Profesora_LauraCruz EN

A social educator and pedagogue from the University of Santiago de Compostela, where I obtained my doctorate in 2010 with the thesis entitled ‘Infancias y Educación social: prácticas socioeducativas en contextos residenciales de protección en Galicia’, which was awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize. 

As a social educator, I worked on a drug addiction prevention programme (UMAD, 2007) and on the Family Education Coordination Team in Galicia, developing a participatory action-research process with the professionals involved to draw up the framework programme (Tecendo Redes, 2008–2009). 

At a teaching level, since 2011 I have been responsible for the module ‘Socio-educational Action with Minorities and Vulnerable Groups’ for the Bachelor’s degree in Social Education. Specialising in this subject has given me insight into three realities of social exclusion (deprivation of liberty, homelessness and prostitution) and also into inclusive methodologies such as service-learning, the Theatre of the Oppressed, philosophy for children and social mapping (around which we have developed various summer schools and courses). Working with students through the service-learning proposal and applying social mapping earned me two awards for educational innovation (2019 and 2021).

In my research career I have been part of three research groups. First, Social Pedagogy and Environmental Education (SEPA-interea) of the University of Santiago de Compostela, working mainly in two lines of study: educational and social timetables and municipal cultural action. In 2010, already at the University of A Coruña, I joined the Educational Policy, History and Society (PEHS) group, from which I participated in projects on: effective intervention strategies with adolescents and young people at risk of social exclusion (in collaboration with the UNED and four social organisations: Fundación ISOS, Fundación Trébol, Opción 3 S.C. and Igaxés3); successful socio-educational actions for overcoming poverty (led by Rosa Valls of the research group CREA of the University of Barcelona); or Animación Sociocultural en prisión (in collaboration with SEPA-Interea and the association Aliad-Ultreia). Since 2017, I have been involved in development education projects funded by the Xunta de Galicia, in partnership with Arquitectura sen Fronteiras (for the training of multiplier agents in the dissemination of the right to habitat) and with Solidariedade Internacional de Galicia

(mapping experiences of education for global citizenship in schools in Galicia). Since 2020, as part of the new ECIGAL research group, I have continued to work on research lines previously initiated, mainly in the field of Global Citizenship Education in formal education and social education in prisons. In relation to all these research topics, I have contributed to conferences and publications in journals and books. 

In the field of management and collaboration with other entities, I was the academic lead for the Social Education degree from the 2013/14 to 2020/21 academic years; I am a member of the UDC’s Research and Teaching Ethics Committee (CEID-UDC), since 2017; and I actively participate with the College of Social Educators of Galicia (member no. 3010), first in the governing boards (2003-2015) and later in two working groups (prison and ethics committee). I am also a member of the Ibero-American Society of Social Pedagogy (SIPS).