SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PEDAGOGICAL PURPOSES IN DIVERSIFIED SECONDARY EDUCATION: AN ADVANCE FROM PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH

Abstract

This article constitutes a research advance derived from an ongoing graduate project at the Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador (UPEL), aimed at analyzing the pedagogical potential of social media in the context of Venezuelan diversified secondary education. The proposal rests on the recognition that these platforms, widely used by adolescents for recreational purposes, can be repurposed as formative tools oriented toward strengthening learning processes, student participation, meaningful digital communication, and comprehensive citizenship education. The study adopts a qualitative methodological approach and anchors its inquiry in participatory action research (PAR), consistent with the intention of co-constructing a contextualized pedagogical proposal with the active participation of teachers and students. In this initial phase, the research focuses on problem delimitation, theoretical framework construction, and methodological design planning. The reviewed theoretical framework, articulated through connectivism, critical pedagogy, and digital communication studies, confirms that social media platforms, when mediated with clear pedagogical criteria, can transform passive consumption dynamics into active knowledge production practices with genuine formative value. It is concluded that the educational use of social media represents a pedagogically viable path to bridge the gap between school institutions and youth communicative realities, provided it is accompanied by grounded teacher mediation, explicit digital literacy criteria, and contextually relevant intervention designs that account for the specific socioeconomic and technological conditions of Venezuelan secondary education.