Interweaving prisoners’
voices and citizens’ perceptions: A social justice and community-based pedagogy
project
David Giovanny Téllez Soler[1]
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0175-2653
Universidad del Tolima
Colombia
ABSTRACT
Engaging learners' social contexts while exploring the community in the English class do not only enhance language skills but also other abilities that promote a social change. In fact, this paper indicates how citizens’ perceptions about convicts were enriched after the publication of some reflections based on the interaction between a group of eleventh graders and people in jail. To do so, the participants carried out a project during 3 sessions in which they mapped the community, noticed different assets, chose a place and problematic to be focused on (the jail), collected some people’s conceptions about captives, interacted with them (convicts), reflected about the encounter, shared the acquaintance through English and Spanish posters with the community, and listened to their reactions. By the same token, for achieving this study purposes, it was required to follow the essence of three approaches: Community-Based Pedagogies (CBPs), Funds of Knowledge (FoK), and Social Justice (SJ). Therefore, this pedagogical innovation revamped and fostered some competences, such as: language skills, critical thinking, enrichment of perceptions, local awareness, autonomy, and values.
Keywords: community-based pedagogies; citizens’ perception; prisoners; social justice
Entrelazando Voces de Prisioneros y Percepciones de Ciudadanos: Un Proyecto de Justicia Social y Pedagogías Basadas en la Comunidad
RESUMEN
Comprometer a los contextos sociales de los aprendices mientras se explora la comunidad en la clase de inglés no solamente mejora las destrezas del lenguaje, sino también otras habilidades que promueven un cambio social. De hecho, este documento indica cómo las percepciones de los ciudadanos sobre los convictos fueron enriquecidas después de la publicación de algunas reflexiones basadas en la interacción entre un grupo de estudiantes de grado once y gente de la cárcel. Para ello, los participantes llevaron a cabo un proyecto durante 3 sesiones en las cuales ellos cartografiaron la comunidad, se dieron cuenta de sus diferentes lugares, escogieron el sitio en el cual enfatizarse (la cárcel), recolectaron las concepciones de algunos ciudadanos sobre los presos, interactuaron con ellos (convictos), reflexionaron sobre el encuentro, compartieron con la comunidad la experiencia a través de posters hechos en español e inglés y escucharon sus reacciones. De la misma manera, para lograr el propósito del estudio, fue requerido seguir la esencia de tres enfoques: La pedagogía basada en la comunidad, bases de conocimiento y justicia social. Por lo tanto, esta innovación pedagógica mejoró y promovió algunas competencias como: destrezas del lenguaje, pensamiento crítico, enriquecimiento de percepciones, conciencia local, autonomía y valores.
Palabras claves: pedagogías basadas en la comunidad; percepciones de los ciudadanos; prisioneros; justicia social
Artículo recibido 11 septiembre 2023
Aceptado para publicación: 14 octubre 2023
INTRODUCTION
Societies furnish different circumstances and fields which can be encompassed in the curriculum to promote real contexts in the students’ academic processes. In light of that, this pedagogical innovation proposed to encourage a social change based on the identification of a phenomenon in the community of Líbano, Tolima-Colombia. For doing so, this project carried out three different approaches: Community-Based Pedagogies (CBPs), Funds of Knowledge (FoK), and Social Justice (SJ). In fact, CBPs focuses on identifying and analyzing different community assets that surround learners to design a collaborative curriculum based on real socio-cultural contexts (Medina et al., 2015). Additionally, FoK fastens upon enriching social competences and experiences through the learning processes (Lastra et al., 2018). Lastly, SJ promotes a reflective analysis and critical thinking of different real circumstances for fostering equality in citizens (Nieto, 2006; Ngubane & Makua, 2021). Then, CBPs, FoK, and SJ are theories which boost critical thinking, local awareness, second language skills, and other abilities while identifying, analyzing, reflecting, and acting about real-life plights outside the school (Clavijo & Ramirez, 2019). Thus, this study followed the core of CBPs, FoK, and SJ to determine the topic to aim attention at, elaborate the curricular unit, and enact it.
In connection with the aforementioned idea, this pedagogical innovation seeks to cogitate upon the reality of people in jail and share those reflections with the community. To deal with this, different activities were carried out through hybrid classes (face to face and virtual sessions) which were required due to COVID-19 pandemic. As a matter of fact, a group of eleventh graders in Líbano, Tolima, Colombia explored the assets around their school, identified the penitentiary, and decided to work in this place with 2 convicts while interacting and reflecting about their past experiences, current life, and future expectations. After this interplay, learners shared the thoughts of people in jail outside the school to make cogitations in citizens about the stigmatizations and perceptions they have about lawbreakers. Hence, this lesson pursued the parameters of CBPs, FoK, and SJ, such as: mapping, assets identification, recognition of situations, co-construction of the curriculum design, and its implementation (Medina et al., 2015; Ngubane & Makua, 2021). Thus, the importance of this English class is to critically analyze the life of people in jail and disseminate the reflections with the community with the purpose of changing prejudices about them.
METHODOLOGY
This project carries out the qualitative research due to its aims, design, instruments, information, and theories. As a matter of fact, qualitative research focuses on gathering qualitative data to analyze a phenomenon, situation, people’ experiences, perspectives, and others (Burke & Christensen, 2014). In addition, Hastie and Hay (2012) affirms that “qualitative research is an interpretive form of social inquiry that attempts to understand phenomena through accessing the meanings that participants assign to them” (p. 80). In this sense, qualitative research studies real participants’ contexts and their behavior or reactions in different circumstances. By the same token, this study focuses on action research as a design to emphasized. In this regard, action research promotes the analysis of a problem, the proposal of actions, and the reflection of acts (Burke & Christensen, 2014). For doing so, action research demands a constant process of reflection, planning, action, and observation according to the findings and requirements that any project requests during its development (Ary, Cheser, Sorensen, & Razavieh, 2010). Thus, qualitative approach and action research in this project entail the analysis of the community assets, the identification of the problem, the plan to solve the situation, and the reflection to enrich the condition.
In connection with the above, this project carries out three different stages which promotes three main data collection instruments. The first instrument is observation in which the researcher examines, analyzes, and reflects about different interactions or events in a specific place (Zohrabi, 2013). The second one is interview in which the participants promote a conversation based on some questions to find data to be analyzed (Griffe, 2012). And finally, the third instrument is artifact, in which the participants of any study develop a physical activity while expressing different situations according to their contexts or situations that claims an examination (Saldana & Omasta, 2017). Thus, observation, interviews, and artifacts are the instruments which foster the development of the approach and the design of this project.
Literature Review
This pedagogical innovation involves three theories which are interwoven considering their quiddities: Community-Based Pedagogy (CBPs), Funds of Knowledge (FoK), and Social Justices (SJ). Indeed, CBPs and FoK are asset-based approaches for identifying and engaging learners’ knowledge, experiences, and practices to connect their lived contexts with the curriculum (Verdin et al., 2021). By the same token, Llopart & Guitart (2018) consider FoK as a way for raising aspirations when learners and teachers recognize social problems around them and foster possible solutions for improving them while designing the curriculum. Additionally, SJ is a theory which promotes a sense of equity based on the analysis of diverse iniquity situations that are performed in society (Nieto, 2006). In synthesis, CBPs, FoK, and SJ are approaches which intertwine each other and boost the construction of the syllabus based on real life contexts.
Community-Based Pedagogies
Community-Based Pedagogies (CBPs) is a pedagogical approach which promotes the community presence, collaboration, and cooperation in the teaching and learning processes. In fact, Clavijo & Rincón (2016) claim that CBPs are “outside school practices, life experiences, and assets that learners and teachers bring into the classroom in order to enlighten class dynamics and curriculum constructs” (p. 69). In this sense, CBPs adopt and adapt real life situations and sources based on the communities’ places, experiences, conceptions, traditions, and others to guide the learning and teaching development. In line with this point of view, CBPs entail the communities’ knowledge, beliefs, perceptions, and others which people have shared and communicated through time and everyday contact (Lastra et al., 2018). Then, CBPs foster the implementation of any resource that communities could provide for managing the educational growth based on real life contexts.
By the same token, CPBs provide some benefits in the educational progress which learners acquire inside and outside classrooms. In this context, Sharkey (2012) affirms that CBPs “is an asset-based approach that does not ignore the realities of curriculum standards that teachers must address, but emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and learning” (p.11). In this sense, CBPs establish and develop a curriculum which is built based on the real-life contexts that students have everyday contact with. Simultaneously, when analyzing some of the assets which the community provides (as: social, cultural, environmental, economic, political, traditional, and others), the CBPs implementation develops and enriches some skills in learners, such as: sense of belonging, critical thinking, raise of local awareness, and linguistic skills (Clavijo & Ramirez, 2019). Thus, the exertion of CBPs base their curricular foundations on the students’ social realities for teaching and learning while bolstering other skills in learners.
Funds of knowledge
Funds of knowledge (FoK) is an approach which focuses on fostering learners’ skills based on their socio-cultural and historical background. Indeed, Volman & Gilde (2021) concur on FoK bolsters (in classroom) the competences which students have amassed outside the school. Thus, FoK is the opportunity to infuse social and environmental knowledge into the educational processes. Along similar lines, this theory promotes the participants’ performance, which they have acquired and broadened based on their lived experiences, in the development of diverse academic activities (Lastra et al., 2018). Consequently, FoK carries the learners’ abilities and experiences into classrooms; in other words, the learning and teaching processes are based on the pupils’ dexterities which have been carried out in their socio-cultural contexts.
Social justice
The term ‘social justice’ (SJ) is a source that is underpinned by educational principles which develop some skills based on the reflections of real-life situations. In light of this, Nieto (2006) purports that SJ is both a political and a democratic theory because it refers to power (who has it, who makes decisions for improving people's lives, and who benefits them) and equality (promoting inclusion and fairness) respectively. For doing so, there are four components which SJ encourages: first, to challenge misconceptions and stereotypes; second, to provide resources to students for enriching their capabilities; third, to bolster learners’ strengths; and fourth; to create an environment which fosters “critical thinking and agency for social change” (Nieto, 2006, p.2). Thus, SJ boosts learners’ social skills through their background analysis and reflection.
In connection with the above, social justice promotes the apprehension of equity in classrooms. In fact, SJ develops equity while encompassing other aspects, such as: “upholding the rights of students; identifying, critiquing, and addressing power and oppression; interrogating and disrupting ‘isms’; and including diverse perspectives…” (Vertter et al., 2022, p.835). Hence, the co-construction of the curriculum aims to ameliorate citizens’ values and consciousness for enriching the awareness of justice and boosting egalitarian human beings (Ngubane & Makua, 2021). Overall, teaching and learning follows the elements of SJ and equity which are shaped and acquired based on real social contexts and experiences outside the school.
Context
This pedagogical innovation was carried out at a private school in Líbano, Tolima, Colombia with a group of eleventh graders. Indeed, this is a catholic school that is located in the urban zone of this town and affords elementary, primary, and secondary education to approximately 280 learners (from kindergarten to eleventh grade). Likewise, the participants of this activity were 12 eleventh graders (6 female and 6 male) with a fourth and third social strata level and an age average of 16. Besides, there were 2 people in jail who participated in this project as well. In ESL terms, learners evinced A2 and B1 language level (according to CEFR); they faced the English subject during 3 hours per week. In other respects, this study was accomplished after the COVID-19 pandemic; then, its implementation was through a hybrid class which promoted the synchronic connection between the students (who were in a classroom) and the prisoners (who were in jail) through ‘Meet’ platform.
Description and development of the process
This pedagogical innovation is divided into three different moments for four and a half hours long. In fact, the first one follows the CBPs principles in which learners read their community through mapping the places which surround them (Medina et al., 2015). In this sense, this class started with the recognition of the different assets around the school for deliberating the place and phenomena to be studied. For doing so, Table 1 describes the followed process.
Table 1
Lesson plan for session 1
|
Stage |
Session 1 (90 minutes) |
|
Activity |
1- Exploring Líbano’s community assets. 2- Analyzing and choosing the topic to focus the project on. |
|
Objective |
To explore, analyze, and reflect about the different places which surround the school and be conscious of them. |
|
Procedure |
1- To map and explore different places which are near the school. 2- To organize a ‘Jamboard’ presentation in which learners upload the pictures they took in the mapping activity. 3- To brainstorm the different places, they observed in the pictures and organize them in categories (assets). 4- To analyze the different assets individually and choose one category to work in. Later, every student explains the reason why they want to focus on that specific category. 5- To choose a category in groups after listening to all learners’ presentations. |
|
National English Standards / Basic Learning Rights |
“Identifies opinions of the author in oral and written texts related to his/her school environment using prior knowledge related to the topic as well as the structure of the text” (MEN, 2016, p.30). |
|
Curricular Outcomes |
Learners will get awareness about community assets and social justice through analyzing the different social strata places near to the school. |
|
Learning Resources |
- Students’ community mapping. - Field trips. - Cellphone or camera. - Virtual board (Jamboard) - Virtual Classroom (Zoom). - Virtual presentations. |
|
Assessment Evaluation |
- Students negotiate curricular possibilities based on the community assets. - Presentations about the different possibilities to focus the project on. |
In essence, learners ambled nearby their educational institution to identify and take pictures of the different assets. Later, the participants organized the photographs in slides on the platform ‘Jamboard’. After that, they joined in a virtual meeting (due to pandemic [COVID-19] issues), presented their productions, dialogued, and chose the place and situation they were interested to be focused on. In brief, they chose the jail (Instituto Nacional Penitenciario y Carcelario [INPEC]) of the town which is about one block away from the school. Figure 1 shows a collage of the process carried out in the session 1 (mapping, assets recognition, and sharing and selection of the place to be focused on).
Figure 1.
Mapping and assets recognition
In the second moment, the learners’ reflections and dialogues take place. In fact, the school and INPEC agreed to develop the project through working cooperatively in the design and the implementation of this pedagogical innovation. Indeed, a hybrid class was designed to have a virtual meeting in the platform ‘Meet’ between 2 prisoners and students. There, they developed different activities while sharing life experiences and doing an artifact. However, before carrying out this meeting, students inquired about the community perception about people in jail. Table 2 describes the lesson plan for this stage and the procedure.
Table 2
Lesson plan for session 2
|
Stage |
Session 2 (90 minutes) |
|
Activity |
1- Inquiring the community about perceptions they have about people in jail. 2- Sharing a dialogue with people from jail, their life experiences, decisions, others through the activity “stories of life” |
|
Objectives |
- To notice people’s perceptions about the people from jail. - To interact, analyze, and reflect about the dialogues and speech which people in jail are going to provide. - To position in others’ place for promoting a new perspective about the people from jail. |
|
Procedure |
1- Students analyze and reflect on an image (about prisoners and their lives) while brainstorming about it. 2- Learners prepare some questions they want to ask to the people who are in jail. The questions are shared in the classroom, and they are going to be reformulated if it is necessary. 3- Pupils indagate about people near them or relatives’ perceptions about prisoners. 4- Students listen to some voices from people who are in jail through a virtual way. For doing so, all the participants develop the next activities: a- Listen and reflect about the song “René by Residente”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4f58BU_Hbs b- Do a drawing and write a phrase which represents you on one side of the paper. c- Turn the paper and blend it in 3 parts. Later, write “Before”, “Now”, “After” in each section. d- In “Before”, write about the past experiences (experiences, places, friendship, family, actions, and others); in “Now”, talk about the present life (place where live, daily life, convivence, education, pandemic, and so on); and in “After” they talk about their expectations for the future (plans, changes, etc.). e- Return to the drawing and write a message which answer the question: - Learners to prisoners: Which words would you like to say to people in jail about their future and the perception of society? - Prisoners to learners: Which words would you like to say to students about making decisions and consequences in life? f- Present the artifact and talk about the drawing, messages, and life pieces of writing. 6- Learners are going to develop an activity in their notebooks based on some strategies for developing critical thinking (questions of problem posing and connection stems), such as: - What do you think about prisoners before and after the virtual meeting with them? - What do you learn from this activity? - What would you do to try to change the community perceptions about them? |
|
National English Standards / Basic Learning Rights |
- “Identifies the purpose of medium length oral and written texts related to topics of general and academic interest and shares it with others using his/her knowledge about the structure of texts” (MEN, 2016, p.30). - “Identifies opinions of the author in oral and written texts related to his/her school environment using prior knowledge related to the topic as well as the structure of the text” (MEN, 2016, p.30). |
|
Curricular Outcomes |
- Learners will listen and interact with the jail voices while reading the problematic and promoting critical literacies. - Students will contrast the community perception about people in jails and the voices of those people through CBP using interviews and questions. |
|
Learning Resources |
- Virtual presentation (Genial.ly) - Image for reflecting. - Virtual classroom (Meet). - Questions for interviewing people inside and outside the jail. - Paper. - Pencil. - Eraser. |
|
Assessment Evaluation |
- Reflection about the image. - Interviews to some people in the community. - Questions in the speech of people in jails. - Problem posing questions and connection stems about the speech. |
After analyzing the perspectives of citizens about prisoners, learners wrote some questions (interview) they would like to ask to those people and joined with 2 prisoners (in a hybrid meeting in which learners connect from the school with people in jail) for carrying out the designed lesson. To deal with this, the participants developed different activities, such as: listening to a song and talking about it, making a drawing about something which represent themselves, writing about different of moments of their lives (past, present, and future expectations), asking questions, and reflecting about the previous activities while giving a message to the other participants. Later, students reflected about this activity while answering some questions in their notebook.
Figure 2 shows four pictures about the virtual meeting between students and convicts, one of the activities which were developed, and the artifacts done by one person in jail.
Figure 2
Virtual meeting and artifacts which students and prisionaires developed
Finally, in the third moment, the principles of social justice were carried out. As a matter of fact,
after the meeting with the 2 convicts, learners organized four groups for analyzing and reflecting about the interaction and words which prisoners wanted to express with them and the community. Table 3 details the activities that was developed in this stage.
Table 3
Lesson plan for session 3
|
Stage |
Session 3 (90 minutes) |
|
Activity |
1- ‘Showing the jail voices’ activity. 2- Sharing the messages to the whole community. |
|
Objective |
- To spread the prisoners’ voices through a poster. - To enrich awareness about avoiding people going to the jails through posters. - To spread the messages to the community. |
|
Procedure |
1- The learners will create 2 different posters. In one of them, they will write a message in which they express what people from jail want to tell to the community, contrasting with the prejudices the community has about them. Besides, they have to include a visual representation of what they feel. In the other one, they will express the same words but in Spanish. 2- The learners will present their posters and they will explain the reasons for their messages and what they expect to achieve with them. 3- The students will paste their posters on the wall outside the school. 4- The learners will stand outside the school while listening to the people's comments when reading the posters. 5- The participants will join and share people's thoughts about the posters and their reflections. |
|
National English Standards / Basic Learning Rights |
“Explains orally and in written forms the causes and effects as well as the problem and the solution of a situation by defining the relationship between ideas to be explained and using appropriate language” (MEN, 2016, p.30). |
|
Curricular Outcomes |
Learners will reflect and enrich consciousness about current life contexts and prejudices which community have about prisoners while using physical and online media for communicating |
|
Learning Resources |
- Virtual Classroom (Zoom). - Cardboard. - Markers. - Tape. - Video-camera. - Virtual presentations. |
|
Assessment Evaluation |
Posters’ elaboration, presentation, and exhibition outside the school.
|
To do so, students read the prisoners’ artifacts, analyzed their content, and made a poster in both English and Spanish about the assertions those two people wanted to share with the community. Later, learners exposed their productions and stuck them outside in the school’s walls for sharing them with the community in order to promote a reflection about the conceptions and stereotypes the society has about people in jail. Finally, learners stood outside the school and took notes about the commentaries by people who read the posters; after that, they joined again and shared those comments for noticing society enrichment of perceptions about people in jail. Figure 3 exhibits in four pictures the poster design and the location which were stuck (outside the school) to be shared with the community.
Figure 3
Poster sharing and reflection.
RESULTS
This pedagogical innovation provided different results in the three moments. Indeed, in the first one, learners recognized the different assets they have around the school, for instance: economical (stores, bakeries, cafeterias, dressmaking, pubs, and others), educational (a public school), medical (Red Cross, and drugstores), and penitentiary (jail). Moreover, the participants were interested in working with the jail because they considered it as a relevant place to do a study because it was not common to have a penitentiary near to a school. Then, students opted to base this curricular unit on the jail and people who were there. Thus, eleventh graders were aware of the location of their school and the different places which surrounded them.
Subsequently, the second moment started with the notion of the community’s perception about people in jail. As a matter of fact, learners researched the citizens’ conceptions about convicts and some of them were: “They are people who have made mistakes and deserve to be in jail”; “Those people must be there for harming others”; “They are people who preferred to hurt others instead of do right actions; then, they must learn from their mistakes and wrong actions”; “Those people must not be part of the society because they just hurt”; “They are there for something, they do not made the right decision; some of them are there for the necessity, others just for harming. Anyway, every action has its consequences, and it could be positive or negative”. Hence, eleventh graders read, noticed, and concluded that most of the community’s conceits about people in jail were “negative”.
Later, the participants shared and compared their life experiences, current life, and future expectations in a virtual meeting. In fact, learners and prisoners contrasted their lives, for instance, when writing and talking about their past, most of the learners described that they grew up with their parents, relatives gave them different gifts, and had the opportunity to study different schools; however, one convict (C1) mentioned that:“...mi niñez no fue muy bonita que digamos por la falta de mis padres; a pesar de todo, fui criado por mis abuelos…después de tanta tristeza jugaba con mis compañeros pero no era esa felicidad igual…”, the other one (C2) said: “...cuando tenía 10 años, mi mamá se separo de mi papá y de ahí yo no volví a estudiar… También trabajaba para conseguir mis cositas pero era duro camellar”.
Moreover, when mentioning about their current life, learners expressed that they have lived with their relatives, studied in the morning and part of the afternoon and later, they have constantly gone outside to have fun and share with friends. On the other side, C1 expressed: “convivo con 5 internos que somos del área de confianza… Me distraigo cumpliendo mis labores de aseo, mi rutina es levantarme a las 6:00 a.m. para desayunar, a las 11:00 a.m. almuerzo y a las 4:00 p.m. es la comida (cena)”, C2 said “... en la carcel vivo en una celda con 16 personas y la convivencia con todos los muchachos es buena esperando que algún día llegue la libertad…en la calle tengo a mi mujer, mi mamá y mis hermanos, ellos mantienen muy pendientes de uno”.
Finally, in the future expectations, students mentioned their future plans, such as: degrees, trips, jobs, and others. Nevertheless, C1 expressed: “En un futuro me veo al lado de mi hija y abuelos compartiendo lo que antes no hice, volver a conseguir un buen trabajo para terminar una universidad ya que me gusta mucho la ingeniería automotriz… También deseo y espero que la sociedad me de una oportunidad para un mejor futuro”; C2 said: “En un futuro quisiera salir de aquí y cambiar mi forma de pensar para ser una mejor persona y no volver a cometer el mismo error de volver a caer por aquí… enseñarles (a las personas) que delinquir no paga, que es mejor ir por un buen camino… y que la sociedad lo vea a uno con otros ojos”. Additionally, the participants shared a message (students to prisoners and vice versa) in which learners expressed to convicts to not give up and continue dreaming for a better society without thinking in their mistakes; and prisoners told the students to behave well with their parents, to take advantage of time and study, and to make the right decisions.
Afterwards, in the third moment, learners designed some posters (in both English and Spanish) based on their reflections about the meeting and talking with prisoners. As a matter of fact, learners did the posters and stuck them outside the school. Some of the messages in those productions were: “The freedom is something very valuable that can be lost at any moment if we made wrong decisions…”, “... they (convicts) feel very sorry for their crimes and they want a second chance”, “... day by day they (prisoners) work to improve as people to be reintegrated and be useful for the society leaving us as reflection to fight for our dreams and do not deviate for getting away bad decisions and study hard”. Later, the eleventh graders listened to citizens’ comments when reading the students’ reflections, and some of them were: “they are right, they deserve a second opportunity”; “we just criticize them (convicts) without listening to them”; “I am sorry for them, it may be difficult to be rejected like that”; “We must be part of the change and they need our help for a good reintegration, they need our help too”.
Additionally, learners gave some presents to people in jail to show gratitude for the activity. In particular, eleventh graders designed a certification, made a bracelet, and bought a snack as a way to thank convicts for sharing their life experiences, expectations, and pieces of advice with them. Then, some representatives went to the jail to bequeath the gifts to the educational coordinator of this place to be delivered to the two prisoners (as shown in Figure 4).
Figure 4
Giving the presents which learners designed and prepared to convicts.
CONCLUSIONS
This pedagogical innovation endorsed different learners’ skills based on CBPs, FoK, and SJ approaches. To begin with, students bolstered the ability for making decisions when analyzing the school backgrounds. In this respect, CBPs promote the autonomy for designing and implementing a curriculum collaboratively based on real life contexts (Sharkey et al., 2016), the recognition of their surroundings (Sharkey, 2012), and the apperception of community conceptions, knowledge, and beliefs which have been shared through time (Lastra et al., 2018). Additionally, FoK boosted the involvement of competences and notions which pupils have acquired in the society into classrooms (Volman & Gilde, 2021). In this context, eleventh graders descried and analyzed different assets around the school, chose the jail to base this curricular unit on, and scrutinized some citizens' perceptions about convicts. Thus, CBPs advocate the students’ participation when making decisions in their learning processes based on real life backgrounds.
Additionally, learners boosted their critical thinking skill when interacting with people in jail. In fact, Monreal (2019) affirms that SJ studies inequalities in society and provides solutions for social change. In addition, SJ further critical thinking when working with social stereotypes and misconceptions while furnishing adequate resources and environment in the process (Nieto, 2006). In this regard, eleventh graders contrasted their lives with people in jail when sharing and listening to them; besides, they compared some citizens’ perceptions and convicts' expectations. As a result, they noticed some misconceptions and endeavored to change them with public messages to the community.
Finally, this project fostered not only language skills, but also aptitudes and values. As a matter of fact, English skills were bolstered through the whole activity when sharing opinions, reports, productions, and pieces of writing (except when interacting with people in jail because they did not have English knowledge). Furthermore, the voluntary initiative for acknowledging the convicts’ sharing evinced the enactment of gratitude, equality, respect, listening to others, and understanding.
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