ACTIVE METHODOLOGIES AS ECOLOGIES OF PARTICIPATION: NARRATIVES OF PRACTICES AND LEARNING RECONFIGURATIONS

Abstract

This article discusses active methodologies as ecologies of participation in educational contexts shaped by digital culture, analysing practice-based narratives that reconfigure ways of learning, teaching and meaning-making. Drawing on a qualitative, narrative-inspired approach, the study mobilizes field notes, lesson plans, students’ productions and written reflections produced in a school context that aimed to foster autonomy, authorship and collaboration. The theoretical framework articulates contributions from Freire, Dewey, Jenkins, Castells, Rojo, Lankshear and Knobel, Moran, Bacich and Kenski, among others, highlighting the centrality of participation, multiliteracies and sociotechnical mediations in contemporary education. Three educational experiences are analysed: an investigative project on everyday life, a didactic sequence based on flipped classroom and dialogical circles, and a proposal for multimodal creation using generative artificial intelligence. Results indicate that active methodologies, when grounded in meaningful problems and ecologies of participation, enhance student engagement, foster the circulation of multiple languages and promote shifts in traditional teacher–student roles. At the same time, they reveal tensions related to assessment culture, pedagogical time, unequal access to technology and the ambiguities of digital tools. It is concluded that active methodologies may effectively contribute to reconfiguring learning, provided they are linked to a critical, dialogical and ethical perspective rather than reduced to a technical repertoire of procedures.