Reviews

Gómez-Hurtado, I. and García-Prieto, F.J. (Coords.) (2021). General Didactics Manual for Diversity. Madrid: Pirámide. 273 pages. ISBN: 978-84-368-4414-6

Inclusive education is today one of the main challenges and, in turn, demands of today’s society and of school, understood as a space that respects and values diversity, offering personalised attention so that each student can achieve the optimal development of their cognitive, physical, social and emotional abilities.

The book reviewed, coordinated by Dr. Inmaculada Gómez-Hurtado and Dr. Francisco Javier García-Prieto, provides an integral response to diversity in the formal field of education through all its elements, starting from an epistemological and legislative analysis of each of them for their subsequent projection in practice. Each of its twelve chapters has a series of preliminary questions to consider before reading, as well as initial and summarising activities to be implemented in university classrooms for initial teacher training.

The content of the book could be organised in two blocks according to the subject matter of the chapter. The first of these, which covers the first to the eighth chapter, including the eleventh, corresponds to an analysis of all the components of the educational curriculum and the proposal of alternatives for their adaptation to attention to diversity. Thus, the first two chapters deal with the organisation of the school, understood as a community nucleus in which collaborative didactic actions must be implemented to connect all the members and elements of the educational community so that the student can learn.

Chapters three and four describe the curricular content and the didactic models, proposing the need to establish a dialogue between teachers and the curriculum so that the latter is integrative, connecting all curricular areas based on motivating centres of interest, and inclusive, adapting to the pupils’ learning rhythms, needs and interests.

Chapter five, in turn, describes all the curriculum elements and how to implement them in inclusive educational proposals, paying special attention to evaluation as a key element to guide the educational process and motivate students.

Chapters six, seven and eight explain the different aspects of the teaching methodology that can be followed, including approaches, methodological strategies and techniques, didactic resources and spaces, groupings and times for learning. In addition to the use of active learning methodologies and the provision of balanced and accessible spaces, special mention is made of the current inclusive educational paradigm, known as UDL (Universal Design for Learning), which proposes multiple forms of representation, action, expression and involvement so that all students can learn and communicate their learning.

Chapter eleven, on the other hand, addresses coeducation as a key to equity and inclusion, starting from the conceptualisation of gender studies terms and presenting real coeducational experiences and recommendations to educate in and for equality at school.

The second thematic block, which includes chapters nine, ten and twelve, deals with the practical aspects of inclusive education from different standpoints. Chapter 9 describes various online teaching experiences during the lockdown. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in different ECE (Early Childhood Education) and primary schools, highlighting challenge-based learning and gamification using digital resources. Chapter ten, on the other hand, sets out a characterisation of gamification as a technique to improve content accessibility and motivation, providing an example of gamification for schoolchildren and another for teachers in initial training. Finally, the twelfth chapter of the book consists of the development of a complete didactic programme based on project work to be implemented in a 6th grade primary school classroom.

For all of the above reasons, this manual is configured as a tool with immense potential for teachers in initial and in-service training to develop, based on theoretical concepts, practical experiences and reflections, educational actions that serve all of their students under the principles of inclusion and equity.

Elisa Arroyo Mora

Santos Rego, M. A., Lorenzo Moledo, M., y Mella Núñez, Í. (2020). Service-learning and university education. Making competent people. Barcelona: Octaedro. 193 pp. ISBN: 978-84-18615-00-9

Service-learning is assumed in this collaborative work as an alternative to conventional learning, which is integrated into the university curriculum and intensifies the relationship between the academic and civic-social dimensions. Thus, the complexity of this methodology, where the inclusion of community life presents a notable contribution to the academic level, establishes an intentionally educational link between university and society.

This volume, whose timeliness is more than justified in the context of a more committed and socially responsible university, is postulated as a review of the capacity of service-learning to address an integral conception of learning, contributing, in the terms referred to by the authors, to the formation of “competent people”.

Structurally, the publication is articulated around four chapters. The first presents a timely analysis of Higher Education in the 21st century, noting its evident transformation to configure a university in which research is oriented to the transfer of knowledge and, therefore, to social progress. It also refers to the role of the Academy in the provision of initiatives and strategies of a pedagogical nature necessary for a new educational paradigm to have its consequent reflection in the reality of the classroom, and not only in official documents and speeches.

In the second chapter, the main epistemic axes of service-learning are addressed, together with the possibilities of this methodology in the new university model that emerges after the appearance of the European Higher Education Area, insisting on the capacity of service-learning to move from a model of university extension to another centered on social responsibility. However, as the authors point out, this requires a solid base inside and outside the university that allows for adequate levels of complicity between the agents and bodies involved.

The third chapter provides information on the keys to the implementation of a service-learning project. Specifically, it describes the phases that guide its development and analyzes in a pristine way the reflection of the experience as an essential and unavoidable step in the construction of the learning derived from this methodology. Likewise, the need to establish an evaluative continuum in its application is alluded to, as well as the effects that this methodology has for the development of certain competencies of interest for university students, informing of its contribution to an integral formation from the civic-social, academic and professional perspective.

The fourth and last chapter covers the institutional dimension of service-learning, in order to give continuity to the use of this type of initiative, promoting the commitment of the different institutions that guarantee its sustainability in university education. In this regard, and as stated, it is desirable to obtain results from the implementation of service-learning projects and programs, regardless of their disciplinary field, which generate a breeding ground for an adequate management of change in Higher Education.

Ultimately, this is a well-articulated work that identifies important coordinates that serve as a guide and orientation for the advancement and progress of service-learning in the university, an institution called to train people not only intellectually. And this is precisely what moves the authors, whose work demands an epistemically reasonable pretension which, as has been made clear, is none other than the one of providing credit and practicality to the social and civic dimension of university education.

Jesús García-Álvarez

Santos-Rego, M.A., Lorenzo-Moledo, M., and Miguez-Salina, G. (2022). Funds of family knowledge and educational intervention. Madrid: Narcea. 141 pp. ISBN: 9788427728820

Funds of Knowledge have their origin in anthropology, although pedagogy has progressively incorporated them into its object of study as a way to inquire cultural and/or family groups with specific characteristics. In this sense, the anthropology of education should be pointed out as an area of confluence of both scientific disciplines, where the focus is on the processes of cultural acquisition and transmission for which educational processes are essential. The book reviewed herein aims to contribute to this field of knowledge based on the rigor and evidence that the authors demonstrate in their discourse, backed by their research career in the Educational Sciences.

As stated in the introduction of the book, its structure is based on an epistemological umbrella rooted in the anthropology of education and intercultural pedagogy. The journey through the 141 pages starts with the theoretical bases of the funds of knowledge and ends with their practical implication, based on an example developed with a Romany ethnic group in Pontevedra (Galicia).

Following this path, the authors are able to raise multiple questions in the reader’s mind, which are resolved with a rather vehement dialectical solvency. For example, they are able to justify the usefulness of this work approach in the field of family education, which is addressed in the second chapter of the book. They show how the Funds of Knowledge can serve as a meeting point for the socio-educational intervention with learning communities where families, schools and communities are involved in joint projects with pedagogical purposes.

Continuing the journey, Professors Santos-Rego, Lorenzo, and Miguez take us to the next section, the third chapter, where the reader is invited to make a global tour of different and valuable experiences that have been based on this epistemic approach to achieve successful interventions with various cultural groups. Thus, the journey takes us from Spain to New Zealand or Australia, on the opposite side of the world, passing through Uganda and also stepping on the American continent, where it was initially applied. These professors from the University of Santiago de Compostela provide the reader with specific cases that will help them to glimpse the usefulness of this resource in its social dynamics.

Still on the subject of Funds of Knowledge, there are many advantages of their use, such as the empowerment of the participants in their everyday lives, or the significant progress towards the improvement of equity, contributing to the construction of the long-awaited social justice. The use of this resource contributes to a solid progress in the knowledge of some specific groups, such as students in vulnerable situations and their family environment, as described in this book.

It is particularly relevant to mention the contextual moment when this book was being written. In a climate of international conflict, where it has been demonstrated that education for peace remains a necessity, along with the socio-economic situation resulting from COVID-19, social inequalities have worsened, highlighting the deficiencies of a system that seemed unquestionable. In this framework, educators will have to shape their intervention based on the principles of equity and justice, where knowledge of these individual and/or community risk situations becomes the pillar on which to build solid socio-educational programs.

In short, we are faced with a work with a marked pedagogical character (that is, normative and constructive), which paves the way to include the Funds of Knowledge as a resource at the service of education. To this end, the authors propose a well-justified practice that will be replicable in other areas and, finally, sustainable in its applicability.

Alexandre Sotelino Losada