O desafio de uma escola contemporânea passa pela necessidade de adaptar instituições educativas a uma sociedade em constante transformação, tornando-as espaços sustentáveis, de inclusão e de cidadania ativa. A investigação aparece como uma ferramenta essencial para diagnosticar obstáculos, testar metodologias inovadoras e fundamentar decisões pedagógicas que favoreçam a inclusão e a formação de professores.

A reflexão sistemática sobre práticas existentes, a identificação de barreiras à inclusão, o desenvolvimento de estratégias baseadas em evidências e uma monitorização contínua sustentada pelo conhecimento científico são essenciais para incentivar o desenvolvimento de práticas educativas onde se destaque a educabilidade universal e a equidade educativa. A mudança na escola tem de ser apoiada por um processo contínuo de investigação, reflexão e ação coletiva, onde a colaboração entre todos os envolvidos é essencial.

O compromisso institucional com a investigação fundamenta decisões, fortalece práticas inclusivas e garante que a escola seja efetivamente um espaço de transformação, equidade e cidadania para todos. Torna-se fundamental associar à formação inicial e contínua evidências teórico-empíricas para o desenvolvimento profissional dos professores e, concomitantemente, acrescentar qualidade à sua ação pedagógica.

The effects of schools providing compensatory cultural capital on student reading

The structural approach of cultural capital theories neglects the idea that the impact of structural constraints on educational results can be reduced by agency. This predicament can be solved when the advantages of abundant educational resources available in schools are unpacked since doing so can compensate for the paucity of such resources often seen in the low-SES family social space.

Although the gains available from such resources remain embedded in the school social space, it can be assumed that their compensatory function can be activated through reading activities that significantly contribute to students’ cognitive development. This situation prompts two research questions related to the contributions of reading to academic disciplines such as math and science and the amelioration of the structural impact of SES and cultural capital on low-SES students’ learning outcomes.

To explore these questions, we used regression analysis and hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) to analyse data from the stratified random sample of Taiwanese students (n=7,342) contained in the PISA 2018 dataset. The estimates of regression analysis showed that reading ability functioned as a reliable indicator of Taiwanese students’ math and science scores on PISA 2018. The results of HLM analysis further demonstrated that the predominant influence of ESCS and cultural capital can be significantly attenuated when the independent variables of school support and student personal efforts/learning strategies are considered. Accordingly, reading resources can be regarded as a compensatory genre of cultural capital embedded within the school social space, at least in the case of Taiwan, as the benefits they create need to be achieved through reading plans/projects scientifically implemented by schools.

Tien-Hui Chiang • Anhui Normal University, China

Currently serves as Vice-President of RC04 (Sociology of Education) of the International Sociological Association, under UNESCO, and as a Constitutional Standing Committee member of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), also affiliated with UNESCO. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Educational Research (SSCI, Elsevier).

Professor Chiang previously held positions as the President of the Taiwan Association for Sociology of Education and as both Department Head and Dean at the National University of Tainan, Taiwan. He has also served as an international advisor to several prominent academic organizations, including IAFOR (Japan), ELLTA (Thailand), and SGEM (Bulgaria). He has delivered keynote speeches and lectures at major international conferences and prestigious universities across the globe, including engagements in UNESCO, the United States, the United Kingdom (Belfast, Cardiff, Oxford), Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand, Japan, China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Africa.

His academic excellence has been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the Distinguished Scholar Award from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, the Excellent Scholar Award from Taiwan’s National Science Council, the title of International Distinguished Professor at the University of Crete, Greece, and the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the U.S. Department of State. Professor Chiang’s research interests lie in the sociology of education, globalization and education policy, sociology of curriculum, social linguistics, and comparative education.

Employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, he has authored over 160 academic publications. While his earlier work focused on the influence of human capital discourse on education policy—drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, his current research explores the impact of social linguistics on student performance through the theoretical lenses of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital and Basil Bernstein’s code theory.