**3. Method**

The methodology of TA-based assignments in HE is designed and implemented through participatory action research to provide a basis for subsequent analysis. Additionally, researchers take on the role of teachers, continuously analyzing and reflecting on what occurs through direct contact with students.

#### **3.1 Context and participants**

According to **Table 3**, during the 2020–2021 academic year, a case study was conducted at the University of Lleida in two curriculums: a) "Geography and History," part of the Degree in Social Education; b) "Industrial Automation," part of the Degree in Industrial Engineering (Electronics and Mechanical).

In total, 160 students participated during their second academic year—78 students from the Social Education program and 82 from the Industrial Engineering program. Regarding the Social Education students, 80% identified themselves as females and 20% as males. They ranged in age from 19 to 25 years of age. Most of the participants were of European origin and, specifically, of Spanish nationality. There were 95% male and 5% female engineers in the engineering group. In terms of age, they ranged from 19 to 40. All students were of European descent, despite their different nationalities, including two students from Italy, one from Macedonia, and one from Ireland.

#### **3.2 Educational proposal**

Based on a literature review conducted between 2016 and 2018, the subject methodology was designed to follow the critical elements of [47, 48] as shown in the following characteristics:


#### **Table 3.**

*Characteristics of the subjects and participants.*

#### *A Transpraxis Approach to Higher Education: A Case Study on Methodological Orientations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109203*

#### • Co-production of knowledge through projects

Establishing groups with a maximum of six members and a 50:50 balance between the two degrees for the collaborative production of knowledge [59, 60].

#### • Significant learning

The project aims to develop proposals for social and technological solutions to transform the city's historical center into a space for inclusion within the university's municipality [61].

#### • Experiential methodology

Sensory ethnography [62] analyzes social, cultural, bodily, and sensory discourses within urban spaces [63]. This technique aims to have students interview citizens to gather information about real issues. The students' projects were aligned with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) [64].

#### • Linking practice with theory

Key aspects include technological innovations with critical social benefits and the analysis of changes in space and time, together with how the population perceives these changes [65] in the project's development.

• The role of the teacher as a "guide"

The teacher's job is to create the learning conditions so that the students' experiences are at the heart of the learning process [66].

#### • Dialogic spaces

Discussion sessions are proposed among all students on the conception of solutions to promote an inclusive city and how technological innovations contribute toward an inclusive city [50].

#### • Critical perspective

The artist and activist Daniel Andújar will participate as a catalyst to question the status quo of the students' projects, providing a more critical vision through his artistic works based on social criticism and inequality in the information society.

#### • Interactive process

It is intended that the creation of the project is not linear but that the experiences contribute to its development and continuous improvement in all its theoretical and practical aspects in a cyclical way between teachers and students.

#### **3.3 Procedure**

Students and teachers of both subjects met weekly for one hour in the classroom to discuss both subjects during the fifteen weeks of teaching in the second term of the 2020–2021 academic year. A further twelve hours of autonomous work were allocated to each group to finalize the proposal or investigate their project. The three teachers who participated in the research did so voluntarily. Social Education and Industrial Engineering students signed the authorization form in which they consented to participate in the joint project and allowed their data to be used anonymously.

**Figure 1.** *Message found and snapshots during sensory ethnography.*

### **3.4 Data collection instrument**

A data collection instrument was developed from the student projects and their related written work. In this written document, there were six parts: 1) Approach to the problem, 2) Design of the intervention, 3) Implementation of the intervention, 4) Results and reflections on the intervention, 5) Conclusions, and 6) References. In addition, as shown in **Figure 1**, these papers included the intervention proposal, describing how the transdisciplinary projects had been developed through sensory ethnography [67].

As discussed in the section on the characteristics of the subjects, sensory ethnography allowed the exploration of urban environments. As a result, it was possible to identify which issues could be addressed from a social and technical standpoint. The research included 27 projects in total (see **Table 4**). The connection between projects and SDGs is based on two perspectives: SDGs created by citizens who will benefit from a project and SDGs incorporated into the project during its development.


#### **Table 4.**

*Characteristics of the subjects and participants.*

*A Transpraxis Approach to Higher Education: A Case Study on Methodological Orientations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109203*

### **3.5 Data collection instrument**

Based on the steps shown in **Figure 2**, we used content analysis for analyzing student work.

Based on the written projects generated by the students, the data analysis provides a wealth of qualitative - narrative - information showing both the positive and negative aspects of their experiences. According to [50, 67, 68] study of transdisciplinarity and transpraxis, we could extract dimensions consistent with lived experiences and improve the categorization of the data. [69] have identified categories in the results through a reflective critique of the validity of the instruments. Below is a **Table 5** that illustrates the categorization system used.

**Figure 2.** *Content analysis process.*


Note*. Own elaboration based on [50].*

#### **Table 5.**

*Characteristics of the subjects and participants.*
