La Casa de Shere Rom

1. From a local experience to a global project La Casa de Shere Rom An educational intervention in contexts of social exclusion and cultural minorities DEHISI Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

2. Diversity as handicap • Pupils are considered as individualsisolated of his community and cultural context • Addressed to “compensate“ individual handicap • Cultural difference is reduced to deficits of socialization in dominant culture • No recognition of difference Diversity as difference • Pupils are considered as members of a cultural group • Addressed to “respect” the differences • Culture is interpreted as “essence”, and individuals are “hostages”. • Differences are valuated from an ethnocentric perspective. Diversity as systemic contradiction • Every pupil show resistances expressing contradictions between domestic culture and school culture • Every school (every learners community) generates a microculture, based in the relationships and the artefacts in use. • Every activity creates his own culture. • Innovation in diversity (gender coeducation, handicapped children integration, and minority children) crates a new culture in education Diversity leads educational change · · · · · ·

3. Gypsies in school • Newcomers (majority out of school only 20 years ago) • Minority group with biggest index of school failure

4. Handicap explanations • Parents’ illiteracy and lack of school experience • Different use of language (“restricted code”) • Poverty • Degraded urban environment

5. Difference explanations • Values (collectivistic v. individualistic) • Scripts and implicit rules • Community referents • Children developmental project • Human relationships

6. Systemic contradictions • Teachers prejudices • Implicit negative discourse about own group • Emergency of secondary cultural differences • Resistance to discipline • Low control of families over school processes

7. Technologies are artefacts that mediate subjects actions. As happens with every tool, they transform the activity, his objectives and his subjects Tools Object Subject New tools for developmental change • Introduction of ICT in school activity –a new tool- suppose objects and subjects transformation • Incorporation of new technologies means the creation of a cultural micro cosmos, where appear new forms of teacher-pupil interaction and new meanings Changes in tools suppose changes in whole activity · · · · · ·

8. Transformation of tools provokes a systemic change in the community (school) his rules and his forms of work division Technologies in educational innovation Tools Object Subject Rules Community Work division • Introduction of new tools in school it’s not independent of the other five elements of activity represented in triangle. ICT transforms radically the educational process · · · · · ·

9. La Casa de Shere Rom Action-research attending cultural diversity Sant Roc district (Catalonia) • 9,4% population is illiterate • 48% young people from 23 to 27 in 2003 without school certificate: • 0,9% illiterate • 9,1% without studies • 38% unfinished primary studies · Diversitat · · Tecnologia · · Shere Rom · · 5th Dimension · · 5d.org ·

10. La Casa de Shere RomAction-research attending cultural diversity • A institution INSIDE gipsy community (sense of owner) • With low level institutionalization (flexibility, open to changes) • Open to community and families (maintenance of bonds) • Provides formal knowledge and tools (educational competence) • Allow connection through IST tools (over digital divide)

11. La Casa de Shere RomAction-research attending cultural diversity • A play from children perspective • Practical learning for students • A laboratory of learning processes for researchers • A platform for development for community Intergenerational activity • Goal oriented participation • Appropriation of new tools • Activity addressed and rooted in literacy • Computers literacy, jumping the digital divide Meaningful activity 5th Dimension, an activity context where experts and apprenticeships collaborate by mediation of new artefacts · Diversitat · · Tecnologia · · Shere Rom · · 5th Dimension · · 5d.org ·

12. La Casa de Shere RomAction-research attending cultural diversity Maze • Distribution of tasks in an adventure log Task cards • Guidelines for every activity • levels of experience • clues for resolution • Mysterious characteristics • Appears by virtual means • Provides help when peers and students cannot give it Wizard Rules • Daily routines • Rituals • Roles 5D artefacts are adapted to local culture · Diversitat · · Tecnologia · · Shere Rom · · 5th Dimension · · 5d.org ·

13. La Casa de Shere RomAction-research attending cultural diversity Adaptability and appropriability • Flexibility in rules development • Open to constant changes • Adaptation to physical and social environment • Flexible distribution of expert and apprenticeship roles • Non compulsory participation Identity and meaningfulness • Microculture where are happening intercultural and intergenerational encounters • Each participant has his owns goals •  Actions are not evaluated. Have sense intrinsecally • Every activity has an explicit goals · Diversitat · · Tecnologia · · Shere Rom · · 5th Dimension · · 5d.org ·

14. 5th Dimension back to school Goals • 5D adapted to school curriculum • School changes trough use of 5D artefacts • Appropriation of 5D artefacts by new actors Means • Dissemination 5D model • New resources in the web, that every school could appropriate and adapt to its needs. • A web space for collaboration between teachers of different schools and cultures www.5D.org and 5DLAByrinth · Diversitat · · Tecnologia · · Shere Rom · · 5th Dimension · · 5d.org ·

15. Diversity in www.5D.org and 5DLAByrinth • Contexts and users. • Languages (English, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and Catalan in a first phase) • Cultures (Scandinavian, Latin, Gypsy...) • Actors (teachers, researchers, children, students) • Institutional contexts (primary and secondary schools, universities, non formal education entities…) Diversity of