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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333

7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a
Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain

Smart city and Intercultural Education

Eva Aguaded-Ramírez
Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Campus de Cartuja, S/N, Granada, 18071, España.

Abstract

The concept of Intercultural Education is analyzed throughout the planet. This definition should have given a new twist in recent
years, as society and, in particular, cities have entered or intend to do so in the idea of Smart City, which implies the adaptation
and preparation of the population and education that will take place towards this situation. With this idea, we started an
investigation to examine whether, the cities that erect the seal of Smart City, take actions to integrate the entire population and
improve social inclusion. After analysing documents from the centre and the implementation of Intercultural Education in
different schools, through observation and interviews to teachers, at different stages and cities, defined as Smart City, we got that,
no school undertakes any action respect the integration and social inclusion of the population in their classrooms. Leading us to
conclude that the label of Smart city is adding new social disadvantages, leading us to, among our recommendations, that the
concept of Intercultural Education should be renewed, including the idea of Intelligent Citizens for Smart Cities.
© 2017
© 2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by by Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
Keywords: Intercultural Education; Smart City; smart citizen; ITCs; digicitizen

1. Smart city and Intercultural Education

The concept of Intercultural Education is analyzed (Aguaded, EM et al., 2010; Antolínez, I., 2011; Bastiani, J. et
al., 2013; Dezuanni, M.et al, 2012; Touriñán, JM, 2014) throughout the planet. This definition should have given a
new twist in recent years, as society and, in particular, cities have entered or intend to do so in the idea of Smart City
(Greenfield, A., 2013, Pricewaterhousecoopers, 2014; European Commission, 2012; Enerlis, E. & Young, Ferrovial
& Madrid Network, 2012; Cebreiros, J. and Pérez Gulín, M. 2014; González, M. 2016), which implies adaptation
and preparation of the population and education that will take place towards this situation.
Hereafter, we discuss, briefly, some of these concepts of which we are talking.

1877-0428 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.010
 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333 327

1.1. Smart city

All municipalities, medium and large sized, aspire to become smart cities. It is the new motto. It is fashionable
and practically every day we get to know new cities that become smart as a result of the incorporation of new
technologies in their management. The trend is not Spanish or European, but universal.
There is no an established definition, in a global way, about a smart city. However, cities that acquire or seek this
label aspire to take advantage of the full potential of all the technological advances to save costs, be more efficient,
provide new services, reduce their environmental footprint and encourage innovation.
But becoming a smart city must lead to the improvement of the quality of life of its citizens. The question is
whether this slogan becomes reality or, on the contrary, smart cities projects’ make cities use it as, pure marketing
and self-promotion, rather than a metropolitan ICT project, which does not benefits citizens, but the companies that
are giving them the services.

1.2. Intercultural Education.

In schools we work to obtain personal development, knowledge of others, the empathetic relationship with
others, that is, to achieve, what for us is, intercultural education.
Education is found, naturally, with the diversity among individuals and social groups, as a fact of reality.
Diversity exists and, into it, the Intercultural Education is not presented as a pure humanistic educational ideal. It
does not consist in a "good pedagogical idea." It is not directed to “the cultural minority students." It is not a
romantic cultivation of cultural differences.
Intercultural education is education focused on the difference and cultural diversity, rather than an education for
those who are culturally different. Men and women from other cultures are human beings, people with whom we
will build a new and different society. In the global village in which we live today, we need to learn to live together
in the most creative and enriching way between people and different groups. Intercultural Education opposes the
integration understood as assimilation; it is not a compensatory education to match. Intercultural education is
opposed, of course, to anti-racist teaching and the simple multiculturalism. It is based on principles that seek the
formation of every citizen: in knowledge, understanding and respect for different cultures in actual society; in
increasing the capacity of communication and interaction with people of different cultures; in creating favourable
attitudes to the diversity of cultures (Sedano Merino and Muñoz, 1995).
We believe appropriate to note that, we start from a concept of multiculturalism considered as a model of
diversity management, and, therefore, we can say that we define intercultural education as:
An educational approach from which we can address issues relating to the treatment of cultural diversity in
education, beyond the established limits by races, ethnic groups or nationalities, considering diversity as a valuable
force and a mutual enrichment, not as a weakness to overcome. Intercultural Education involves an educational
practice that should: promote the optimal development of all students and the entire educational community, in
addition to the intercultural relations, contribute to the elimination of prejudice and stereotypes; providing
meaningful education with quality for all, and encourage, ultimately, a more just and united society, which would
allow students to form in the recognition, respect, and estimation of cultural diversity (Aguaded, E. 2007, p. 110).
This term of Intercultural Education is not merely a theoretical concept, but must be applied through the means
that schools have to make education, which is the curriculum and, which, when we use it to apply intercultural
education and develop intercultural skills, we call intercultural curriculum.

1.3. Smart city and Intercultural Education.

However, we understand this concept does not influence sufficiently on the fact that the Intercultural Education is
to educate students for the demands of the society in which he/she lives, in this historic moment, with its
characteristics, which will allow those students can be included in that society with full rights,
Hence, we have updated the concept, resulting in the following:
Intercultural Education is an educational approach from which to address issues relating to the treatment of
cultural diversity in education, beyond the limits set by races, ethnic groups or nationalities, considering diversity as
328 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333

a valuable force and mutual enrichment and not as a weakness to overcome. Intercultural Education involves an
educational practice that should: promote the optimal development of all students and the entire educational
community, knowing and being formed in the demands that society in which he/she lives poses, in addition to
stimulate intercultural relations, contribute to the elimination of prejudices and stereotypes, provide a meaningful
and quality education for all, useful for the time he/she actually lives, and encourage, ultimately, a juster and united
society, which would allow students get formed in the recognition, respect and esteem of cultural diversity.

2. Conducted research

Faro (formerly called Santa Maria de Faro) is a Portuguese city, the capital of the homonymous district, and the
Algarve region. It has 76,560 inhabitants, and it is head of a municipality with 201.31 km² (2015). Faro is a Smart
City.
However, we must say that is part of the cart of smart cities and, therefore, the most modern cities in the world,
highlighting, the high number of people living circumstances that lead them to social exclusion thresholds or heavily
involved in it. In Table 1, we can find in real numbers and percentages the population that is in this situation:

Table 1. Data of population on possible risk of social exclusion in Faro.

Number % regarding total
population
Population over 65 years 15312 20%
Population less than 14 years at disadvantage 4593 6%
Population of women with complaints of gender violence 6890 9% of the total
population of women
Immigrant population 1825 4,7%
Population with addictions (alcohol, drugs, and recreation games, mainly) 8018 21%
Population with disabilities (any disability and age) 17310 22%
Gypsy population 2113 2,75%

In a superficial analysis, we might think that the fact of being over 65 years or being gypsy does not put us in a
situation of social exclusion. However, all programs, projects, activities..., which are made of people in social
exclusion are aimed at populations with these characteristics, hence the importance of our work, of being found in
exposed situations.
In most cases several factors were given, in the same manner, and at the same time, the economic factor was
influencing, since a high percentage of the population is affected by low or no income, which situates them in
sectors of social exclusion.

2.1. Objectives

Given the large number of people who are at risk of social exclusion, in a city that stands with the label of being
Smart City, we felt it was important to start an investigation that allows us to analyse how much of the expected in
the projects of Smart City, improved the life of the population, of course, of the entire population.
Hence, the objectives will be specified as the followings:

1) To investigate how the smart city denomination of Faro was produced.

2) Know the actions that are being implemented in Faro for being a smart city.
3) Analyse the knowledge that has the population in social exclusion about such actions.
4) Analyse the knowledge that the population denominated as a smart citizen about such actions.
5) Analyse the knowledge among intercultural schools on such actions.
 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333 329

3. Data collection instruments

The first step we did was analyse the Smart City project and each of the actions, which were proposed for it, to
convert Faro in a Smart City.
The second step was to design and, subsequently, carry an interview with the person responsible in the Câmara
Municipal de Faro. After ordering an appointment, several weeks in advance, we could finally conduct the
interview.
Subsequently, we conducted a series of interviews, to people who, at the beginning, were not in a social
exclusion situation and who met certain requirements, such as: having a college education or being in college and
have a Smartphone, Tablet, laptop available, continuously, one that could be considered as smart citizen and should
be more informed and trained in what the smart city in which they live demands.
The next step was to conduct interviews to the population, which, by their nature, might be living situations of
social exclusion.
The instruments, in both cases, had a similar format. We can see this in Table 2.

Table 2. Conducted interviews to the population.

1. Have you heard of Smart City?
2. Do you know what a Smart City is?
3. Do you know if your city is a Smart City?
4. If it is, do you know since when?
5. Do you know what actions have been undertaken, by the fact of being Smart City?
6. Which of them do you believe is better known to the people of Faro?
7. Do you think these programs have developed improvements in the general population?
8. Do you think that these programs have produced improvements population with some social problems, particularly as:
- Population over 65 years
- Population less than 14 years at disadvantage
- Population of women with complaints of gender violence
- Immigrant population
- Population with addictions (alcohol, drugs, and recreational games, mainly)
- Population with disabilities (any disability and age)
- Gypsy population?
9. Specifically, do you think there has been some improvement?
10. What did you wish to happen so that you could benefit from Faro being a Smart City?

3.1. Results

From the conducted interview, with the responsible in the Câmara de Faro of the creation of the Smart City
Project, we need to emphasise the basis of the work is not the improvement of the population, in general, but the
uptake of economic resources from various sources (European funds, awards from different entities ...), with the
base of the management of the sea, so that citizens get more performance. Although other actions have been initiated
as LED lighting, Urban mobility, Free locations for electric cars, Interurban Mobility, Pedestrianization, and access
for mobility of people with mobility problems.
With regard to the population, which could be understood as digicitizen, a total of 200 people, or, at least
connected to the Internet, with availability of updated mobile devices (this question was asked to all the people who
participated, before starting the interview which, in all cases, they were conducted in different faculties of the
University of Algarve, with the exception of technology, not to distort the data) and university education, responses
to the interview raised were:
330 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333

1. A 2% of respondents answered “yes I have heard of Smart City”, and the remaining 98% did not. This amount of
response does not have nuances depending on age or gender, or whether they are students, graduates or university
professors.
2. When asked if they know what a Smart City, 1. 2% said yes and a 98.8% did not know what a Smart City was. As
in the previous section, in this case, neither age nor gender, are discriminant variables.
3. The vast majority said it they do not know if Faro is a Smart City since only one person of the interviewed people
answered yes.
4. None knew for how long Faro has been a Smart City.
5. No one responded to the answer on what programs or actions have been undertaken in Faro for being a Smart
City.
6. Everyone think none.
7. A 100% of respondents said that the programs have not led to improvements in the general population.
8. A 100% believe that these programs have no enhancement of the population who has some social problems,
particularly as: Population over 65 years, Population under 14 years at a disadvantage, Population of women with
complaints of gender violence, Immigrant Population, Population with addictions (alcohol, drugs and recreational
games, mainly), Population with disabilities (any type of disability and age) or Gypsy population.
9. A 100% of respondents believe that they have not produced any improvement in their lives thanks to Faro as a
Smart City.
10. Finally, concerning proposals made, that is, why would they wanted to happen, so that they could benefit from
Faro as a Smart City, we find that, in some cases, some of them made proposals, on Table 3 there are as follows:

Table 3. Proposals made by the digicitizen population.

autonomously, without any guide Number of people
(n:200)
Inform the population about what is a Smart City 220
Inform the population about Faro as a Smart City 217
Inform the population about the programs being carried out 208
Inform the population on how to participate in these programs 205
Expand Wi-Fi Zones and improve coverage 204
Improvements and expansion of applications for mobile devices and Smartphone, for notice and 201
SMS, paperwork with the city, pay parking and blue zone, etc.
Access to training courses on new technologies for citizens. 198
Dissemination of cultural activities to reach citizens and visitors of the city. * 172
Citizenship training on "Learning in the city and learn about the city" and training as users. * 34
Strengthening democratic values of the city and citizen participation. 12
Information and display everything relevant in the city for education. * 6
Institutional collaboration in adult teaching. * 5
Strengthening the transmission capacity of ICT for citizenship education. * 5
Committed to the integration and strengthening of the less skilled. 2
Promoting innovation and technology education. * 1

Regarding to people in situations of social exclusion, a total of 300 people, the answers were:

1. None of the individuals have heard of Smart City.

2. When asked if they know what a Smart City, no one claims to know what it is.
3. No one knows that Faro is a Smart City.
4. None knows since how long.
5. No one responds to programs or actions that have been undertaken.
6. All interviewees believe that none of the programs have been made known to the citizens of Faro and the few who
 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333 331

comment something, they say:

"We never found out anything."
"They want to hide us, and we do not participate in anything."
"Those things are only for the rich people."

7. A 100% of respondents said that the programs have not led to improvements in the general population.
"Improvements? We are worse than ever."
"Every time we are more"

8. A 100% believe that these programs have no improvement in the population who has some social problems,
particularly as: Population over 65 years, Population under 14 years at a disadvantage, Population of women with
complaints of gender violence, Immigrant Population, Population with addictions (alcohol, drugs and recreational
games, mainly), Population with disabilities (any type of disability and age) or Gypsy population.
"The improvements do not come here."
"We get the crumbs"
"The truth is that we don’t care much to know what is done in the city. We settle for surviving day to day"

9. A 100% of respondents believe that they have not produced any improvement in their lives thanks to Faro being a
Smart City.
"Of course, I have not heard"

10. Finally, concerning proposals made, that is, why would they want to happen, so that they could benefit from that
Faro as a Smart City, we found out that, in some cases, some made proposals in this regard, they appear in Table 4
and are as follows:

Table 4. Proposals made by the population in social exclusion.

Suggestions made autonomously, without any guide A number of people (n: 300)
Inform the public about that Faro is a Smart City 25
Notify the public about the programs being carried out 23
Inform the population on how to participate in these programs 20

The research, in a second stage, intended to analyse the set of applications implemented by the Câmara de Faro,
about the concept of Smart City, and offer the highest and lowest scores, respect to their knowledge, based on the
population. In addition to analysing what were considered the most important applications for respondents, but with
such low levels of use and/or utilisation in these sections, all kinds of comments are surplus. It is evident why these
applications do not have a practical sense for citizens and of course, it does not produce any change in their lives.
Instead of continuing on this path, we took another option, which was to overturn the research up, we went to
schools to consult with teachers of the Institutes, what actions were rushing to prepare their students to live in a
Smart City and, therefore, to be a Smart citizen.
We decided that, of all centres of the city, we wanted to start with the centres, which were located in areas of
social exclusion.
When we contacted them, we could see that coincidence was in all of them. They were implementing projects or
programs of Intercultural Education, so that after reading these documents and understand that stood on the idea of
Intercultural Education we have defined previously, wanted to know whether, indeed, they applied an education that
sought to improve the lives of each and every one of them; offering necessary skills to function in today's society,
specifically in the Faro Smart City.
To do this, we used an interview that coincided some questions (from 1 to 8) with which we had passed to
citizens in general, but questions related to teaching content covered (from 9 to 12) were introduced, being phrased
these questions as follows, as we can see in Table 5:
332 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333

Table 5. Questions for teachers in intercultural schools.

9. In your centre’s curriculum, the Smart City concept is introduced?
10. Have teachers received training about it?
11. Actions are performed, to develop smart citizens’ skills in your students? Could you tell us what those actions are?
12. If no measures in training are taken, do you think it would be beneficial for students, to introduce them?

The answers were given by the interviewed teachers, a total of 112, were as follows:

1. Only seven teachers have heard of Smart City.

2. Five of them know what a Smart City is, and five have taken courses on ICT.
3. Only two of them know that Faro is a Smart City.
4. None knows for how long.
5. No one responds to programs or actions that have been undertaken.
6. All interviewees believe that none of the programs have been made known to the citizens of Faro and the few who
comment something, say:
"Schools never reach any of this."
"Money coming from these projects stays at City Hall for the council and nothing comes to schools."
"There is much remaining to be done to make these kinds of things happen to Faro people"

7. A 100% of the interviewed teachers said that the programs have not led to improvements in the general
population, or at least not they are not known.
8. A 100% do not know whether these programs have had improvements in the population who has some social
problems, particularly, but now, more people have problems than ever, on the streets of Faro.
9. None of the curricula introduces the Smart City concept.
10. In none of the centres, teachers have received training about it.
11. No actions are performed, to develop smart citizen skills in students; in any case, an introduction is made to
ICTs, which is not the same.
12. Everyone believes that training activities would be performed, since it would be beneficial to educate people, to
meet the demands they will make in the city in which they live.

4. Conclusions

To finish our work, we will discuss the conclusions, for what we will resume the proposed objectives. We can
say that, as discussed in the objective 1, we can say it has been an economical project, based on obtaining grants and
inattentive to the needs of the population, in particular with the principle of serving the entire population living in
the city.
Regarding the second objective, we can say that the actions carried out, for being a smart city, have as their
primary purpose, and reduce energy consumption in the city, but without the citizenship help, so they are very
incardinated in what the city government can do for itself.
Regarding objectives 3, 4 and 5, after obtaining the results of the populations interviewed, totalising 612 people,
we can say that practically it is insignificant the fact that people are in social exclusion, people called smart citizen
or teacher in an intercultural school, as the lack of awareness about the characteristics of a smart city and the actions
taken are minimal in all cases. This situation leads them not to know what are the demands that the city has for them
are, to make use of the various actions taken and benefit from all the improvements that it entails.
In the case of intercultural schools, we have to say that none of them take into account these demands for their
students’ formation, which primarily, part of a situation of social exclusion, which, in our view, makes us
understand that it will place them, even more, if possible, in a more disadvantaged situation, after presenting new
social demands, which, by their own socioeconomic and cultural situation, it is further than the rest of the
population.
In our view, this new label of cities, as smart cities, should transform, too, the concept of Intercultural Education,
 Eva Aguaded-Ramírez / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 326 – 333 333

so that, for us, it incorporates this approach.

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