Pedagogical Renewal and the Role of Teachers in Secondary Schools: Insights From Five Case Studies in Spain

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain, which aims to analyse secondary schools whose teaching practices are transformative because they go beyond temporary innovations, generating changes and improvements that impact the school, students and the local community and promote inclusion and meaningful learning. This article examines the role that teachers play in secondary education in relation to teaching practices and methodologies in the current context of demands for constant transformation, through the study of five secondary schools in different regions of Spain. Observations, focus groups, analysis of school documents and in-depth interviews were carried out, and the data were analysed using Atlas.ti software. The results show how pedagogical renewal in secondary education is based on teaching aspects such as educational leadership, strategies to promote personalised learning that place students at the centre of educational action, the establishment of relationships with the community to share educational and social projects that promote a sense of belonging to the local context, and the need to modify resources, spaces and times to accommodate more global and transversal teaching and learning processes.