This project was conducted during the 1998/1999 school year in a Public school in the city of Cordoba. Its purpose was to introduce the television in the classroom to help children re-build the contents offered by this medium from a critical perspective. In this sense, we were especially interested in exploring how the children spontaneously referred to issues related to violence in television programs.
This project intended to go further than the reading-writing level and introduce the audiovisual world. From the beginning we were struck by how children spend many hours in front of the TV screens and how this world seems to be something ignored at school. Why are audiovisual media usually not present in the classroom and, when they are, their only purpose is to favour scholastic knowledge?
Television is an exceptionally useful medium when it comes to fostering a relationship between scholastic knowledge and everyday life at school. TV contents allowed us to introduce into the classroom different references to our daily lives. We believe it constitutes an example of how the classroom can open itself to another reality, to turn knowledge into something meaningful and allow a more active participation from students. Furthermore, the fact that children became true journalists, publishing in a local newspaper, made it possible for the writing task to become something meaningful and not just a school assignment.
The education in values that may arise from reflecting upon these contents involving violence does not happen spontaneously. Children approach television with prior beliefs and stereotypes that are not always revealed.
Television and the narratives that can arise through it go further than our individual and analytical thoughts. The introduction of narratives can contribute to favouring the creation of appropriate settings that encourage an education in values.
Within this context we have followed those studies that focus on the concept of "community of practice", where learning is considered as something social and collective, assuming as a fundamental principle one´s participation in socially situated ideas (such as watching television). Even though children are very familiar with audiovisual codes, it is essential for adults to generate a critical approach to them.
This project is part of a research study subsidized by the CIDE (resolution BOE 16-IX-1998) under the title ‘Aprender en la familia y en la escuela: imágenes, palabras e ideas (Learning in the family and at school: images, words and ideas)’
Third National Educational Research Award 2002 from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.
Boys and girls from Year 4 of Primary Education in a Public School in Córdoba