Qualitative Inquiry

This introduction presents the transformative dimension of the Dialogic Gatherings (DG) by briefly describing sixteen articles that use the biographical method to show these profound transformations. Drawing from the experience of the Dialogic Literary Gatherings, which started in 1970, the editor develops a framework for the special issue: the power of DG in changing underprivileged people’s lives, transforming them into leaders of their communities. This biographical description accounts for the main premises of the communicative methodology, such as the egalitarian dialogue, the disappearance of interpretative hierarchy, collective meaning-making and understanding people as agents of social change.

The biography of Luisa, a teacher participating in the dialogic pedagogical gatherings of Valencia, allows us to analyze those elements associated with these Dialogic Gatherings (DGs) that made it possible to radically transform Luisa’s feelings and thoughts, becoming a protagonist in the socio-educational movement in Valencia. This biographical study under a communicative approach shows how the gatherings led Luisa to initiate a process of transformation, not only becoming a happier and freer person, but also to dream of utopias of social creation. In this communicative biography, the key elements that enable teachers such as Luisa to become capable of leading educational movements based on validity claims, equality, and commitment to high quality education for all children are analyzed.

Manuel’s biography shows a valuable process of re-enchantment and belief in the possibility of social change. Manuel was strongly disenchanted with the bureaucratization established in Spain during the transition from the Franco regime to democracy in the mid-70s. He recovered his enchantment with democratic movements through contact with the social and educational movement of adult education in La Verneda (Barcelona) and especially through his participation in the Dialogic Literary Gatherings held in the school for adults. In Manuel’s words, the gathering was the best expression of democracy in the school; it was the democratic experience that he had always imagined. In this outstanding space, he could listen to his friends, who, just like him, had lowly academic backgrounds, and share in the reading of the best universal classic literature. For Manuel, this gathering held the germ of a great debate on social, cultural, and democratic transformation.

Roma girls are one of the most invisible social groups within the educational system. Beliefs derived from social prejudice and from nonscientific perspectives suggest that they have little motivation and willingness to learn. However, successful educational actions based on scientific evidence developed in many schools demonstrate a very different reality. This is the case of Amaya, a 12-year-old Roma girl who lives in the poorest neighborhood of Tarragona (Spain) and who has suffered bullying perpetrated by her classmates. However, in the Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs), Amaya found a place to enjoy reading books such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or Twain’s Tom Sawyer. This pleasure led to a radical transformation in her classmates’ perceptions of her as well as in her own perception of her abilities. Through Amaya’s biography, the author explore how the DLGs become a space where children’s desire to continue their studies are strengthened and future dreams, such as Amaya’s aspiration to become a doctor, are shaped.

This article presents Isabel’s biography as a case study of how Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs) can transform the lives of non-academic women by fostering their social participation. Isabel, an illiterate woman from Barcelona (Spain), engaged in adult education to learn to read and write. This initial motivation was transformed by her participation in DLGs, in which she gained confidence and engaged in women’s organizations, advocating for a more inclusive feminism. More than thirty years later, she has attended international meetings, published articles, and even shared round tables with well-known international feminist scholars such as Judith Butler and Lidia Puigvert.

As an ex-prisoner from a ghetto in Albacete (Spain), Luis’s aspirations were constrained to either obtaining a seasonal job when possible or resigning to becoming a permanent user of social services. However, his participation in dialogic spaces such as Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG) made him dream that a different life was possible, not only for him but also for his children. In the DLG, he began a process of personal transformation that allowed him to become one of the most appreciated representatives of his neighborhood and a core interlocutor with several public administrations. The authors consider how dialogic spaces such as the DLG become sources of hope and sense-making to people such as Luis and note the elements that enable them to overcome social exclusion while inspiring them to fight for the achievement of social justice in their communities.

Through the biographical reconstruction of Clara’s story, the authors analyze how her participation in dialogic literary gatherings (DLGs) enhanced her personal transformation. Clara received her primary education in a school located in a suburban neighborhood with a low socioeconomic level and great cultural diversity. However, despite difficulties, this is a school with enormous expectations of its students, in which successful educational actions such as DLGs are implemented. Memory, identity, sociability, and interactions combine in Clara’s story. She explains how she participated as a speaker in the Final Conference of the FP6 Project INCLUD-ED (December, 2011) at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels in front of more than 300 people when she was only 10 years old. Clara tells the story of how this was possible due to sharing words with her schoolmates about classic world literature, including The Odyssey and Don Quixote, in the DLGs, spaces that gave her self-confidence and precious knowledge to now motivate and help other students succeed in their own educational trajectories.

Amina is a female Moroccan prison inmate who has participated in Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs) in a prison in Catalonia for 2 years. As a woman and without basic studies, she encountered many obstacles that led her into social exclusion, drug addiction, and involvement in the activities that in turn led to her incarceration. Sharing ideas with her fellow inmates about the works of Kafka and Brecht has had a significant impact on her own thoughts, allowing her to reconstruct her past and anticipate a new, hopeful future. This biography describes the transformative elements that empowered Amina to recreate her history through the literary interpretations she shared in DLG. The biography also highlights Amina’s new challenges and dreams, such as pursuing secondary education during her incarceration and going to college once she leaves prison.

This article constitutes a narrative of the life events of Antonio, a man belonging to the Roma community. His life story combines passages of exclusion, in which Antonio was the target of cultural bias that even led him to be imprisoned, with transformative experiences that were greatly influenced by his participation in a Dialogic Literary Gathering. Through the shared reading of Federico García Lorca’s Gypsy Ballads, he strengthened his identity as a man who is deeply proud of belonging to the Roma community and became an agent of social transformation. The interactions and meaning created in the Dialogic Literary Gathering allowed him to rewrite his story, tearing down the walls of prejudice that Lorca masterfully denounced in his works.

This article presents a personal narrative about how the protagonist transforms her vision of universal classic literature. She began to work in the “1001 Dialogic Literary Gatherings Worldwide” movement, transforming her attitude of rejection toward universal classic literature. Her social context was marked by an alternative atmosphere, where classic culture was associated with tradition and considered boring. Through in-depth conversations with nonacademic adult participants in the dialogic literary gathering (DLG) and the direct exposure to reading classic books, she had the opportunity to personally experience the transformative potential of this successful educational action. She experienced herself how the DLG breaks with the stereotype that universal classic works belong to the cultural elite. The researcher narrates how she learnt to enjoy reading this literature, which reinforced her commitment to overcome social, educational, and cultural inequalities. This experience was a turning point in her academic career as a researcher, fully devoted to the creation of new educational and cultural opportunities for working-class people.

Aisha is a Moroccan woman who lives with her three children in a city in northern Spain. In July 2014, her husband was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking. This situation led her to return to Morocco with her family, but her high level of involvement in the school where her children had received an excellent academic and humanistic education was a key factor in her decision to come back to Spain. Mustafa, Ali, and Mohamed, aged 3, 6, and 8, are schooled in a Learning Community where Aisha participates as a volunteer. Specifically, she participates in a Dialogic Literary Gathering that is mobilizing a large number of other Moroccan women, as they are engaged in crucial debates regarding the social conditions and opportunities in the neighborhood. This biography analyzes how her involvement in Dialogic Gatherings with other Moroccan women and the sharing of thoughts has helped Aisha to transform her own personal situation as well as the social context in her neighborhood and the lives of “other women.”

Narratives organize the structure of human experience and allow for the explanation of turning-point moments in an individual’s life. Such “epiphanies” leave marks on our lives and may create possible worlds beyond the established. Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLGs) expanded the world of Connor, an 11-year-old boy in a rural community, and his perception of it, which helped him to succeed in a critical moment of school transition between elementary and secondary school. This article reports his transformative journey during his participation in DLGs. A combination of communicative techniques—dialogic interviews, observations, and life stories—enabled critical, egalitarian, and transformative dialogues between the researcher and Connor. As such, the dialogic construction of knowledge in Connor’s communicative biography highlights how significant relational experiences enabled him to achieve more, to understand other children’s minds, and to confidently face the challenge of testing children at the end of elementary school.

This article uses the biographical method with communicative orientation to deepen into the life experiences of an individual living in poverty who experienced a turning point in her life as a result of engaging in a successful educational action called Dialogic Literary Gatherings. The stories told by Lola, a female homeless from a deprived neighborhood, shed light on the transformative power that reading and discussing classical literature had for her: Rejected by her family, sharing classical readings in an environment of egalitarian dialogue gave Lola new possible worlds, which brought her to recover hope in life and craft a new self. The gathering provided her strong social relations and a new “family,” and motivated her involvement in transformative personal and social struggles. Lola’s biography informs about how the Dialogic Literary Gatherings facilitate moving from a current to a possible self over a journey of autobiographical memory reconstruction.

This article examines the biography of an 11-year-old student, Alba, who lives in a deprived social context and has an intellectual disability. With an academic proficiency 4 years behind the rest of her class, Alba was always well accepted by her classmates, but she never stood out academically. Her biography shows a turning point as a result of her participation in dialogic literary gatherings. By sharing this dialogic space, where works of classic literature are discussed and knowledge is created based on collective interpretations of the text, Alba has had the opportunity not only to learn from her classmates but also to make brilliant contributions that have sparked profound debates among her peers. Alba’s communicative biography unveils an educational action that is capable of making vulnerable students visible, not only because of what they can learn from others but also because of what they can contribute.

The Free Women movement was a women’s organization that actively participated in the Spanish Social Revolution (1936-1939). It was the first organization of working women created to fight for their rights independent of any political party or trade union and was established by young women participating in the libertarian movement. These women and other members of the National Workers Confederation and the Libertarian Youth promoted cultural training for the working class. They organized spaces for workers to meet, read, and discuss relevant books together. Through the biographical method, with a communicative approach, the authors collected the life narratives of some women who participated in this movement. Using women’s stories and the existing historical documents, the authors created a collective biography focusing on those spaces in which libertarian women discussed book readings. Such spaces are closely related to the current practice of dialogic gatherings and were a key element in improving education.

This article presents a personal narrative of a teacher who participates in Dialogic Pedagogical Gatherings in Valencia, in which the author explores the personal change that she experienced after spending one week in CREA (Community of Research on Excellence for All) through a process of self-reflection and self-inquiry guided by the identification of the transformative elements characteristic of the communicative methodological approach. The narrative shows how an atmosphere of egalitarian dialogue, where all voices are taken into account, including the voice of a newly arrived person, allowing for the construction of new scientific knowledge and contributing to the transformation of social reality. She analyzes how a week in CREA encouraged her to fall in love again with education, rethink its power of transformation, and give new meaning to her vocation.