Research challenges in ethnic educational contexts: Theory and practice, forking paths

Abstract

In the field of educational research, one of the most pressing dilemmas is to concretize the findings in their practical dimension in the educational context studied. The purpose of this contribution is to analyze the challenges that the researcher faces in establishing this theoretical-practical relationship. From the development of the research “Intercultural education from the voice of educational agents: A study in Jalisco, Chiapas, Chihuahua and Guanajuato”, some reflections emerge aimed at understanding the extent to which the findings of said study have contributed to transform the context studied and identify the challenges that act as barriers to achieve this theory-practice link. It is a qualitative research, developed from a critical position; under the methodology of discourse analysis we analyze the perspectives that researchers from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional del Estado de Chihuahua and the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Guanajuato Unidad 111, participants in the study, have built on the difficulties to establish from the results a solid link between theory and practice. According to participants, the project’s theoretical findings have been widely disseminated, but few of them have led to informed educational practice.