for more institutionalized and professionalized forms of civic participation, they insistently reject claims that their efforts have a political rationale.

In the middle age, adjustment to developmental tasks will affect marital relationship. This study aimed to determine the cohesiveness of husband and wife who have entered middle adulthood, covering aspects of solidarity, marital satisfaction, interest, and affiliates and also the factors that affect the cohesiveness of husband and wife when the marriage age of 20 years or more. Subjects are three pairs of husband and wife who are legally married for over 20 years and each individuals age between 40-60 years old. This qualitative research used the case study approach and collected data by semi-structured interviews and nonparticipant observation. The results showed that the cohesiveness of husband and wife owned in middle age is different in each pair. In the first couple showed low cohesion, high on the second couple, and medium for the third couple. In the third couple, there is a change before the peak of the conflict in mid-2011 by now. Factors that affect the cohesiveness of husband and wife in middle age is a social perception, social support, emotional regulation, a period of quiet in the middle ages, the intensity of togetherness, understanding of gender, temperament, and love.

This research is rooted in the intersection between perceptual learning and geometry in the educational context. In a continually evolving educational world, the need arises to explore alternative avenues to improve the understanding and retention of geometric concepts. The background delineated the lack of attention to perception in traditional geometry instruction, serving as an impetus to address this gap and unlock potential improvements. The overarching goal was to explore how specific perceptual strategies might influence seventh grade students' geometric understanding. Using a qualitative methodological design and a case study approach, tools such as non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and field diaries were deployed. The target population, seventh grade students, provided unique insights into the application of perceptual strategies in the classroom. Results highlighted a significant change in geometric understanding after the intervention focused on perceptual strategies. Gestalt theory emerged as a relevant theoretical framework, supporting the effectiveness of organizing information in a meaningful way. In addition, emotional analysis revealed deep connections between emotion and retention of geometric concepts, bringing a novel dimension to the relationship between perception and learning. In the conclusion, the importance of considering perception as a central component in teaching was reaffirmed, challenging entrenched paradigms in geometric instruction. The call to action echoed the need to incorporate specific perceptual strategies in educational planning, highlighting the uniqueness of this research in the educational landscape. This perceptual journey not only unveiled new perspectives in educational geometry, but also pointed to avenues for future explorations in the dynamics between perception and learning.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which charter school leaders influence the understanding and conception of accountability policy and how that understanding translates into practice. In particular, this paper draws from sense-making theory and research on charter school leaders to identify their pre-existing understandings, their shared interactions, and their interpretations of accountability policy as they relate to professional development and instructional practices.Design/methodology/approach– This paper uses the qualitative case study approach to document the organizational processes of charter schools. Data for the study were collected in two elementary charter schools over the course of 18 months. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data because this method is compatible with the inductive, concept-building orientation of all qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two charter school leaders and twelve charter school teachers. In-depth interviews with the leaders were also conducted to gain a deeper understanding of sense-making. In addition pertinent staff meetings, professional development sessions, and informal interactions between charter leaders and teachers were observed.Findings– While the charter school leaders in this study were inclined to adopt approaches that reinforced their pre-existing understandings, they did so using interpretative frameworks that sought to enact policies they deemed most crucial at the school level. These frameworks included metaphors and modeling, both of which reflected the policy signals received from the institutional environment. The leaders’ use of metaphors and modeling incorporated accountability policy into messages that encouraged constructive instructional practices, including data-driven analysis, project-based learning, and technology use.Originality/value– This paper broadens discussions about charter school leaders and accountability in three ways. First, it explores how school leaders interpret and adapt policy signals. Second, it delineates the frameworks used by charter school leaders to identify and make sense of accountability policy. Finally, this paper highlights the ways in which charter school leaders influence the teachers in their school buildings through shared sense-making.

This study aims to determine the learning process for children learning difficulties in inclusive schools in elementary schools. This research is qualitative research with a case-study approach. The study was conducted at SDN 1 Sangkawana Batukliang District, Central Lombok Regency. Subjects in this study were the Principal, Low - grade teacher Data collection through non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentation. Data analysis was performed using the Spiral Analysis model developed by Creswell. Research Findings that teacher competencies in the service of children with learning difficulties need to be possessed. The teacher is a determinant of the success of the learning process especially for children with learning difficulties who need more guidance in learning. In general, the learning process for children with learning difficulties in inclusive schools is the same as regular schools. The difference is in the provision of learning activities and services that are more remedial. This is done starting from the teacher doing adaptation in designing the Learning Implementation lesson plan by the circumstances of the students

Public debate surrounds the success of charter schools in serving students and providing a generative environment for teacher innovation. Through semi-structured interviews with eleven (N = 11) K-12 charter school music teachers, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of charter school music teachers’ perceptions of their setting in the United States. Four overarching themes describing their views were found: (1) Variable School Environment, focusing on administration and professional interactions they believed are unique to Charter Schools; (2) Working Conditions, views regarding their teaching environment. (3) Music Curriculum Choices, opportunities specific to their music classrooms/programs; and (4) Working with Students, connecting with all students through music and classroom management concerns. During the interviews, the participants commented on the wide range of administrative practices, teacher evaluation processes, and job satisfaction in their charter schools. They also discussed their positive beliefs in having autonomy over their music curriculum as well as challenges they presuppose as particular to being a music specialist in a charter school. Implications for this study can aid teacher educators in understanding music instruction at charter schools to assist music curricular offerings, advocacy, and design of professional development programs.

BackgroundIn vulnerable urban contexts, neighborhood and associative movements often emerge as key responses to structural inequalities and social fragmentation. Recent global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have intensified the need to strengthen community-based responses and promote more inclusive and sustainable forms of development. Within this scenario, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has the potential to become a powerful driver of social transformation, particularly when applied from a grassroots, community-based perspective. This study examines the role of grassroots neighborhood initiatives in promoting the core principles of ESD, such as equity, inclusion, and democratic participation.MethodAdopting a socio-educational and participatory approach, this research employed a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews with 40 key actors involved in neighborhood and associative networks. The data were analyzed using the qualitative software Atlas.ti, combining thematic coding with visual tools such as word clouds and semantic network analysis to identify dominant patterns and relationships. The study focused on understanding how fundamental principles of ESD—including equity, inclusion, co-responsibility, and respect for diversity—are integrated into the practices and discourses of these community initiatives.ResultsThe analysis reveals strong patterns of cooperation, mutual support, and democratic participation within neighborhood and associative movements. These networks serve not only as mechanisms to meet urgent material needs but also as spaces of informal education and civic empowerment. The incorporation of ESD principles into community dynamics has contributed to the strengthening of the social fabric and to the emergence of new forms of collective agency. In particular, the findings highlight how community-led practices of inclusion and co-responsibility foster critical reflection and shared decision-making, reinforcing social cohesion and contributing to the construction of more just and sustainable neighborhoods.ConclusionThe study provides evidence that Education for Sustainable Development, when applied from a bottom-up and participatory perspective, plays a strategic role in promoting social transformation in vulnerable settings. By supporting neighborhood and associative movements, ESD contributes not only to addressing immediate social needs, but also to fostering long-term processes of inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. These findings suggest that ESD should be more widely recognized as a key lever for strengthening community resilience and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level.