Involvement of families in the educational process. Piarist Cartuja (Granada, Spain)
Carolina Carmona Martínez.
Cecilio Rodríguez Caballero
We are very pleased to share with you our educational experience at Escolapios Cartuja School in Granada, particularly the involvement and collaboration of families in school life.
It all started more than ten years ago with the project of an educational community that would help transform the school’s social environment. Then, we discovered the model of “Learning Communities,” without hesitation, we set out with the sincere desire to contribute to social and cultural change in the community.
From the beginning, we understood that we had to convey to families the conviction that this new project should contribute to a higher quality in the educational process of students in terms of improving academic performance and resolution of situations of failure, absenteeism, and school conflict. Families’ involvement in the school’s life improves the learning processes from a climate of egalitarian family-school dialogue, generating bonds that transform the meaning and quality of education.
The participation of the educational community, volunteers, neighborhood associations and organizations, and, above all, families play a crucial role as they become involved in the school’s daily life, transforming it through dialogic learning. For us, the educational process goes beyond transmitting content where meaningful learning is generated.
We are a school open to full-time time in which the collaboration and participation of families are the essence of what we do. Many fathers and mothers, but also grandfathers and grandmothers, older brothers and sisters, as well as other family members, have come to our school over the years to take part in our Successful practices, such as Interactive Groups, which make learning more varied and better consolidated, the Dialogical Gatherings, which build meaning and knowledge collectively based on dialogue or the Dialogical Model of Conflict Resolution, with training sessions for family members actively participating to improve coexistence in the school.
As a result of all the previous work, our school rule emerged: “Look at me. Talk to me. Listen to me. Treat me as you would like to be treated”, a rule whose aroma is still breathed through the walls of our school and whose motto now accompanies every corner of every classroom. It is there where the presence of our families is fundamental, but also in the Assemblies where their contribution is highly valued in consultative and decisive processes when making decisions because we always count on them.
But this is not the end of it all since there is still another footprint that is not seen, and that makes our families feel the school is their home because, being a small school, they are always welcome and received as in a big family.
In addition, we are happy to share that this year, we are celebrating because Escolapios Cartuja is 50 years old. We want to take this opportunity to THANK all the families who have passed and will continue to pass through the School because their presence, collaboration, and trust in all these years in which we have been able to live together led us to a common idea that remains: “That our School is Our Place, a place where all Dreams are fulfilled”.
The permanence and continuity of the families teach us that sometimes, in the reality of our neighborhood, a change of look is needed. And that is what we are doing and what we tell ourselves every day. It only remains to say THANK YOU because this path continues, and we still need your hands, as you know, to continue being light on this blessed educational path…
