Character, Education and Citizenship Research Group (GIECC)

Aurora Bernal (abernal@unav.es). PhD in Education Sciences, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the School of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra. She works as a Professor of Theory and History of Education. She has been a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Católica de Occidente (El Salvador) and Universidad de La Sabana (Colombia); Visiting Scholar Research in the Philosophy of Education Research Center at Harvard University and researcher and director of the Cooperative Education Programme at the Instituto Tecnológico Condoray (Peru). She has sat on the Editorial Board of the ‘Estudios sobre Educación’ journal since June 2014, director of the Editorial Board for the Education Sciences Collection by the EUNSA publishing company.

Juan Luis Fuentes (juanluis.fuentes@edu.ucm.es ). Doctor with a European specialization in Pedagogy and Award for Excellence at PhD level from the Complutense University, Award for Excellence at Degree level and National Award. Professor in the Department of Educational studies at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has taken research visits to Roehampton University (United Kingdom), Freie Universität (Germany) and the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), among others. He received the “Antonio Millán-Puelles Award” for Educational Research and the “Young Researcher Award” at the National Pedagogy Congress. His lines of research revolve around the theory and philosophy of education, character education and use of ICTs in the educational field.  

Sara Ibarrola-García (sigarcia@unav.es) has a PhD in Psychopedagogy. She is currently the Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Navarra for Education Undergraduate Degrees. Her research has mainly focused on education for school cohabitation and mediation, an area on which she has based several publications. She has been the Visiting Academic at the Institute of Education (IOE) within the University of London.

Sonia Rivas (srivas@unav.es). Accredited Associate Professor. Vice Dean for Students at the School of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra. Her research has focussed, among other topics, on programme quality in pre-schools, the role of the family in education and family participation in the school. She has participated in R+D+i projects. She is currently working on a project entitled “How teachers learn in the digital era: impact of learning ecologies on teaching quality.”

Carolina Ugarte (cugarte@unav.es). Doctor of Psychopedagogy and associate professor at the School of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra. She has participated in research on the civic and social character of university students, teacher training and participative culture of the school, as well as training on professional skills. She is the director of the teaching innovation project at the University of Navarra entitled “Professional skills training for students on Education Degrees.” 

Apolinar Varela (agrana@unav.es). He graduated in Sports Sciences, with a Master’s degree in Educational Innovation, Orientation and Assessment and a PhD in Education from the University of A Coruña with an ethnographic thesis on popular games in a rural community in Galicia. Between 2013 and 2014, he worked on the University of A Coruña research project “Researching in Education for Development: a case study on implementing the “O Tesouro de Acahualinca project", financed by the Xunta de Galicia. In addition, he works with the Asociación Galega do Xogo Popular e Tradicional.

Fátima Ruiz (fruiz.2@alumni.unav.es). Trainee researcher at the School of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra, working on a PhD in Personality Psychology. She graduated in Pedagogy from the University of Navarra with the Award for Excellence for her dissertation and took a master’s degree in Research in Social Sciences at the same University.

Ana Zúñiga (azlacruz@unav.es).  Assistant Professor. She has a degree in Spanish Philology and Journalism and a PhD in Philology. She has worked as an editor at the Diario de Navarra newspaper and has given courses preparing high school students for university entrance exams on Text Analysis, Spanish Language and Literature and Universal Literature. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Navarra. Her research mainly focuses on oral and written communication.