Educational Research as a Tool for Transformation in Digital School Environments

La Investigación Educativa como Herramienta de Transformación en Entornos Escolares Digitales

Abstract

This research analyzes the transformation of pedagogical practices through the implementation of participatory action-research cycles in digital educational environments. From a socio-critical perspective, the study documents how 48 secondary education teachers developed research competencies during an academic year, transitioning from traditional individualism toward collaborative learning communities. The findings, grounded in the contributions of Poma, Rodríguez, Poma and Sevilla (2023); Ordóñez and Gutiérrez (2023); and Herdoiza, Valladares, Calderón and Faggioni (2024); demonstrate that effective integration of educational technologies requires overcoming instrumentalist approaches. The research reveals an increase of 1.87 points in research competencies and documents the transition from technical uses toward pedagogically grounded implementations, supported by the works of García and García-Varcárcel (2022); and Laurente-Cárdenas, Rengifo-Lozano, Asmat-Vega and Neyra-Huamani (2020). The study proposes the IDEA model (Research-Development-Experimentation-Learning), which integrates formative, structural, relational and technological components. The results demonstrate that authentic transformation occurs when teachers become researchers of their own practice, generating contextualized knowledge and reconfiguring professional teaching identity. The tensions between theory-practice and individual-collective emerge as productive catalysts for professional development in the digital era.