Abstract:

As Freire stated, education is a key process of critical insertion into the reality in which human beings live. This process is especially relevant in contexts where exclusion implies an impediment for people to initiate development processes that transform their reality, such as marginalized urban areas. In the same vein, the transformation and integration of these contexts is key not only to their inhabitants’ life, but also to configure inclusive and sustainable cities.

With this approach, we study the case of Polígono Sur in Seville, the poorest neighborhood in Spain according to the 2019 edition of the Urban Indicators of the National Statistics Institute (INE), framed in the European Urban Audit project on living conditions in the cities of the European Union. With almost 40.000 inhabitants, Polígono Sur is a neighborhood that concentrates high levels of social exclusion and segregation. In this context, education is a central issue as it affects the possibilities that children in these areas have when it comes to growing up with the same guarantees as the rest of the children from the same city.

This communication intends to approach the educational reality of Polígono Sur through the review, from a critical approach, of the education system in this urban area. Our goal is to identify key factors that helps the allocation of alternative educational practices that affect the educational process at schools as a tool for transformation and social inclusion.

To do so, we start carrying out a multilevel analysis of the legal framework on which the education system is based, which includes the state and the regional levels. This review does not imply a thorough study of the regulatory framework; it aims to highlight some aspects that will have repercussions on the configuration of the education system in a neighborhood like Polígono Sur.

Once this framework has been stated, we conclude our study with a deep analysis of the local educational program that is being developed in said neighborhood. This analysis will allow us to elucidate the impacts of such programs and some of the challenges they face.

Keywords:

Education, social transformation, alternative educational practices, marginalized urban areas, Inclusive and Sustainable Development.