Abstract:

There is currently a trend towards the revaluation of heritage assets and their use as an educational resource. Córdoba (Spain) is an example of commitment to its heritage and to the acknowledgment of the city as an educational space, since it is part of the International Association of Educating Cities (1994).

Despite the widespread acceptance of the importance of the cultural heritage for the socialization of the new generations, its inclusion in the Early Childhood Education curriculum is practically non-existent.

The present research is part of the project Córdoba through Children’s Eyes, carried out by the RIECU network (Early Childhood Education Schools-Teacher Training Center-University) with the intention of addressing the aforementioned shortcomings. It is an educational experience that fosters the study of cultural heritage by means of children’s discovery and investigation, in order to promote the emergence of an active citizenship from early childhood that not only consumes culture, but also creates it.

As a consequence of several discussions, bibliographical analysis and professional argumentations, the RIECU network has agreed that the best option to promote civic and democratic competences in Early Childhood Education children, is to adopt the Project Based Learning (PBL) approach, because it allows tackling the official curriculum from a dialogical interaction perspective. Children have made inquiries, based on their own questions, and have held an active, critical and investigative role to analyze the rich cultural heritage of Córdoba. Significant monuments and places of the city have been explored, and a model of intercultural coexistence from the past has been incorporated, which can serve to children as a reference to dream a present of more fair and solidarity relationships between people, cultures and religions.

This research aims to evaluate the results of the experience and, by adopting a case study design, it also aims to analyze how civic and social competencies of young children advance when they are immersed in this particular teaching-learning environment. The two participant teachers –who are part of the RIECU network and are experts in applying the PBL approach– together with the children, have investigated an emblematic monument of Córdoba: The Mosque. Following a qualitative method and aiming a triangulation of collection techniques, participant observation and documentary analysis of future teachers’ diaries –who have experienced the learning process with the teachers, the children and their families– have been used.

Findings show that those classrooms which follow the PBL approach are educational spaces where there is a feeling of co-responsibility for peers’ progress, ethical-moral issues are interpreted and great importance is given to dialogical encounters. In addition, classroom’s norms are not conceived as precepts to comply with, but rather as agreements to be respected.

It is possible to conclude that learning through the PBL approach means to begin to be an essential piece of a community of practice, i.e., a “first society”.

Keywords:

Early Childhood Education, Project Based Learning, Civic competence, Intercultural education, Educating cities.