This special issue of the Revista Psicologia da Educação brings a special contribution to the area, namely, the discussion on method. In general, in scientific publications, method is a strictly necessary but succinct topic; articles dealing specifically with methodological issues are rarer (^{Antunes, 2005}).

Based on this premise, it is considered that ^{Vygotsky (2021}, p. 162), based on the foundations of historical-dialectical materialism, cites Marx, stating that “[...] all science would be superfluous if the essence of things and their phenomenal forms coincided directly”. Such precepts express his theoretical-methodological concern to overcome the traditional views of Psychology, at the time, focused exclusively on the immediacy of psychological phenomena taken in a static and isolated way, with the aim of unveiling constitutive elements of the essence of the investigated object.

In this sense, we share Vygotsky's assumptions about the processes and trends in the development of theoretical knowledge in its complexity:

[...] the scientific study is at the same time both the study of the fact and the cognition procedure of that fact. In other words, it is the methodological work on science itself, as it advances or becomes aware of its conclusions. The choice of word already implies a methodological process (^{Vygotsky, 1927/2004}, p. 316).

Faced with these considerations, one cannot lose sight of the fact that the production of scientific knowledge and the culminating assumptions of this process refute any alleged “neutrality” defended by (neo)positivist assumptions. In this dynamic, it is emphasized that:

[...] the antagonism between simple spontaneity and the conscious state constitutes a central theme in the workers' class struggle. However, this antagonism, from a methodological perspective, is never simply psychological, but always has a social content: the question regarding which moments of capitalist exploitation essentially determine the behavior of workers who rebel against it (^{Lukács, 2013}, p. 625).

In view of this, an ethical-political commitment is imposed with the initial and continuing training of psychologists and educators based on the indissoluble relationship between theory and practice, based on engagement with the societal project guided by human-generic values that allow directing professional practice so that it does not degrade into psychologism, which historically contributes to movements that produce, legitimize and justify differences socially imposed by dominant interests (Santos, 2021).

For this reason, the editors of this journal, considering the carrying out of an academic activity involving three universities: Université de Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, and two Brazilian universities, the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC- SP), which had as its central issue the debate on collaborative methodological modalities in critical-educational research, reflected on the relevance of publishing this production and decided to publish this special issue. These perspectives have been recurrent in the most recent publications and have significant scientific and, above all, social relevance, as they are collectively constructed with the participants of the schools, the locus of investigations, committing themselves to producing knowledge and training in an inseparable way educators, generating transformations in the school routine.

The construction process of this issue, due to its specificity, relied on the precious collaboration of the three professors who organized the inter-university and international activity, Professors Laure Kloetzer, Sueli Salles Fidalgo and Wanda Maria Junqueira de Aguiar, respectively from Université de Neuchâtel, UNIFESP and PUC-SP. The organization of this publication was made possible by the exhaustive and exquisite work of Prof. Dr. Luciana de Oliveira Rocha Magalhães, from the University of Taubaté, who consolidated the texts and established contacts with all the authors for the necessary improvements of the articles, based on the opinions prepared by our collaborators . In this issue, we count on the equally valuable contribution of Prof. Dr. Ruzia Chaouchar dos Santos, who took over this issue of the Journal as guest editor. Without the collaboration of these researchers, it would not have been possible to carry out the edition of this publication, due to its particular nature. The contribution of the referees, from the Postgraduate Studies Program in Education: Psychology of Education, was important for the works presented to be rigorously evaluated.

It should be noted that this issue of Revista Psicologia da Educação, as well as the others that have been published, would not have been possible without the effective funding of PUC-SP, through its Research Incentive Program - PIPEq - from the University’s Research Office.

We hope that this issue promotes a significant contribution to researchers in the area with the rich debate on the foundations of scientific research, the method and the ethical-political dimension of the production of scientific knowledge in historically determined conditions, which engender the relationships between Psychology and Education. This was the task we set ourselves when we took the editorial decision to publish this special issue composed of a set of works, which under different approaches, encompass thought-provoking reflections with the aim of contributing to the deepening of the discussion of method, the touchstone of scientific investigation.