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This position paper offers a pedagogical frame to empower professional work in residential child care. Jobs in this demanding field are characterized by daily relationships with children of different ages, needs, and cultural backgrounds. There is a need for effective communication and interaction with them, their families, co-workers, other professionals, and care agencies, as well as with the larger community. This complexity brings uncertainty and the necessity of thinking and acting in a sensitive way in order to open possibilities for systemic transformation at the micro, meso, and macro levels. In this framework, we focus on reflexivity as a meta-competence — a set of specific postures, competences, and attitudes that characterize expert professional action. A thorough literature review on reflexivity in social work and child protection is aimed at clarifying the meanings, uses, and features of this concept. We claim that systemic reflexivity can be used as a framework, a methodology, and a set of tools to empower professional work by enhancing emotional, cognitive, and epistemic self-awareness, systemic wisdom, abduction, and active listening. To help workers and teams develop these five competences, a self-directed learning module is currently being designed, based on systemic and narrative perspectives, and transformative learning theory.

This article reflects upon some paradoxes concerning the reality of Italian contemporary school, after more than ten years from the decree enforcing the scholastic autonomy. Starting from the contribution by a teacher selected for his ability to give evidence of the sense of deep unease experienced by the teachers working in the school system, my text highlights the gaps emerging from the law regulations directed to the emphasis of the organizational transformation of the school and the real school, which is asking to review its global educational mandate and revamp the symbolic value of its local culture.

L’alto grado di interazione uomo-tecnica nella contemporaneità sfida una definizione univoca di corporeità e delinea corpi in trasformazione. La prospettiva postumanista appare particolarmente significativa sia per leggere i processi di mutamento che investono i soggetti nell’attuale orizzonte di vita, sia per mettere in discussione la dicotomia naturale-artificiale in favore di una visione relazionale, in cui la corporeità è in divenire e aperta all’ibridazione. Il paper, a partire da questo sfondo teorico, intende presentare una ricerca sul rapporto uomo-tecnica nell’autogestione del diabete per riflettere sulle implicazioni pedagogiche del corpo come ibrido bio-tecnologico. L’intensa interazione bio-tecnologica che caratterizza l’individuo diabetico, in quest’ottica, rappresenta un caso emblematico in cui il corpo diventa un crocevia di relazioni (in)stabili con l’altro da sé, producendo una soggettività differente che incarna potenzialità e contraddizioni del tempo presente. The high degree of human-technical interaction in the contemporary world challenges an univocal definition of corporeity and configures bodies in transformation. The posthumanist perspective appears particularly significant both to read the processes of change that affect subjects in the current horizon of life, and to question the natural-artificial dichotomy in favor of a relational vision in which corporeity is becoming and is open to hybridization. From this theoretical background, the paper aims to present a research on the human-technical relationship in the diabetes self-management so to reflect on the pedagogical implications of the body as a bio-technological hybrid. The intense bio-technological interaction characterizing the diabetic subject, from this view, represents an emblematic case in which the body becomes a crossroads of (in)stable relations with the otherness, producing a different subjectivity embodying potentialities and contradictions of current times.

This paper explores the space of conviviality between newcomers and host communities exemplifying the author’s way as a researcher to be at the same time an activist in Italy. The author investigates her position as an adult educator and researcher to focus on how the informal process of research on adult education has a ‘transformative’ effect at the meso (social) level dimension of interaction. Group experience is life experience and food is one of the most powerful connective tools humans have: it stimulates all of the senses, evokes deep memories and connects one with the wider system of interaction and complexity. In this meso-level dimension newcomers and native citizens interconnected their senses through sharing food. The paper includes different languages and styles: autoethnographic field notes of informal conversations between migrants and Italians involved in the research, transcriptions of dialogues and correspondence with research participants and photos taken during the field of research. All texts and images are analyzed to imagine new forms of embodied research in adult education., Dyskursy Młodych Andragogów/Adult Education Discourses, No. 22 (2021): DYSKURSY MŁODYCH ANDRAGOGÓW/ADULT EDUCATION DISCOURSES

In this paper we analyze the degree of participation, epistemic management, and authority performance during Parent-Teacher Conferences with non-native parents. Studies focusing on ethnic minority communities illustrate the dominance of the teacher’s epistemic authority (see Lareau and Weininger, 2003; Garcia-Sanchez and Orellana, 2007). Describing differences in mastering both the expert and the institutional knowledge, Howard and Lipinoga (2010) illustrate how immigrated parents remain relatively silent during the report phase of the encounter. This paper reports data from eight parent-teacher conferences with non-native parents. We show how parents’ practices to accomplish and receive assessment confirm in part what has already been identified by the literature, but also adds new communicative “nuances”. We contend that also non-native parents could be able to challenge the teachers’ authority by questioning them and making the information from their territory of knowledge (i.e. the “child-at-home”) relevant. We advance that a detailed analysis of how the management of knowledge and the negotiation of epistemic authority occur in parent-teacher conferences, will also help in critically rethinking some “pedagogical certainties” concerning school-family communication and their possible outcomes.

Coding and robotics education has drawn a lot of interest in recent years to get children ready for the future labour market and advance their digital skills. This paper focuses on coding and robotics workshops in non-formal educational settings in Belgium, Denmark, and Italy. Building on data from a comparative/cross-national study, we will present findings from 16 observations of such workshops followed by 11 interviews with the organisers and moderators with the purpose of investigating their pedagogical practices, learning and inclusion opportunities. Findings of this study suggest that while digital skills workshops in non-formal learning contexts are designed and implemented with the goal of encouraging children's collaboration and active participation, the structure of the learning activities, the organization of the learning environment, and the choices made by children themselves may promote individualistic practices. Furthermore, despite attempts to encourage diversity and inclusion, such as choosing a "free" and "open-door" approach, these workshops may fail to attract participants from diverse backgrounds. We argue that an active dialogue between organisers and moderators, researchers, parents, and, of course, children from various backgrounds is required to promote child-centered approaches that move beyond individualistic accounts of learning and toward the creation of more collaborative and inclusive digital skill activities through a systemic and holistic approach.

Recent crises in Europe and beyond have renewed a longstanding debate on the status and treatment of refugees. Hannah Arendt famously questioned the limits of universalistic human rights discourse based on the widespread phenomena of statelessness and displacement that emerged during and after World War II. In this paper, we analyze recent patterns of inclusion and exclusion of refugees in Italy through the lens of Arendtian narrative and theorizing. We consider three cases of interaction between families, schools, and other public institutions in light of the shifting normative framework before and during the war in Ukraine. Two major insights emerge from this analysis. From a pedagogical point of view, the most promising educational practices with refugees are those centered on enabling their agency and corresponding experiences of “natality”. From an ethical-political perspective, these practices highlight a latent tension between the universalistic scope of human rights enshrined in the human rights declarations and their structural dependence on the particular norms and procedures enacted by nation states. The understanding and teaching of human rights within our political communities is inseparable from the practices that engage with refugees. In this sense, our practices of inclusion and exclusion affect the understanding of national borders as a barrier or threshold with other political communities, but also the interpretation of our own ethical-political principles.

This paper offers a frame to reflect on the role of aesthetics in the development of a critical pedagogy for social justice in adult education. Arts-based research and practice have the power to illuminate the participants’ views, ideas, and feelings, as well as the systems of values that are embedded in their contexts. Critical thinking and awareness are the result of relational and political processes, triggered by experience and going beyond subjectivity. The authors aim at defining a pedagogical practical theory that celebrates complexity, opens possibilities, develops the new, and triggers deliberate action, rather than fostering specific behaviours or learning. The paper itself is a piece of that pedagogy, developed through a cooperative method of writing-as-inquiry (duoethnography), here triggered by a photographic exhibition and resulting in the dialogic exploration of feminism in the authors’ lives. In this example, it is shown how individual voices can be juxtaposed to develop an open, transforming theory of feminism, identity, and education.

The paper aims to describe the first findings of my actual research directed to deepen the different characteristics of the term “educational poverty”, drawing a pedagogical perspective on it. Presentation gives importance to the dimensions of inquiry that explicit the characteristics of a collaborative ‘educational community’, where each member can have a strong role in activating educational opportunities for young generations. At first the dissertation gives evidence to the main concepts to describe the phenomenon, especially reconstructing strategies and activities that make possible, in Italy and Europe, to contrast ‘educational poverty’ building a common educative responsibility between adult educators (parents, teachers and social workers) and offering qualitative educational experiences. This theoretical framework includes an exploration of different dimensions of the topic, a broader definition of poverty in terms of possibilities and functioning and the pedagogical proposals, that, traditionally, have found solutions ‘from the bottom’ for poverty and social fragmentations. These concepts are reference points to generate an operative definition of ‘educational poverty’ and its multi-dimensional shape. The paper considers this operationalization and the first findings of an ‘holistic case study’ based on the educative project “Sulla buona strada” and its activities in a disadvantaged area of Genoa city (Italy). This is my actual field of study. The participants are parents, social workers, policy makers, teachers and school managers. Using in depth interviews and focus-group, the research wants to developed a situated and context-sensitive description of the term ‘educational poverty’ and the possible role of participants in contrasting it. Reinforcing the importance to really understand a topic, starting from the concrete experience of people involved into the research, the paper tries to open some questions as: what are the policies that a territorial community address to young generations? What are the characteristics of schools? Are there free time and cultural activities to reinforce the impact of schools and to support parents in their role? Is it possible to improve them, activating the whole ‘educational community’ and realize a collaboration between adults (parents, teachers, policymakers...)? Can they collaborate and open perspectives to children who come from disadvantage backgrounds? The paper aims to show how it is possible to engage the whole ‘educational community’ to organize strategies and activities to realize ‘a high educational impact territory’ and give opportunities to children and youngsters to really develop their personhood, despite difficult starting points.

This paper presents my doctoral research about the carrying out of a music enactive listening laboratory as training for trainers. It is a work in progress. First, I present the research’s theoretical frame: an embodied and enactive approach to music and to education. The core concepts are those of ‘musical gesture’ and ‘pedagogical gesture’, whose critical analysis is relied on literature review. Second, the paper accounts for the data collection, data analysis and findings of two enactive (through corporeal movement) music listening laboratories. They were carried out respectively in September of 2018 and in February of 2019 and involved two voluntary small groups of young, musically untrained, educators. I expect that the enactive music listening laboratory, which is inspired to Dalcrozian principles, can be a room for a co-constructive pedagogical knowledge based on an experiential and reflexivity process. The participants can get to an idea and practice of pedagogical action based on cross-modal elements of music (like intensity, form, tempo, rhythm). In this respect, my research is explorative and trans-disciplinary (between ‘Music Education’ and ‘Adult Education’). The research’s philosophical frame is phenomenological. This research uses the case study methodology. The data are collected through both ethnographic tools (interviews, focus groups) and the integral video recording. The final findings of the research will be obtained through the Grounded Theory method of data analysis.

– This paper aims to reflect on a series of issues related to the social and material modalities through which teachers try to manage the delicate theme of the involvement of the pupils’ parents in school life. The study will refer to a specific action research conducted in a preschool in Bergamo. First of all, the context and the theoretical-methodological set-up of the project will be presented; subsequently, the paper will focus on the critical issues that emerged and the strategies that have been hypothesized in order to be able to manage the relation with the families with greater awareness. In particular, I will emphasize the importance of constructing a research-training setting aimed at producing a shared reflection, which allows the teaching staff to rethink, analyse, deconstruct and modify their experience, redesigning the practices through which they interact with families. Riassunto – Lo scritto intende riflettere su alcune problematiche che sorgono in relazione alle modalità sociali e materiali attraverso cui gli insegnanti provano a gestire il delicato tema della partecipazione dei familiari degli alunni alla vita scolastica. In esso si farà riferimento a uno specifico percorso di ricerca-formazione condotto in una scuola dell’infanzia di Bergamo. Si presenteranno innanzitutto il contesto del progetto e l’assetto teorico-metodologico che lo ha caratterizzato, per poi approfondire le criticità emerse e le strategie che sono state ipotizzate per riuscire a governare con consapevolezza il rapporto con le famiglie. In particolare, si sottolineerà l’importanza di costruire un setting di ricerca-formazione orientato a produrre una riflessione condivisa che permetta al corpo docente di ripensare la propria esperienza, analizzarla, decostruirla, modificarla, riprogettando le pratiche attraverso cui si relaziona con le famiglie. Keywords – preschool, family, parent involvement, reflection, materiality Parole chiave – scuola dell’infanzia, famiglia, partecipazione genitoriale, riflessione, materialità, Annali online della Didattica e della Formazione Docente, Vol 10, N° 15-16 (2018): La relazione tra Scuola e Famiglia nel segno del superiore interesse del minore. La responsabilità genitoriale tra diritti e doveri, sostegno e formazione alla genitorialità, interazioni con le istituzioni educative

In this paper, we share the first results of a triadic ethnographic conversation (Sawyer, Norris, 2013) using different kinds of writing, pictures and “evocative objects” (Bollas, 2009) as a way of knowing (Heron, 1996). Our collaboration, not least in an international research workshop about gender in art and adult education, and involving other voices in order to enrich or challenge our narratives, will be a starting point for critical reflection. Our research method incorporates theories of dialogue, life history, aesthetic representation, and transformation.Our aim, then, is to explore some dilemmas brought in our lives by a feminist self-positioning: about learning, about our theory and practice of research, about the imagination and representation of gender, especially in art and adult education, about the embodiment of identity, knowing, and social justice

The paper elaborates a practical theory bridging educational studies with social sciences, humanities, and arts, and reinterpreting the role of feminist pedagogies in adult education as democratic transformative practices. Feminist pedagogies offer several principles for educational settings: reciprocity, shared responsibility, community building, individual voice, respect for diversity, and challenging fixed ways of doing or thinking, such as clichés, normalization, etc. We are all exposed to stereotypes and closed narratives; we can learn from each other how to build freedom from anti-ecological discourses, interrogating our own interdependence in learning and unlearning. This is not only a ‘women affair’: it regards all citizens and involves the individual, relational and social levels of systemic life. The present proposal discusses some research experiences using embodied narrative methods to illuminate the experience of diverse actors and sustain transformative relationships, beyond traditional boundaries in cultural institutions. Participation entails coexistence with ‘otherness’ and critical reflexivity about its construction. The study involves unexpected audiences in contemporary art museums: adults who may feel excluded from art and culture, namely for the persistence of unequal gender representations and discourses. Museums are public spaces that shape their audiences’ experiences related to gender, class, etc. Are these intersectional identities represented in equitable ways? How can new ecologies for life and learning be established? In these participatory research projects, the museums can be partners in constructing alternative spaces of encounter for feminist practices, connecting social sciences, humanities, and art as a performative way of building knowledge and embodied awareness of the affordances of spaces.

Through a re-analysis of survey data collected with a sample of 9,731 youth aged 11–17 from 10 European countries, the article explores how some of the most popular online activities for children and young people (i.e., informational, social, and entertainment activities) relate to different types of perceived digital skills, as well as individual and social characteristics (such as age, gender, emotional problems, sensation seeking, parental mediation, and family environment). Furthermore, this paper looks at the moderating role of the family environment between enabling parental mediation and online activities. Using multi-group structural equation modeling we found that emotional problems, perceived informational and social digital skills, and enabling parental mediation were associated with informational online activities; sensation seeking, perceived informational digital skills, and enabling and restrictive parental mediation were associated with social online activities; and restrictive parental mediation was associated with entertainment online activities. Implications of these findings for educators, policy-makers, and parents are outlined, as well as limitations and future directions.

This paper describes the journey of a group of six international arts-based researchers who convened in 2019 at the ECQI for a Gamechanger event. The goal was to create a transdisciplinary and transglobal group advocating for the visibility, accessibility, and valuation of Arts-Based Research (ABR). The mission was driven by the desire to contribute to the understanding of underlying beyond-words human intersubjective phenomena and resulting collective behaviors that influence our world but elude more traditional research methods. Conceptualized within an historical and contemporary socio-political context of turbulence, oppression, and inequity, the aspiration was that ABR might transcend the usual rhetoric exposing the trauma and toxicity while enhancing empathic, compassionate, and meaningful social discourse essential to creative reformative social justice. Thus, the Arts-Based Research (ABR) Global Consortium was formed. With the formation of our consortium and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to begin our first research project “Sustaining Life on Earth: Arts-Based Responses to the Lived Experience of COVID-19”, which was initiated in 2020 and completed in 2022. Nineteen individuals volunteered to participate as co-researchers, alongside the six member core team, submitting their arts-based and narrative responses to the project. The core team guiding the project collected and organized the submissions while simultaneously entering into an immersive, iterative, dynamic arts-based and dialogic process with the data and each other. In these immersive processes, we considered a priori themes of emotional impact, social framing, and aesthetic power of the art and narrative data as well as opening to emergent themes. Analysis included narrative and sensorial-based coding, responsive art making, collaborative and individual multi-genre memos, and reflections on all submissions. The final result of the project is an artsbased and performative piece using video and interactive gallery venues. The arts-based results of this project captured the sensory, embodied, and emotional experiences of the evolving phases of the pandemic which resonated with the co-researchers and multiple audiences. These phases include initial anxiety and panic; reflection and creativity; and resilience. The results of the project were presented in arts-based form at the ECQI in 2022. In this presentation, we invited attendees on our journey to walk with us through the innovative conceptualization, construction, methodological practices, collaborative and individual reflections, analysis, and final synthesis processes of this project.

The paper presents a collective project doing a “creative literature review” about relationships, power, and care in feminist pedagogies, conducted with a feminist approach based on duoethnography (Sawyer & Norris, 2012) and visual ethnography (Pink, 2013). Feminist pedagogies were formalized to offer several principles for educational (formal and informal) settings: reciprocity, shared responsibility, community building, individual voice, respect for diversity, and challenging fixed ways of doing or thinking (Webb, Allen & Walker, 2002), but these theoretical principles can be realized only through concrete and vital relationships involving different subjects in material and symbolic spaces. In fact, in feminist practice and research, relationships and relationality are central to knowledge production; this may entail working together in groups of peers, or in pairs, starting from one’s own experience and using cooperative and creative methods to investigate the social reality as well as to flourish as an adult subject. These relationships are complex, never given for granted, always presenting asymmetries - i.e., themes of power and care - due to gender, age, class, social roles, profession, and previous learning. In our creative literature review, we interrogate the literature to illuminate the interplay of these dimensions in the learning process, using an ecosystemic framework to define a feminist pedagogy of care and power as a reciprocal, circular process, based on difference (Bateson, 1979). More specifically, we will focus the feminist notion of “entrustment”, or affidamento (Cavarero, 2000), a relationship based on the embodied encounter and dialogue of people of difference. Our methodology is duoethnographic, hence based on our different interpretations, on writing as a collective form of research, and on using photographs from feminist archives that are evocative for us, and iconic in showing the role of materiality and bodily communication when adults learn from each other.

Il contributo illustra un percorso di ricerca-formazione con insegnanti delle scuole dell’infanzia, primarie e secondarie del comune di Cinisello Balsamo (MI), finalizzato a individuare le condizioni che sostengono il ruolo degli insegnanti in un contesto scolastico segnato da un disagio diffuso avvertito come urgente. Nel frame dell’epistemologia naturalistica, la ricerca si è basata sull’approccio di Clinica della Formazione (Massa, 1992), in linea con l’Action Research e con la Participatory Action Research. Sono stati raccolti i dati tramite audioregistrazione degli incontri; documentazione “in diretta” dei lavori di gruppo e delle scritture prodotte dai partecipanti. L’approccio clinico ha fatto emergere una pratica didattico-educativa esperta, capace di creare situazioni di apprendimento autentico e di fronteggiare situazioni critiche. I partecipanti hanno tuttavia rilevato la mancanza diffusa di legittimazione di tali “modalità di fare scuola”, che non reggono il confronto con i modelli didattici tradizionali. Il contributo mette in luce le scelte metodologiche ed evidenzia potenzialità, limiti e criticità dell’esperienza di ricerca. This paper describes a research-training course with teachers of infant, primary and secondary schools in Cinisello Balsamo (MI). Its aim was to identify the conditions supporting the teacher’s role in an educational context characterized by a common and urgent discomfort. Within a frame of naturalistic epistemology, this study was based on a clinical approach to research (Massa 1992), in line with Action Research and Participatory Action Research. Data consisted of audio-registration of teachers’ encounters, “live” documentation of groups’ work, and participants’ reflective writings. Our clinical approach to research allowed the emersion of teachers’ expert educational practice, which was characterized by setting up authentic learning experiences and ability in coping with critical circumstances. Nevertheless, participants highlighted that their approach to “doing school” has low legitimation, and can’t be compared to traditional didactic models. This paper focuses on methodological choices of our research experience and highlights their potentiality, limits and weaknesses.

As part of university training for pre and primary school teachers, the teaching practice internship in schools and the teaching project carried out on which the thesis is based is a fundamental process in constructing the future profession. This experience gives future teachers the opportunity to practice formulating research questions, plan and implement a teaching process and engage in critical reflection regarding the specific object of study. This paper is part of a study, being carried out in the Education Faculty of a University in the North of Italy, which involves two courses and considers the construction of the peer work group, the use of planning tools and individual and group documentation- also in virtual platforms- as well as discussion about the research objects to be crucial training strategies. The paper illustrates the results of an exploratory study aimed at investigating innovative aspects, strong and critical points with the students involved in the shared process based on their future experience as teachers.

L’articolo tenta di porre con sguardo interrogativo alcune questioni educative che oggi, di fronte a fenomeni e cambiamenti di portata mondiale (le migrazioni, le disuguaglianze nelle risorse, le mutazioni climatiche) segnalano la crisi del modello di sviluppo occidentale e il pericolo rispetto alla stessa sopravvivenza sia umana, sia ecologica. I modelli e le categorie pedagogiche consolidate nel mondo occidentale, tra cui l’idea di “bambino attivo” e adulto empatico, si rivelano inefficaci e parziali di fronte a sfide che impongono nuove visioni educative e un ruolo più attivo, trasformativo e responsabile da parte degli adulti. Per approfondire questi temi si sono coinvolti con un questionario più di cento futuri educatori e insegnanti, indagando le loro idee di “bambino migrante” e le necessità connesse all’interno delle classi. The paper directs an inquiring gaze at contemporary educational issues that reflect the ongoing crisis in the Western model of development and the threat to human and ecological survival posed by current world-scale phenomena and changes (such as migration, resource inequalities, and climate change). Pedagogical models and categories that are well-established in the Western world, including the notion of “active child” and empathic adult, are proving inadequate and incomplete in the face of challenges that demand fresh educational perspectives and a more active, transformative, and responsible approach on the part of adults. These themes were explored by inviting over 100 student teachers and educators to complete a questionnaire on their views about “migrant children” and related needs in the classroom.

Arts-based approaches and languages are valuable resources for the field of education, with the potential to enhance both educational work (Zuccoli, 2020) and educational research (Biffi, Zuccoli, 2019). In educational research specifically, Arts-Based Research Methods (ABR) (Baron, Eisner, 2012; Cole, Knowles, 2008) – understood here as a range of approaches that recognize the artistic process itself as a mode of inquiry – may usefully be adopted alongside or in combination with other research methodologies. However, implementing such approaches requires specific competence in both art-based languages and research methods. In this paper, we present a project entitled the Arts-based Research-Global Classroom, a training course designed to provide PhD students and early career researchers with the knowledge and skills they need to deploy ABR methods in educational settings. The course is jointly delivered by the University of Milan-Bicocca and Drexel University, Florida. The concept is that of a learning laboratory, where students are given the opportunity to critically and reflexively discuss and evaluate perspectives, philosophical positions, and research questions that can lead to the design of collaborative research projects using art-based research methods. The course takes place over eight monthly sessions, each lasting around three hours. Part of the sessions takes the form of workshops based on artistic practices such as collage, assemblage, dance, drawing, and small group work.

La relazione con le famiglie costituisce un tema fondativo nei servizi educativi 0-6. Le istanze partecipative e inclusive che, da sempre, contraddistinguono in Italia i servizi per l’infanzia, sono state messe fortemente in discussione durante la pandemia da Covid-19 perché l’emergenza sanitaria, sociale, politica ed economica ha modi!cato profondamente tempi, spazi e modi della comunicazione e delle relazioni, dentro e fuori i servizi e le scuole per l’infanzia. Il presente contributo analizza il tema della relazione tra servizi e famiglie restituendo e discutendo i dati emergenti da una ricerca esplorativa svolta in merito all’esperienza di educazione a distanza durante la fase di lockdown in Italia nell’ambito dei servizi per l’infanzia dalla nascita ai sei anni. Attraverso un questionario sono state raccolte le opinioni di un campione di educatori, insegnanti e coordinatori in merito alle pratiche adottate relativamente ai legami educativi a distanza (LEAD) e, tra le varie dimensioni esplorate, vengono qui problematizzati i modi e le forme attraverso cui la partecipazione delle famiglie si è trasformata nella distanza. The relationship with families is a crucial topic in educational services for children aged 0-6 years. The participatory and inclusive approach that has traditionally characterized Italian early childhood education and care has come under serious pressure during the Covid-19 pandemic: the ongoing health, social, political, and economic emergency has radically modi!ed timeframes, spaces, an modes of communicating and relating, both in early years/nursery school settings and more generally. This paper examines the relationship between early childhood education services and families, by reporting and analyzing data from an exploratory study on distance education in services for children aged 0-6 years, during the spring 2020 lockdown in Italy. Speci!cally, a questionnaire was used to collect the views of a sample of educators, teachers, and coordinators concerning the practices that had been implemented in support of the remote educational relationship (in Italian, “Legami Educativi A Distanza –LEAD” programme). Among the various themes investigated, the focus here is on problematizing the ways in which families’ participation changed during the distance education phase.

This paper studies Parenting WhatsApp Groups (PWGs) as interactional loci parents can join to be involved in their children’s academic life, building on the quantitative and qualitative results of an online survey administered to a sample of 302 Italian parents recruited through convenience sampling. First, PWGs are positioned within the broader literature on offline/online parent involvement, parents’ peer interaction via social media, and technological peculiarities of WhatsApp. Second, quantitative results from a binary logistic regression are reported to explore possible predictors of PWG’s membership among our sample, as well as quantitative and qualitative findings investigating parents’ perceptions/opinions of and experience with PWGs. Finally, limitations, future directions, and implications of this study are discussed.

This paper joins together different educational research approaches, which highlight the relevance of educational research as a stimulus to bottom-up transformative processes, and as a tool to make them valuable at the local (territorial) and global (national, European) level. Each approach is dedicated to a single region or administrative district of Italy, within which their cases unfold (namely: Apulia, Lombardy, and Trento). Moreover, as made apparent by the joint diagram, they all share assumptions with regards to the ontology of the macrolevel, which constitute the bases for their comparability. The final section subsumes individual results by projecting them against a theo-retical background that stresses on the role of bottom-up processes as fos-terers of transformative resilience; the latter allows for adaptation without depletion of contextual elements, nor the avoidance of selective pressures. As such, educational research qualifies as one of the cornerstones of sus-tainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the connections between creativity and outdoor education in primary schools by reviewing the studies published over the past ten years in order to build a framework for this emerging field of research. We reported a scoping review of 55 pieces of educational research and professional literature relating to creativity, outdoor education and primary school (R1 group), outdoor education and primary school (R1a), and creativity and primary school (R1b). The search highlighted the importance of the following factors in supporting possible links amongst the reviewed topics: similarities in contextual features, use of materials, need for perseverance, the role of explorative approach, the importance of play and “slow time”, the role of adults, and the value of the theory of affordances. In particular, the latter had potential to build a theoretical framework within both of the topics. Potential implications and future directions are also proposed.

Recent decades have seen growing recognition of the role of artistic languages in educational and research settings. What was once an exclusive focus on the expressive production of children has now expanded to include far greater use of artistic languages in the domain of education, including with younger and older adults. Artistic production itself has become a key tool for interpreting society, and has thus been accepted into mainstream research as a language that it is no longer possible to do without. Proponents of arts-based research (ABR) and art-informed research are currently calling for a focus on «systematic use of the artistic process [...] as a primary way of understanding and examining experience» (McNiff, 2008, 29). These methods are alternative means of exploring aspects of reality that are inaccessible to traditional forms of knowledge and more conventional methods of inquiry. In a contemporary era that is different to the past and characterized by greater uncertainty, ABR offers a strategy based on a form of observation that is complex and wide-ranging, and thus more appropriate than exclusively linear and causal approaches. This paper presents a post-graduate course in ABR that takes the form of a virtual international classroom entitled Global Classroom in Arts-Based Research. This programme involves – in addition to the Human Sciences and Education Department at Milano-Bicocca University – Florida State University, Drexel University, University of Leuven, FLAMES, and Northern Illinois University. It is offered to PhD students in education, with a view to familiarizing them with the potential of artistic languages, getting them to constantly compare notes concerning their practices and documentation, and helping them to design research actions that include the use of these languages.

This paper reports on findings from a survey administered to a sample of 290 parents of children aged 0-12 living in the United States, focusing on parents��� intra- and extra-systemic governance strategies adopted to steward their children���s privacy online when adults post about them on social media, here intended as a proxy for social media literacy. Intra-systemic strategies are aimed at controlling parents��� own sharing behavior when sharing about their children; extra-systemic strategies the behavior of people from surrounding systems (i.e., relatives). Based on descriptive statistics and results of a series of logistic regressions, this work reports on factors influencing the adoption of privacy-protective behaviors for digital-footprint management in the mediatized domestic milieu and advances considerations to promote educational and social media literacy interventions for parents., Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica. Journal of Theories and Research in Education, Vol. 16 No. 3 (2021)

La crisi generata dalla pandemia da COVID-19 ha aperto ad un’epoca di grandi incertezze ma può anche costituire l’occasione per riflettere criticamente sul presente e orientare scelte per il futuro. In che modo le azioni nate in risposta ad una crisi possono generare conoscenza e apprendimenti facilitanti il passaggio dalla resilienza alla trasformazione? Quali dispositivi pedagogici possono essere utili in tal senso? Il presente contributo descrive un percorso di ricerca e formazione che ha coinvolto alcuni operatori sociali di servizi per adulti con disabilità in Lombardia. Attraverso un approccio etnografico, le pratiche professionali nate durante i mesi di emergenza sanitaria sono divenute punto di partenza di un processo di interrogazione critica. La progettazione di uno spazio intermedio, in cui connettere vincoli e possibilità e livelli micro, meso, macro, ha favorito la creazione di un emergente possibile e di uno sguardo condiviso sul cambiamento futuro di questi servizi. The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up an era of great uncertainty, but it can also provide an opportunity to critically reflect on the present and guide choices for the future. How can actions born in response to a crisis generate knowledge and learning facilitating the transition from resilience to transformation? Which pedagogical devices can be useful in this sense? This paper describes a path of research and training that involved some social workers of services for adults with disabilities in Lombardy. Through an ethnographic approach, the professional practices born during the months of health emergency became the starting point of a process of critical questioning. The design of an intermediate space, in which to connect constraints and possibilities and micro, meso, macro levels, has favored the creation of an emergent possible and a shared look at the future change of these services.

This paper describes an experience linked to a gender-sensitive university orientation project for young men and women. In particular, the contribution intends to offer some meta-reflections following the reformulation of the project itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution is developed starting from the project «Piano Lauree Scientifiche» (PLS – Plan for Scientific Degrees) in collaboration with ABCD Interdepartmental Center for Gender Studies of the University of Milan-Bicocca. The project initially envisaged the involvement of some high school students in a preliminary focus group phase to collect suggestions and points of view about their future projects. The pandemic completely reversed plans in several moments: it was no longer possible to meet students in schools. Therefore, the study was based on focus groups aimed at university students who should have followed double interviews to be carried out in person. The worsening of the pandemic situation led then to online interviews rather than face to face interviews. This article aims to highlight this experience to inform future research and encourage flexibility and reflexivity in research. It is hoped that this article can be helpful to develop cross-cultural qualitative methodology and expand upon the emerging field of literature surrounding video conferencing qualitative research, first of all those regarding the link between gender and university orientation.

This paper focuses on the experience in ECEC services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Educational work changed following disruption of its conventional forms. Implemented at a distance, it dematerialized and migrated to space-time coordinates that were far removed from the previously known and established. One key challenge for educators was managing the absence of direct contact with children and parents, now become faces with whom to dialogue via a screen. Despite the frightening, inhibiting, even intimidating nature of these developments, many educators and teachers have valued the role of parents as “natural educators”, meanwhile meeting the challenge by working with renewed commitment, within novel, and mutable, boundaries.

In Italia, la pratica della documentazione pedagogica nell’am-bito dell’educazione e cura dell’infanzia ha una tradizione lunga e significativa, dal 1991 fino a documenti più recenti. L’emergenza pandemica e le recenti esperienze di lockdown invitano a focaliz-zare l’attenzione su questo tema per dueragioni: la pratica di do-cumentazione di educatori e insegnanti è funzionale ai processi in-clusivi, da un lato, edemerge oggi come una pratica in evoluzione, dall’altro. Questo contributo presenta i risultati emersi da uno stu-dio esplorativo condotto sull’esperienza di educazione a distanza durante il lockdown nel contesto dei servizi educativi per l’infanzia 0-6 italiani. Lo studio ha raccolto, attraverso un questionario, il punto di vista di 412 insegnanti, educatori e coordinatori. In parti-colare, proprio il focus sulle pratiche di documentazione, qui inda-gato attraverso un’analisi descrittiva delle risposte chiuse e un’ana-lisi del contenuto delle domande aperte, permette di rendere visi-bile la bellezza resiliente dei legami educativi a distanza. The practice of pedagogical documentation in the field of early childhood education and care in Italy has a long and significant tradition, starting in 1991 up to the most recent documents. The pandemic emergency and recent lockdowns in Italy are an invita-tion to focus attention on this theme for two main reasons: the documentation practice is indicated as functional to inclusive pro-cesses; the documenting practices of teachers and educators are changing. This paper discusses the results emerging from an ex-plorative study carried out on the experience of distance education during the lockdown in Italy in the context of 0-6 years early child-hood education and care services collecting the opinion of 412 teachers, educators and coordinators through a questionnaire. In particular, the focus of this study will be on documentation prac-tices through a descriptive analysis of closed answers and a content analysis of open questions. This allows to make the resilient beauty of LEAD visible.

Negli ultimi due decenni, la Marvel Cinematic Universe ha portato sugli schermi la trasposizione delle trame e di alcuni personaggi dei fumetti Marvel, ideati a partire dagli anni Sessanta; ha prodotto diciotto film, spin off, video giochi, gadgets e merchandising ispirati ai film, ottenendo un successo internazionale fra giovani e giovanissimi. In alcuni casi, il passaggio dal fumetto al cinema ha comportato modifiche e censure riguardo alle caratteristiche dei personaggi, al loro ruolo, alle loro avventure. Il contributo introduce alcuni personaggi femminili presenti in questi film, a partire dalla consapevolezza che essi possono svolgere una funzione culturale ed educativa profonda, proponendo modelli identitari, di relazioni, di ruoli, in particolare rivolti ad adolescenti. L’analisi pedagogica proposta si focalizza sulle differenze o similitudini rispetto ai modelli presenti nel fumetto e riflette sugli aspetti connessi alla rappresentazione del corpo, sulle relazioni con gli altri personaggi, sul ruolo rivestito all’interno dell’intreccio narrativo. From 2000 to 2020, Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought on screens the transposition of the plots and some characters of the Marvel comics, conceived from the Sixties, producing eighteen official films, some spin-offs, video games, gadgets and merchandising inspired by the movies and achieving international success among young and very young. Sometimes, the transposition from the medium of comics to cinema has involved modifications, differences, significant about the characters, their role, their adventures. This paper introduces some female characters present in these films, because they can play a deep cultural and educational role, showing adolescents models of identity, relationships, roles. The pedagogical analysis in particular focuses on the differences and similarities with the models present in the comic and reflects on the representation of the body, on the relationships with the other characters, on the role in the narrative plot.

The potential of the classroom as a relational space for the development of a positive sense of self by asylum seekers has received scant attention in literature. My PhD research explores this potential using Honneth’s theory of recognition. In this paper, I work on a small part of my study, involving three teachers from an adult education centre in Italy. By employing narrative inquiry, I search for clues of recognition in the teachers’ narratives about their perceptions and values, relationships with learners, and understanding and concern for learners.

The present contribution proposes a reflection on the meanings of the actions of educational profes- sionals when trying to prevent mental distress in their students and promote their well-being. This focus derives from the suggestion — indicated by Basaglia’s work in linking mental health to the ex- istential, educational, social and cultural elements of everyone’s life conditions — that education can offer an important contribution to the development of, and support for, mental wellbeing. It would thus follow that educational professionals play a potentially pivotal role in promoting mental health and in preventing possible disease, if they are aware of the possibilities and are appropriately trained. This paper, based on a phenomenological approach, refers to the words of schoolteachers and other educators collected in a qualitative educational research project and presents and explores possible ways of giving meaning to educational work in these areas.

L'articolo costituisce un'introduzione al Focus presentato in questo numero della rivista Encyclopaideia: una riflessione sui metodi della ricerca empirica in educazione, con particolare attenzione agli approcci qualitativi. Il contributo presenta la natura del Focus, non come discorso astratto e omogeneo, ma come serie di voci che raccontano di problemi emersi durante la pratica stessa della ricerca e le riflessioni che ne sono nate. Ciascun contributo mette a fuoco un tema rilevante per la metodologia della ricerca in educazione, lo contestualizza all'interno di una situazione di indagine e descrive il processo riflessivo della ricercatrice o del ricercatore per trovare soluzioni originali ma rigorose, che contribuiscono alla validità dell'indagine empirica This paper is the introduction to the Focus of Encyclopaideia, which puts the spotlight on the topic of research methods in education, with a special attention on qualitative methods. The introduction presents the aims and the overview of the Focus, which is meant to be more a multi-vocal analysis of some of the issues emerging during the research work and the reflections they generate, rather than an abstract and homogeneous discourse. Each paper addresses a specific topic that is relevant to the research methodology in education, contextualizes it within a concrete inquiry and describes the researcher's reflective process of finding situated and rigorous solutions in order to contribute to the research validity.

Collocandosi all’interno dell’orizzonte della ricerca in scienze umane, l’articolo si propone di analizzare criticamente la questione della coerenza tra metodo di raccolta dati e modalità della loro analisi nella ricerca qualitativa, a partire da uno studio basato su narrazioni scritte di pazienti, che avevano sviluppato la leucemia durante l’infanzia/adolescenza (Zannini et al., 2014). Benché la ricerca avesse raccolto materiale narrativo, la scelta metodologica non era stata quella della Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin, Connelly, 2000), bensì si era optato per il metodo della Grounded Theory (GT) (Strauss, Corbin, 1990), che permette di ricostruire la “teoria” che i partecipanti hanno rispetto a un determinato fenomeno/processo. La discussione si concentra sugli aspetti metodologici, mettendo in luce come l’analisi effettuata sui dati non dipende esclusivamente dalla loro natura (per es. narrativa), ma dai quesiti e, conseguentemente, dal metodo di ricerca prescelto Framed in the field of human sciences research, this paper is aimed at critically analyzing the issue of consistency between data gathering technique and data analysis method in qualitative research, starting from a study based on written narratives of patients who had suffered from leukemia, during their childhood/adolescence (Zannini et al., 2014). Even if we collected patients' narratives, we did not choose Narrative Inquiry as research method, but we decided for a Grounded Theory study (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), a method that allow researchers to reconstruct the "theory", which participants have developed on a certain phenomenon/process. The discussion of the paper is focused on the methodological issues, considering data analysis as a process that does not depend exclusively on data characteristics (i.e. narrative), but also on research questions and, consequently, on the selected research method.

Il contributo presenterà una riflessione critica relativa all’utilizzo del so ware NVivo all’interno progetto di ricerca qualitativa, finalizzata a indagare l’incontro nella pratica professionale tra il sapere pedagogico e quello medico/sanitario. Riferendosi a un approccio qualitativo, il progetto si è basato sul metodo fenomenologico-ermeneutico e sulla strategia dello studio di caso. Per raccogliere i dati sono stati utilizzati l’osservazione etnografica, l’intervista semi-strutturata, la pratica del collage-making, il diario di ricerca. L’analisi del materiale, e ettuata seguendo il modello fenomenologico-ermeneutico, è stata supportata da NVivo. La conoscenza del so ware, approfondita prima del suo impiego, ha permesso di utilizzarlo come ausilio per accompagnare il lavoro di analisi, non in sostituzione all’interpretazione della ricercatrice. Riprendendo questa esperienza, il contributo presenterà aspetti positivi e di icoltà incontrati nell’utilizzo di NVivo, evidenziando come l’uso di un so ware per l’analisi qualitativa, e nello specifico nell’approccio fenomenologico-ermeneutico, passi inevitabilmente attraverso l’insostituibile pensiero del ricercatore. This paper will present a critical reflection about using NVivo so ware for the analytic process in qualitative research. It was aimed to explore the interaction between medical and pedagogical knowledge in healthcare professional practice. Framed in a qualitative approach, the project was based on phenomenological-hermeneutical method and on case-study strategy. Data gathering was based on several instruments: ethnographical 358 observation, semi-structured interview, collage-making and participants’ narratives about art cra s, and writing a research diary. The analytic process, according to the phenomenological-hermeneutical model, was supported by NVivo. A previous acquainting with the so ware allowed researchers to employ NVivo as a support for the phenomenological- hermeneutical analysis, maintaining the irreplaceable researcher’s meaning making process. Based on this research experience, the paper will present strengths and limitations of NVivo in supporting data analysis, highlighting how the use of a so ware in qualitative analysis is necessarily rooted in the researcher’s acts of mind.

Quali le parole-chiave della nostra contemporaneità? Indifferenza, disattenzione, incuria, superficialità, mancanza di premura e di garbo, scarsa accoglienza, ecc., per citarne soltanto alcune. Per cui, il destino di noi adulti, di oggi, sembra essere la solitudine, l’incomprensione, una complessiva fragilità che lascia facilmente il posto alla vulnerabilità in uno scenario globale fatto di precarietà, incertezza, indeterminatezza in più ambiti della vita e dell’esperienza degli adulti. Abbiamo a che fare con una condizione esistenziale che, laddove generi un accentuato malessere o disagio interiore, viene affidata -a parer nostro, troppo frettolosamente - all’intervento di psicoterapeuti o psichiatri, con il rischio di rinviare ad altri - gli esperti della mente - il problema, o quello, che si connota subito come un problema. Forse, per non volerlo vedere, osservare, interrogare. E in questo modo, si perde di vista il fatto che non si tratta di casi isolati, o peggio ancora, di casi clinici, ma di un’esperienza umana piuttosto diffusa che chiede di essere accolta, pensata e affrontata con saperi, pratiche e strumenti che possono appartenere al discorso pedagogico e all’agire educativo, in particolare, quello riguardante gli adulti, che va sotto il nome di educazione degli adulti. Lungo questa direzione, facciamo nostra la proposta di un’educazione degli adulti che a più livelli, anche tra loro differenti, metta al proprio centro la questione dell’educazione alla responsabilità verso gli altri strettamente connessa all’educazione alla cura degli altri, per cui parliamo nel nostro contributo di un’educazione alla cura della responsabilità o alla responsabilità della cura. Di qui, la nozione di un welfare, che definiamo, relazionale o umanistico, che necessita appunto di un’auto-formazione e che non vuole sostituire il pur debole welfare politico-istituzionale. Tale opzione epistemologica e prassica dell’educazione degli adulti lancia una sfida alle organizzazioni e ai servizi predisposti in modo particolare alla cura che, paradossalmente, prendono sempre più le distanze dalla centralità della responsabilità verso l’altro, sottesi come sono da una logica economica ed aziendalistica. Di qui, il nostro interesse rivolto a quelle posture educative che strutturano l’educazione alla responsabilità e alla cura verso gli altri, profondamente legata alla responsabilità e alla cura verso se stessi What are the key words of our contemporary era? Indifference, carelessness, negligence, shallowness, lack of concern, courtesy, and warmth and so on, to mention but a few. As adults today, we appear destined to experience loneliness, incomprehension, and – in general – a fragility that can easily become vulnerability in a global scenario characterized by insecurity, uncertainty, and indefiniteness across many areas of adult life and experience. We are faced with an existential condition which, when it generates marked distress or inner suffering, is subjected – in my view, too hastily – to the intervention of psychotherapists or psychiatrists, with the associated risk of delegating to others – the experts of the mind – the task of solving the problem, or that which has been summarily labelled as a problem. Perhaps because of a reluctance to contemplate, observe, and question it. And so, we lose sight of the fact that these are not isolated cases, or worse still, clinical cases, but examples of a relatively widespread human experience that demands to be accepted, thought and addressed with forms of knowledge, practices and instruments from within the sphere of pedagogical discourse and educational action, particularly the educational discourse and action that goes under the name of adult education. I therefore argue for a form of adult education which, at multiple and diverse levels, attributes key importance to the theme of educating to responsibility for others, which in turn is closely related to educating to care for others. Hence, in the current paper I explore what I call educating to care for responsibility or educating to responsibility for care, formulating the notion of a welfare that may be defined as relational or humanistic, is based on self-training, and is intended to supplement rather than substitute the – admittedly weak – political-institutional welfare system. This epistemological and methodological approach to adult education particularly challenges organizations and services whose role is to provide care, and which – paradoxically – increasingly tend to distance themselves from the core need for responsibility towards the other, driven as they are by economic and corporate logic. Thus, my focus in this paper is on educational perspectives that organize education around responsibility and caring towards others, which again, is strongly connected with responsibility and caring towards oneself

This paper offers a frame to teaching reflexivity in Residential Child Care (RCC), a workplace featuring increasing yet recent professionalization, daily relationships and constant interaction with different agencies and professionals involved in the child protection system. Education in RCC takes place within an institutional, organizational and relational context with explicit and implicit presuppositions, dilemmas, and power dynamics. Thus, we identify systemic reflexivity as a required competence to cope with this complexity and act in a transformative way: an integrated, collective, and operational way of thinking, apt to support change and empower educators’ professional identity. The international literature review highlights the features of systemic reflexivity as a multi-layered process involving the individual professional, the working team, the dominant epistemology, and the power of good narratives. These are the ingredients of a training practice, here presented, designed to promote these competences in settings of both higher and workplace education., Rivista Italiana di Educazione Familiare, Vol. 17 No. 2 (2020): n° 2 luglio-dicembre 2020

This paper zooms in on a part of a larger qualitative and participatory study on the integration of asylum seekers and refugees in a specific Italian territory, that focuses on the embodied experience of newcomers in relation to the physical and social space, in daily interactions with others, and with the public discourse. We use Bateson’s systemic understanding of culture contact to illuminate the struggles, constraints and possibilities of coexistence and to challenge the narrow interpretation of integration as a one-sided effort of the individual. We think of culture contact as a complex, relational, and entangled process of interaction in the human and non-human world. So, our methodology in this part of the project, based on sensobiographic walks, is a way to perform and to search culture contact, by creating an unexpected narrative and dialogic encounter between newcomers, natives and researchers in the physical space, using senses to enhance a sense of connectedness and illuminate learning, hence opening possibilities not only for understanding, but for transformative experiences and unprecedented relationships. (DIPF/Orig.)

The contribution investigates parents’ digital dilemmas associated with sharenting as an informal learning opportunity to rethink and orient their online sharing behavior. The paper reports on some results of an exploratory study based on the analysis of online conversations on a parenting forum focused on these dilemmas. Findings suggest that the interactional context where such exchange takes place can function as an informal learning environment, fostering informal peer-to-peer media education practices for parents in the digital age.

This paper aims at highlighting the role of arts, referring specifically to graphics, in creating participatory learning experiences for young children and as a mean for professional development of teachers, focusing in particular on the use of arts in pedagogical documentation. Graphics are viewed as a reflective practice that can generate significant learning and development experiences for both children and teachers. These reflections are contextualized by presenting the first experiences and considerations from an ongoing cross-national research, that involves young children (3–6) and their teachers in their educational services called “Inside Outside Children’s perspective in ECECC”. To this end, the Italian pilot case study is particularly meaningful: children have been involved in a participatory learning experience, thanks to the use of drawing, aimed at exploring the meanings of the concept of ‘Inside/Outside’ in its various dimensions – spatial, social and referring to the self. Furthermore, teachers have also explored the theme thanks to the use of collage and started reflecting on the potentialities of this methodology as a professional development tool. The objective is to widen the reflection to the use of artistic languages in pedagogical documentation, to enhance learning in children and teachers.

With the aim of clearly defining how we may best understand ‘method’ in the field of education, this paper offers an analysis of the methodological model proposed by Piero Bertolini in Per una pedagogia del ragazzo difficile (Pedagogy for the troublesome juvenile). This work is of great contemporary relevance for two reasons. First, the theoretical and anthropological assumptions are clearly stated and their intimate connection with the methodological and pragmatic aspects of educational work compellingly demonstrated. Second, the author suggests a fertile way of thinking about educational method and educational intervention that goes beyond the merely technical or ‘applied common sense’ approaches that are widespread in social work and education. I outline the key elements determining the current value of Bertolini’s way of conceptualizing and implementing the educational method, especially his specifically pedagogical focuses of attention. These methodological focuses run counter to certain contemporary tendencies, providing the basis for a solid educational professionalism that always maintains an attitude of inquiry, and that has the capacity to work with the structural uncertainty of educational situations., Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica. Journal of Theories and Research in Education, Vol 13, No 2 (2018): Phenomenology and Education Today [Special Issue]

Within the debate around hate speech, the paper aims at ex-amining the role of words within the educational relationship, ap-proaching the risk educators, specifically teachers towards stu-dents, have of using – awarely or unawarely – words of hate. The chosen perspective from which the theme will be ana-lyzed, is the one of the international strategies, in defense of chil-dren, which, under the label of corporal punishment include the use of any kind of punishment – not only physical – that aims at de-grading, belittling, humiliating, menacing, frightening or ridiculing the child (UN, CRC, General Comment n. 8(2008), CRC/C/GC/8). This specification sharpens the centrality of the pedagogical as-pect of the issue: it connects words in themselves with the intention-ality of who speaks them and with the sense the receiver gives them. Benning from a reflection on the role of words in the educa-tional relationship, it will be possible to approach a pedagogical analysis which will question the pedagogical implications of hate speech by the teacher, as well as the conditions and contexts that allow the perpetration of hate speech, more or less consciously, by adults that have educational roles and task

This paper deals with six case studies of evaluation, which were discussed at the Mobility Workshop organized in the context of the EduEval Project (Evaluation for the Professional Development of Adult Education Staff, LLP Grundtvig).This paper depicts the different representations of evaluation explicitly and implicitly present. The aim of the article is twofold. First, it explores the meanings associated with the evaluation practicesdescribed, and it identifies both transversal and specific components. Second, it critically reflects on how evaluation may sustain and/or develop the competences of Adult Education Staff,in the light of the current pedagogical debate on the theme.

This paper focuses on the experience of traineeship for students in the Master Degree Course in Pedagogical Sciences of the University of Milano Bicocca. First, it draws the normative and institutional framework related to the profile of the second level professions in the educational field, such as coordinators, supervisors, consultants, as well as trainers of educators, of teachers, and of other care professionals. Second, this paper analyses the traineeship educational project, highlighting its theoretical and methodological assumptions and its functioning as a “pilot” experience of tutoring. In the end, the article shows the new project of traineeship for the university students, a project that derived from a critical process of evaluation of the pilot course.

This paper is underpinned by the assumption – made explicit by Graeme Sullivan – that the contemporary world demands an alternative mode of research, one that conserves the complexity of reality, thereby following the logic of a transformative practice: “[I realize] that in an uncertain world there is a need to develop more widespread means of exploring human comprehension and that visual arts can play a key role” (Sullivan, 2010). At the same time, if we examine the specific practice of a range of artists from different historical eras we find that artistic action has always been research-driven, never remaining static but always striving towards new and different solutions, in terms of materials, styles and artists’ relationships with their audiences. Thus, in the current paper we emphasize the connection between research and artistic practice, not viewing the latter as an optional accessory but as a mode of research in its own right: one that advances our understanding of the object under enquiry by providing a novel and metaphoric language with which to give shape to thoughts and ideas. Therefore, within the context of a broader on-going research programme that combines art-based methods (Knowles & Cole, 2008; Butler-Kisber, 2010) with biographical methods (Demetrio, 1997; Linden & Merril, 2009) with the aim of studying the formative process of educational researchers as an artistic process, we here present the artistic process as a form of biographical research that uses an artistic technique – specifically collage – as a gateway to accessing and exploring the world both inside and outside of oneself. We develop our argument in two stages. First, we reflect on the biographical history of a selection of artists whom we view as particularly significant because of their writings and artistic training histories, paying particular attention to how they worked with materials in implementing the collage technique. Second, with a view to comparing artistic training with training in research, we present a training workshop on the use of collage in qualitative research (Joennsu, Finland, 2014 ) conducted with PhD students as part of a Summer School on research methodologies in the human sciences. Via these two steps we hope to show that collage is an artistic training technique with the potential to enhance the enquiry into educational and training experience in multiple ways.

­– The paper proposes a reflection about the “second level” education professionals’ training. These professionals are involved in activities such as designing, managing, and evaluating educational services. Developing such skills represents a challenge for university didactic because it entails strong connections between thinking and acting, theoretical and practical knowledge. The Master Degree Course in Pedagogical Sciences of Milano Bicocca University elaborated an experimental programme meant to enhance the learning potential for students, firstly carried out in A.Y. 2015-2016 and labelled Tirocinio Formativo e di Orientamento (TFO) or Traineeship and Guidance Programme. The path has been further refined year by year also referring to focus-group discussions conducted with the students. The traineeship will be presented, highlighting its pedagogical assumptions; furthermore, peculiar challenging aspects, emerging after 4 years from the beginning of the path, will be discussed. Riassunto ­– L’articolo propone una riflessione sul tirocinio universitario per i professionisti educativi di secondo livello, figure chiamate a svolgere attività quali progettazione, coordinamento e valutazione di servizi educativi. Formare tali competenze rappresenta una sfida per la didattica universitaria, poiché è necessario sviluppare un solido legame tra pensiero e azione, conoscenza teorica e pratica. Il Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze Pedagogiche dell’Università di Milano-Bicocca ha elaborato un percorso di tirocinio sperimentale, Tirocinio Formativo e di Orientamento (TFO), proposto per la prima volta nell’a.a. 2015-2016. La sua struttura è stata modificata e migliorata di anno in anno, anche grazie al contributo degli studenti, raccolto attraverso momenti di focus-group. Si presenterà il percorso del TFO, con particolare attenzione agli assunti pedagogici che lo motivano; inoltre, verranno discussi aspetti di sfida e complessità, emersi nel corso dei primi 4 anni di implementazione. Keywords ­– experimental traineeship programme, “second level” educational professionals, research experience, thinking and acting, University tutor for traineeship Parole chiave – percorso di tirocinio sperimentale, professionista educativo di secondo livello, esperienza di ricerca, pensiero e azione, tutor di tirocinio universitario, Annali online della Didattica e della Formazione Docente, Vol 11, N° 18 (2019): Il tirocinio per le professioni educative come esperienza formativa

The paper presents a brief overview of the curricula of four European Countries which have long adopted an integrated model of education, having as a focus of deepening the topic of the relationship between educational services and families, between educators/teachers and parents. The holistic and integrated approach of education, well-being and child development expressed in these documents is the background and supports a complex and inclusive discursiveness towards the plurality of family histories and configurations, giving form to original and quality modes of cooperation, understanding and collaboration for educational contexts. The focus on some concepts and the lexical choices supporting them is considered useful to “project” us into a next integrated national curriculum, capable of expressing both a culture of continuity and change, and a real interdependence between contexts and subjects, which are relevant for child development., Rivista Italiana di Educazione Familiare, n° 1 gennaio-giugno 2019

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), particularly robotics and domotics, are progressively spreading in the contemporary society and their use is increasing in the field of geriatrics too. Even if the implementation of new technologies dedicated to older people is mainly aimed at caring for them and monitor their health, ICT can also sustain continuing learning and develop new practices of socialization. This paper reports the results of an explorative questionnaire survey conducted with a sample of older people who had some familiarity with technologies. Our aim was to investigate their perception about usability and their enjoyment of some online digital games/activities, analyzing the perceived potentialities of those devices for elders’ socialization. Valutazione di giochi/attività online da parte di un gruppo di anziani, in un progetto di robotica a supporto del loro vivere indipendente Le Tecnologie dell’Informazione e della Comunicazione (TIC), in particolare robotica e domotica, si stanno progressivamente diffondendo nella società contemporanea e il loro utilizzo sta aumentando anche in ambito geriatrico. Anche se lo sviluppo di tecnologie dedicate agli anziani è principalmente finalizzato all’assistenza e al monitoraggio della loro salute, le TIC possono anche favorire l’apprendimento continuo e nuove forme di socializzazione. Il presente contributo espone i risultati di un’indagine esplorativa basata su questionari, condotta con un campione persone di anziane, con familiarità con le tecnologie, per raccogliere la percezione di usabilità e il gradimento di alcuni giochi/attività online, analizzando il potenziale percepito di questi dispositivi per la socializzazione., Form@re - Open Journal per la formazione in rete, Vol. 19 No. 1 (2019): Robotics, AR, virtual worlds, to support cognitive development, learning outcomes, social interaction, and inclusion

Gli adolescenti con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (AID, 2007; PAARC, 2011; DSM-V) presentano un maggior rischio di insuccesso e di psicopatologie in comorbidità (Vecchini, 2012). L’approccio di ricerca della psicologia cognitiva si occupa di riabilitazione basati sul potenziamento delle abilità deficitarie (Cornoldi 2007; 2013), mentre il supporto scolastico si basa sull’uso di strumenti compensativi e misure dispensative (L170/2010). Si nota nell’approccio professionale al DSA un’eccessiva focalizzazione sul disturbo, sottovalutando di fatto il benessere della persona nel contesto di apprendimento, e trascurando il coinvolgimento attivo degli stessi ragazzi con DSA, che spesso rifiutano i supporti offerti. La presente ricerca si propone di restituire “diritto di parola” ai ragazzi con DSA, considerando chi “vive con il DSA” come i soggetti assieme ai quali svolgere la ricerca. Nella letteratura italiana e internazionale si rileva una linea di ricerca che pone al centro storie di vita dei soggetti con DSA, anche per individuare fattori di protezione e di vulnerabilità (WHO, 2007; McNulty, 2003; Macdonald, 2009; Ruggerini, 2017); alcuni autori evidenziano però un gap di ricerca, raccomandando ulteriori studi che attingano alla voce e alla “saggezza” dell’esperienza dei soggetti con DSA (Pollak, 2005; Goode, 2007). La domanda di ricerca è: come gli adolescenti italiani con DSA vivono tale condizione, in particolare nei contesti educativi? Si intende inoltre indagare come gli adolescenti vivono le relazioni con adulti e pari rispetto al DSA; quali modalità essi mettono in atto nei diversi contesti, e infine quali fattori di protezione e di rischio (WHO, 2007) sono individuabili. Il framework teorico prescelto si basa sul paradigma socio-costruttivista ed ecologico, con l’obiettivo di spostarsi dalla prospettiva di disturbo come “specifica caratteristica” individuale alla dimensione del contesto sociale con cui la persona interagisce (MacDonald, 2009; WHO, 2007), avvalendosi anche dell’apporto dei disability studies (Medeghini, 2014). La metodologia fa riferimento all’Interpretative Phenomenological Analisys (Smith et al., 2009) per la raccolta dei dati e per l’analisi, che viene svolta sia per i singoli casi, che per una trasversale costruzione di etichette di significati (Mortari, 2010), anche con l’ausilio del quadrante della Clinica della formazione (Cappa, 2014). Sono stati selezionati, con un purposive sampling, 25 adolescenti con DSA dai 10 ai 17 anni, partecipanti alle attività di potenziamento e a gruppi di confronto per ragazzi DSA della cooperativa sociale Talenti fra le nuvole ONLUS. Per tutelare gli aspetti etici, sia i genitori che i ragazzi coinvolti hanno firmato specifico consenso informato. Le interviste, svolte in due fasi ricorsive e restituite ai partecipanti, hanno approfondito i significati dell’esperienza e triangolato l’interpretazione (Sità, 2012). I risultati evidenziano diversi temi: la diagnosi del DSA; la percezione del DSA; strategie e strumenti personali per affrontare il DSA; le relazioni con i pari, in particolare rispetto alla disclosure; relazione, atteggiamenti, strategie proposte da insegnanti e genitori. Vengono evidenziati alcuni fattori di protezione, quali la famiglia, la relazione con gli insegnanti e con i pari, la diagnosi precoce, la comprensione del DSA e la sua disclosure. Vengono altresì evidenziate aree di criticità: modalità di comunicazione ai ragazzi della certificazione di DSA dopo la diagnosi e mancanza di una tematizzazione del DSA in classe da parte degli insegnanti. I risultati della ricerca consentono una comprensione profonda del fenomeno, oltre ad aprire prospettive future, quali l’utilizzo dell’intervista fenomenologica come strumento di ricerca-intervento utile nei contesti educativi; e l’utilizzo dei risultati per la formazione di insegnanti e genitori in prospettiva critico-riflessiva. Adolescents living with Specific Learning Disabilities (AID, 2007; PAARC, 2011; ICD10; DSM-V) present a major risk of learning failure and developing psychopathological disease (Vecchini, 2012). Research approach of cognitive research deal with remediation and empowerment through intervention based on deficit enforcement (Cornoldi 2007; 2013), while support in school is bases on assistive tools and dispensative measures (L170/2010). There is a huge attention on the technical obstacle, disregarding well being of the person in learning context and neglecting active involvement of adolescents themselves, who often refuse aids offered. Present research is aimed to restore “right to talk” to adolescents with SLD, considering those “living-with” dyslexia as co-researchers. In international literature, we followed a research line about lived experiences of people with SLD, also to detect protection and risk factors (WHO, 2007; McNulty, 2003; Macdonald, 2009; Ruggerini, 2017); some authors highlight a gap in research and recommend further studies gaining from “ethical voice” and “wise” of individual subjects living with SLD (Pollak, 2005; Goode, 2007). Main question of research is: how Italian adolescents living-with SLD live with this condition, in particular in school context? It is also intended to explore how they live relationships with adults and peer regarding SLD, which strategies they use, and risk and protection factors (WHO, 2007). Theoretical framework of the research is based on a socio-constructivist and ecological paradigm, aimed to change focus from the “specific characteristic” of a single individual to the social context in which person with SLD interact (MacDonald, 2009; WHO, 2007), also considering Disability studies’ approach (Medeghini et al. 2015). Methodology adopted is Interpretative Phenomenological Analisys (Smith et al., 2009) for data collection and for analysis, both for single interviews and for transversal building of meaning labels (Mortari, 2010), using also the quarter of the Clinica della Formazione (Cappa, 2014), There were selected, with a un purposive sampling, 25 adolescents with SLD 10 to 17 year-old, involved in extra-school empowerment activities and support meeting group for SLD at Cooperative Social Talenti fra le nuvole ONLUS. To safeguard ethical aspects, both parents and teenagers involved signed a specific informed paper. Interviews, developed in two iterative parts and returned to participants, developed meanings of lived experiences and were triangulated (Sità, 2012). Results highlight different emerging themes: SLD diagnosis; SLD perception; personal strategies and tools to afford SLD; relationships with peers, with regard to disclosure; relationship, attitudes and strategies proposed by teachers and parents. Some factor protections emerge, such as family, relationship with teacher and peer, early diagnosis, understanding SLD and disclosure. Critical areas are stressed too: missing or miscommunication of diagnosis of SLD; not affording the theme SLD in class by teachers. Results of the research allow a deep comprehension of phenomenon and an orientation in affording similar phenomena; moreover, it opens future perspectives such as the use of phenomenological interview as an instrument of research-intervention in learning contexts; results can be used for teacher and parents’ training in critical-reflexive perspective.