Under what conditions can schools contribute to digital equality and the construction of active citizenship? Results from an action research project in a Spanish school
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/der.2023.44.54-60Keywords:
Digital inequalities, Digital participation, School, Digital citizenship, Educational technologyAbstract
Various studies point out that, in the school digital sphere, the same inequalities are (re)produced as in offline spaces. Given this reality, the article explains the results of an action research project for the building of active digital citizenship, which seeks to overcome these gaps through a democratic digital perspective. The field work was carried out in a school situated in a disadvantaged area of a large town (50,000 inhabitants), near Barcelona (Spain). The results were obtained through questionnaires, interviews and discussion groups with 236 families, 30 teachers and 97 pupils. These results indicate that, in order to reduce inequalities, it is important to: a) recognise the diversity of needs, skills and digital access of the teachers, families and pupils in the decision-making process; b) design and articulate different participatory school spaces: formal and informal, physical and virtual; c) promote the participation of all school agents in the digital spheres and guarantee the acquisition of skills and digital access to the whole school community. The article concludes that in order to build an active digital citizenship, processes and actions that are explicitly designed towards this end and that are methodologically consistent with a democratic and inclusive perspective are required.
References
Álvarez, M., Torres, A., Rodríguez, E., Padilla, S., & Rodrigo, M.J. (2013). Attitudes and parenting dimensions in parents’ regulation of Internet use by primary and secondary school children. Computers & Education, 67, 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.03.005
Area, M., & Adell, J. (2021). Tecnologías Digitales y Cambio Educativo. Una Aproximación Crítica. REICE. Revista Iberoamericana Sobre Calidad, Eficacia Y Cambio En Educación, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.15366/reice2021.19.4.005
Area, M., Santana, P., & Sanabria, A. L. (2020). La transformación digital de los centros escolares. Obstáculos y resistencias. Digital Education Review, 37, 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1344/der.2020.37.15-31
Barrera, M., Corts, M., Fatsini, E., & Guitart, R. (2006). Els Espais. Guix: Elements d'Acció Educativa (325),18–23.
Beneyto-Seoane, M., & Collet-Sabé, J. (2018). Análisis de la actual formación docente en competencias TIC. Por una nueva perspectiva basada en las competencias, las experiencias y los conocimientos previos de los docentes. Profesorado, Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado, 22(4), 91–110. https://doi.org/10.30827/profesorado.v22i4.8396
Beneyto-Seoane, M., & Collet-Sabé, J. (2020). Democratizar la gobernanza digital escolar. Obra Digital, 0(19), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.25029/od.2020.258.19
Bonal, X., & González, S. (2021). Educación formal e informal en confinamiento: Una creciente desigualdad de oportunidades de aprendizaje. Revista de Sociología de la Educación-RASE, 14(1), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.7203/RASE.14.1.18177
Cabrera, L., Pérez, C.N., & Santana, F. (2020). ¿Se incrementa la desigualdad de oportunidades educativas en la Enseñanza Primaria con el cierre escolar por el coronavirus?. International Journal of Sociology of Education, Special Issue: COVID-19 Crisis and Socioeducative Inequalities and Strategies to Overcome them, 27–52. https://doi.org/10.17583/rise.2020.5613
Castro Rodríguez, M.M., Suelves, D.M., & Fernández, H.S. (2019). Competencia digital e inclusión educativa. Visiones de profesorado, alumnado y familias. Revista de Educación a Distancia, 19(61), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.6018/RED/61/06
Choudhary, H. & Bansal, N. (2022). Addressing Digital Divide through Digital Literacy Training Programs: A Systematic Literature Review. Digital Education Review, 41, 224-248. https://doi.org/10.1344/der.2022.41.224-248
Elliott, J. (1993). El cambio educativo desde la investigación-acción. Ediciones Morata.
Feu, J., Prieto, O., & Simó, N. (2016). ¿Qué es una escuela verdaderamente democrática? Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 465, 90–97.
Feu, J., Serra, C., Canimas, J., Làzaro, L., & Simó-Gil, N. (2017). Democracy and education: A theoretical proposal for the analysis of democratic practices in schools. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 36, pp. 647–661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-017-9570-7
Head, B.W. (2011). Why not ask them? Mapping and promoting youth participation. Children and Youth Services. Review, 33(4), 541–547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.05.015
Kemmis, S., & MacTaggart, R. (1988). Cómo planificar la investigación-acción. Laertes.
Martínez, J.I., Cortés, A., Medrano, C., & Apodaca, P. (2014). Internet use and parental mediation. Computers & Education, 70, 212–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.036
Pereira, S., Fillol, J., & Moura, P. (2019). El aprendizaje de los jóvenes con medios digitales fuera de la escuela: De lo informal a lo formal. Comunicar, 27, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.3916/C58-2019-04
Puig, J. M. (2000). ¿Cómo hacer escuelas democráticas? Educaçao e Pesquisa, 26(2), 55-69. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022000000200005
Sanabria Mesa, A., & Cepeda Romero, O. (2016). La educación para la competencia digital en los centros escolares: La ciudadanía digital. RELATEC: Revista Latinoamericana de Tecnología Educativa, 15(2), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.17398/1695-288X.15.2.95
Selwyn, N. (2011). Schools and schooling in the digital age: A critical analysis. Routledge.
Ulvik, M., Riese, H., & Roness, D. (2017). Action research - connecting practice and theory. Educational Action Research, 26(8), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2017.1323657
Van Deursen, A.J.A.M., & Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2010). Measuring Internet Skills. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(10), 891–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2010.496338
Van Deursen, A.J.A.M., & Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2015). Toward a Multifaceted Model of Internet Access for Understanding Digital Divides: An Empirical Investigation. The Information Society, 31(5), 379–391. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2015.1069770
Van Deursen, A.J.A.M., Van Dijk, J.A.G.M., & Peters, O. (2017). Habilidades digitales relacionadas con el medio y el contenido: La importancia del nivel educativo. Panorama SoCIaL, 25, 137–152.
Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2005). The deepening divide: Inequality in the information society. Sage Publications.
Van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2012). The Evolution of the Digital Divide. In J. Bus, M. Crompton, M. Hildebrandt y G. Metakides (Ed.), Digital Enlightenment Yearbook (pp. 57–78). https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-057-4-57
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Mar Beneyto-Seoane, Jordi Collet-Sabé
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication.
- The texts published in Digital Education Review, DER, are under a license Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4,0 Spain, of Creative Commons. All the conditions of use in: Creative Commons,
- In order to mention the works, you must give credit to the authors and to this Journal.
- Digital Education Review, DER, does not accept any responsibility for the points of view and statements made by the authors in their work.
