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Play remains the principal experience through which the child learns to know itself, others and the world; it is educational experience which may be directed and structured to varying degrees. To understand this complexity, pedagogical documentation can make a key contribution if it is understood as practice that allows us to bring to light not only what goes on in educational settings – recording action – but also the theoretical ideas informing experience. This chapter explores the conditions and methods required for pedagogical documentation to be effective in enabling early childhood education and care sites to become points of reference on childhood for the entire community. The chapter – from an Italian perspective – focuses on the role of pedagogical documentation as an ‘agora’ (meeting place) in which different voices – those of children, teachers, families and the broader community – are included to guarantee a form of citizenship education for all the actors around the meanings of ‘play’.

In recent decades, art-based methods of formulating research questions, collecting data, and documenting research processes and outcomes have played an increasingly important role in educational research. The current paper calls for a review of art-based research tools, with a particular focus on digital environments. Within this framework, we present the early stages of a joint training-research project - involving the Human Sciences Department of Milano-Bicocca University and the Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel University, Philadelphia – which will present art-based, including digital, methods of inquiry in a global classroom environment.

Il testo costituisce la cornice del volume, che si presenta come l’esito di un progetto di ricerca condiviso da un gruppo di colleghi e colleghe di area pedagogica del Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione “Riccardo Massa”, dell’Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, sul tema della relazione estesa e multiforme tra l’ambito educativo e il fenomeno del terrorismo. Nel testo si è inteso anzitutto istituire il campo della relazione tra i due ambiti (educazione e terrorismo) al fine di: individuare, disvelare, analizzare le esperienze (intenzionali/non intenzionali, progettuali/ casuali, formali/informali) che generano apprendimenti di valori, saperi, competenze riferiti al terrorismo; e di costituire il piano teorico di riferimento per azioni e progetti intenzionali che (a seguito di mandato politico- istituzionale-culturale) si pongano l’obiettivo di modificare il sistema di esperienze entro cui si generano apprendimenti relativi al terrorismo.

This paper will present some pedagogical reflections on the training needs of professionals involved in childhood protection system, with regard to the leaving care phase of children and young people placed in residential care facilities. The considerations here illustrated are related to the qualitative analysis of the first results collected from the training course developed by SOS Children’s Villages Italy (within a wider partnership lead by SOS Children’s Villages International) as part of the two-year project Prepare for Leaving Care (co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship –REC-Programme of the European Commission, 2017-2018). This paper will present the results of the evaluation of Italian training courses realised during the past year in order to teach how to embed a child rights based approach into their daily work with focus on the leaving care phases. Finally, the paper will underlined how the training of professionals involved in childhood protection system is a pedagogical challenge [1] in terms of developing a multi-professional équipe and high level of competences –included emotional ones [2]– in order to sustain young people in developing their own project of life.

Violence against minors is a complex theme that encompasses multiple phenomena (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi & Lozano, 2002). Given that children spend a significant proportion of their time at school and in early childhood services, teachers and educators can play a key role in the early identification and prevention of this phenomenon. They can also promote positive relationships. Therefore, it is currently of key importance for teachers to develop new knowledge and skills relating to child protection. Based on the premise that violence against children concerns both the micro (the personal histories of parents and individual families) and macro (the vision of childhood upheld by adult society and educational institutions) levels, this chapter offers an in-depth analysis of how teachers may, in the first instance, be adequately informed – i.e., be made fully aware of children’s rights. Even more importantly, it suggests guidelines for training teachers in the personal and relational spheres, in keeping with psychoanalytical-educational perspectives (Miller, 1997; 2002). The aim of this dual approach is to provide teachers with the competences required both to recognize high-risk situations and to appropriately address the issue with their students’ families

Il contributo intende proporre un confronto esplorativo fra i modelli di intervento e le strategie educative adottate in Svezia e in Italia nei confronti dei minori stranieri non accompagnati

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.

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 (Sullivan, 2010). 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. 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

This paper will present a critical reflection about using NVivo software 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 observation, semi-structured interview, collage-making and participants’ narratives about art crafts, and writing a research diary. The analytic process, according to the phenomenological-hermeneutical model, was supported by NVivo. A previous acquainting with the software 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 software in qualitative analysis is necessarily rooted in the researcher’s acts of mind

Documentare è una prassi istituzionale e obbligata, connessa con funzioni di progettazione, comunicazione, certificazione e, certamente, valutazione del lavoro. All’interno dell’ambito pedagogico, aspetto fondamentale è assunto dalla documentazione del lavoro educativo: dalla sua progettazione, alla sua realizzazione, alla narrazione e comunicazione dell’esperienza educativa avvenuta. Il contributo invita a riflettere sul rapporto fra la valutazione del lavoro educativo e la pratica del documentare, a partire dalla constatazione di quanto spesso i documenti siano al contempo oggetto e strumento di valutazione. Infatti, la documentazione da un lato conserva traccia dei modelli, espliciti e impliciti, della valutazione presenti nel servizio, dall’altro diviene per il servizio uno strumento, esplicito e implicito, per valutare ed essere valutato. Una complessità che il contributo andrà esplorando con sguardo pedagogico.

A partire da una riflessione su come il concetto di modello possa essere utilizzato per pensare pedagogicamente la valutazione nel e del lavoro educativo, il saggio esplicita ed approfondisce i modelli di valutazione emersi nell'ambito del collective case study su cui si è concentrata l'unità di ricerca di Milano Bicocca nel Progetto PRIN 2009 "La valutazione per il miglioramento dei servizi formativi. Una ricerca Università-Territorio per la costruzione partecipata di modelli innovativi di assessment". In particolare, nella prima parte, il contributo approfondisce il concetto di modello e di modello pedagogico; nella seconda parte, dopo aver ricostruito la cornice epistemologica e metodologica e chiarito l'oggetto del case study, entra nel merito dei modelli valutativi emersi nel lavoro di ricerca svolto all'interno di un servizio innovativo per adolescenti della provincia di Milano.

This chapter addresses the issue of "formative orientation", addressed to the way people learn ‘to live’, to have a meaningful life, and the role of education in that. A ‘formative’ view of orientation is proposed, where the use of life-based and art-based research methods can make a difference. "Formative orientation" focuses the learners' ‘frames of mind’, i.e. their ways to organize inner and outer worlds.The most important choices of life entail a review of frames of mind. This asks to learners to be able to reflect. It involves individuals and their proximal systems, aesthetic experience and intelligent understanding, via the mediation of abductive thinking (metaphors, stories, imagination) and conversations to build meaning. The process of orientation is collective, embodied, unconscious. Hence, it needs practices of orientation that are co-operative, peer-to-peer, life-based, art-based, as unique spaces for active learning. Their aim is to produce knowledge and wisdom, bringing reflection and reflexivity in places where these are not common.

Il saggio propone una riflessione sui modelli culturali e antropologici che soggiacciono, per lo più inconsapevolmente, all’agire educativo individuale, contribuendo a determinarne le forme, le modalità, i limiti e le possibilità. A partire da una sorta di mappatura di tali modelli, il saggio mostra come essi siano diffusi nei contesti educativi e interiorizzati dai singoli educatori, influenzando gli effetti (più o meno emancipativi) delle stesse esperienze educative. La consapevolezza della presenza di tali modelli impliciti, e quindi lo sviluppo della riflessività, sono indicate come competenze essenziali per la professionalità educativa. Lo sviluppo di tali competenze è particolarmente importante oggi, in uno scenario sociale che necessita di elaborare paradigmi culturali e quindi modelli antropologici e pedagogici all’altezza della complessità e delle contraddizioni della contemporaneità., The paper focuses on the cultural and anthropological models that are implicit in the educators’ actions, defining their structures, processes, limits and possibilities. Starting from a map of these models, it shows their diffusion in educational and social contexts, and their presence in the educators’ actions and thoughts. Moreover, it highlights how they can affect the educational experience in an emancipatory way or not. Awareness of these implicit models and reflexivity on their effects are indicated as essential competences for the development of the educators’ professionalism. Enhancing these competences is important nowadays, in a social scenario that needs to generate cultural paradigms and anthropological and pedagogical models that are capable to take into account the complexity and the contradictions of our contemporaneity.

This paper aims to present a reflection on the critical passage from a formal partnership to a learning community within European Projects. To this end, the authors will present an experience of cooperative working between academics and practitioners within a LLP- Grundtvig Multilateral Project, related to the evaluation of adult education staff. The project presented here is based on the hypothesis that, in order to deal with the task of evaluation at a European level, it is necessary to build up a European culture of evaluation. To this end, it was necessary to promote, within the project partnership, a concrete space of co-working between professionals and researchers within the field of adult education. A specific role was played by a Mobility Workshop: conceived as the core of the collaborative approach proposed, the Workshop was a concrete opportunity for co-working between professionals and researchers from different countries. This paper will present the methodology developed through the Mobility Workshop for supporting the passage from a formal partnership to a learning community.

La progettazione educativa è una pratica professionale complessa, che richiede di essere collocata non solo all’interno dei servizi in cui si esercita, ma anche nel contesto storico-sociale ed epistemologico cui i servizi appartengono e in cui gli educatori hanno sviluppato la loro professionalità. Il saggio evidenzia i modelli di progettazione presenti nei servizi e nelle attività educative, sottolineando l’esigenza di ridefinire pedagogicamente gli oggetti e il senso della progettazione educativa in particolare in uno scenario come quello attuale, che presenta una profonda crisi del milieu educativo. Quindi, il saggio propone di pensare la progettazione come “agire progettuale”, mostrandone le dimensioni metodologiche e l’articolazione pragmatica, Educational planning is a complex professional practice that needs to be situated in both the working contexts and the broader historical, social and epistemological background to which services belong and where educators have developed their professionalism. The paper points out the common models of educational planning, highlighting the necessity to redefine from a pedagogical point of view the objects and the sense of it, within a scenario that is currently affected by a deep crisis of the “educational milieu”. Therefore, the paper suggests thinking the educational planning as “planning action”, and it shows its methodological dimensions and its pragmatic articulation.

Il presente contributo intende offrire una riflessione sugli intrecci fra pedagogia e psicoanalisi all’interno della pedagogia fenomenologica di Piero Bertolini. La motivazione di tale interesse si radica nella più volte rimarcata attenzione verso i suddetti intrecci che lo studioso ha argomentato nelle sue opere (soprattutto in: Bertolini, 1988; 2005) e che in questo contributo verranno analizzati e ripercorsi, seguendo lo svilupparsi di alcuni snodi. A partire da una riflessione sui presupposti teoretici che consentono una riflessione comparata fra pedagogia fenomenologica e prospettiva psicoanalitica, si andranno sviluppando i principali nuclei tematici di contiguità fra le due scienze, per giungere a definire quelle indicazioni prassiche che la pedagogia fenomenologica deriva dall’incontro fra le suddette scienze, The present paper offers a reflection on the interconnections between pedagogy and psychoanalysis as interpreted in the phenomenological pedagogy of Piero Bertolini. Interest in the topic is justified by the fact that throughout his work (especially in Bertolini, 1988; 2005) this author himself repeatedly argued for the existence of such links. In the current paper, I outline and analyse some key points of intersection between phenomenological pedagogy and the psychoanalytical perspective. Specifically, I examine the theoretical bases justifying a comparison of these two sciences, the core thematic affinities between them, and finally the implications for the practice of phenomenological pedagogy that arise from this interdisciplinary encounter.

Il presente contributo propone una riflessione sulla scrittura di sé, in chiave autoanalitica (Demetrio, 2003), quale strumento riflessivo e critico per gli operatori pedagogici utile ai fini del loro sviluppo professionale. A partire da una delineazione della pratica autoanalitica, al confine fra la tradizione pedagogica e quella psicoanalitica, si andrà precisando in che termini la scrittura può divenire strumento per l’autoanalisi. La pratica autoanalitica mira ad allargare i confini del proprio punto di vista a partire, però, dal rintracciarne le radici nella propria storia personale, autobiografica. Essa si rende azione di attenzione e scavo della propria interiorità nella consapevolezza che tale interiorità è sempre e comunque connessa al mondo e alla sua storicità., This paper aims to present a reflection on self-writing, from an auto-analytic perspective (Demetrio 2003), as a reflective and critical tool for educators and professionals in the educational field: this can be extremely interesting for them in terms of professional development. Moving from the definition of auto-analytical practice, which is underpinned at the boundary between the pedagogical and the psychoanalytic tradition, attention will be given to writing as an auto-analytic practice. The auto-analytic practice aims at broaden the border of one’s own point of view by moving from a work of tracking down the roots of the autobiographical life history. In this sense, the auto-analytic practice is an activity of digging out in one’s own inner lived experience, knowing that it is always strictly connected with the historic dimension of the life histories.

The brief contribution concludes the EDUEVAL Handbook, vol. 3, one of the deliverables of the european project "EDUEVAL . Evaluation for the Professional Development of Adult Education Staff" (n. 538743-LLP.2013-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP). Clarifying its users, this essay highlights the contents of the handbook and its practical application; first of all, it underlines its particular approach to the evaluation in the field of adult education, and the profile of the evaluator of adult education staff that descends from this model

This paper will present a methodological reflection on how some artistic techniques can became for the individuals the opportunity to think of themselves in an auto-biographical way. In particular, this paper will focus on the collage. Collage is a technique based on a mixing of images, verbal text and other elements that starts with the analysis of an existing state of affairs, proceeds to deconstruct it, and finally to construct a new product juxtaposing different languages. In this sense, making a collage of the learning process engage the authors in a self-narrative process with the potential to enhance reflexivity. First, this paper will underline the role of collage in the artistic background of our contemporary era, in order to explain how the artistic work can be a way to create and tell the own life story. At another level, using selected examples of researching and training experiences conducted by the authors in some educational contexts (as university, primary and high schools), this paper will show how the collage can become a techniques for constructing and eliciting meanings held by the subjects that would not be accessible by other means and that are important to define themselves, especially for adolescents and young adults involved in the difficult construction process of their identities. In light of the complexity of the topic, it is hoped that this paper will contribute to advancing understanding of the potential of arts as learning strategy in educational contexts.

La ricerca, sviluppata tra giugno 2009 e giugno 2010, è un mixed-methods case study che si propone di indagare se e come la formazione universitaria dia forma a una professionalità educativa in grado di reggere la sfida attuale, dando contemporaneamente forma a particolari modalità di intendere e svolgere il lavoro educativo. Il case study fa riferimento al Corso di Laurea per Educatori Professionali dell’Università Statale di Milano. Nell’ambito del paradigma ecologico e dell’epistemologia naturalistica, lo studio fa riferimento ai presupposti teorici e all’impostazione metodologica della Clinica della Formazione (Massa, 1992). Al di là dei risultati raggiunti, la ricerca sembra interessante in quanto esperienza che mette in luce potenzialità, limiti e criticità di questa particolare epistemologia e metodologia di ricerca qualitativa sviluppatasi in ambito italiano., The research is a mixed-methods case study, which spreads between June 2009 and June 2010. It aims at exploring the training experience of those students who attend the Degree Course in Social Health Educators at the University of Milan. In particular, the study investigates whether and how the academic training shapes professional educational competencies that could help to face the current change, and, at the same time, whether and how it delineates idiosyncratic ways of understanding and enacting the educational work. This study is based on both the ecological paradigm and naturalistic epistemology and it refers to the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the “Clinical-Educational Approach” [Clinica della Formazione] (Massa, 1992). Beyond its results, the study proves to be interesting, since it is an experience that cast a new light on the potentialities, the limits, and the critical aspects of this specific epistemology and methodology of research developed in Italy more than thirty years ago.

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 wit

Ethical reflections about Evalutator of adult education staff. Evaluators are always responsible in what they do and for what they do. Being responsible is what makes them virtuous, correct and suitable. They can be so only because they exercise their freedom, i.e. are free in the exercise of their work.

Il presente contributo, basato su di una ricerca empirica ancora in corso, è volto ad interrogare il collage come metodo di ricerca pedagogica. Nel contemporaneo dibattito pedagogico italiano, infatti, le tecniche artistiche in genere vedono ampi margini di utilizzo quali risorse per il lavoro educativo, mentre non del tutto consolidata è la possibilità di pensare alle arti come risorsa per la ricerca pedagogica, vale a dire individuando nel metodo artistico una via per esplorare l’esperienza educativa. All’interno di una prospettiva ermeneutica che riconosce il ricorso a metodologie artistiche per la ricerca nelle scienze umane (Van Manen, 1990), lo studio qui presentato si interroga sulle possibilità di pensare la ricerca pedagogica come artisticamente orientata (Cole & Knowles, 2008) attraverso il ricorso al collage (Butler-Kisber, 2010). Le finalità dello studio sono, pertanto, volte a comprendere il processo del ricercare l’educazione come processo artistico attraverso la tecnica del collage, This paper, based on an on-going educational research project, explores the potential to use collage as a research method in the field of education. In contemporary Italian pedagogy, artistic techniques have been extensively deployed as educational practices, but their use as research methods through which to interrogate education has not yet been fully established. Adopting a hermeneutic perspective (Van Manen, 1990), that recognizes a role for the arts in human science research, the paper will examine draw on the practice of collage (Butler-Kisber, 2010) to explore how the process of exploration of the educational field may itself be considered an artistic process (Cole & Knowles, 2008)

The EduEval project is a project of the Lifelong learning programme of the European Commission (http://www.edueval.eu). During the first phase of the project, it was aimed to explore and understand how non-official evaluators performed the processes for quality increase in their own educational institutions. We focus on the staff development. In this paper we try to define indicators that make the evaluation process more systematic and verifiable, while on the other side, we add formality to a soft process that usually is performed by non-official evaluators and also includes personal dynamics and relations. We offer the EduEval model (self-assessment, external, and context evaluation) focused for community development, professional development and personal development

This paper aims to present a project, carried out within the Lifelong Learning Programme – Grundtvig Multilateral Projects - , with the main goal of exploring evaluation as a key aspect for the professional development of adult education staff, in order to define the professional profile of the evaluator of adult education staff at a European level. The project started in January 2014 and is planned to be completed in December 2015. It will contribute to promoting a European culture of evaluation in the adult education system, taking into account the specific differences between the fields of intervention and the expertise related to adult education. The project has been developed by a Consortium made up of 6 partners from 5 European countries from different EU regions: Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece), Central Europe (Poland) and the Baltic region (Latvia). The geographical spread covers some important diversities in the EU as regards the different traditions in Adult Education, Lifelong Learning and Evaluation Systems theories, models and methodologies. Geographical diversity also accounts – to some extent - for different traditions in adult learning, different traditions and models in defining evaluation, as well the methodologies, procedures, practices (i.e. qualitative or quantitative traditions of evaluation). The project described here uses an innovative methodology in the field of adult education, based on a collaborative approach in constructing knowledge and cooperation between those who have working knowledge (professionals working in agencies of adult education) and those who have theoretical knowledge (researchers). This approach aims to create, together, new and effective assessment strategies and a new "vision", capable of making a significant contribution to current practices. To achieve these goals, the project involved a target group of official and unofficial evaluators with different roles in adult education services. Some of the practition

This paper presents a reflection on the role of cooperative research in addressing the topic of evaluation within the field of adult education. To this end, the authors outline a specific cooperation initiative that involved academics and practitioners from the field of adult education in different European countries.The project presented here is based on the hypothesis that in order to enhance evaluation at the European level, it is necessary to build a European culture of evaluation, which may be developed by creating a concrete space for collaboration among practitioners and researchers from a range of European adult education contexts. Specifically, the project wasdesigned to promote an exchange of experiences, expertise and practices among academic researchers and “practitioners” (Schön, 1983)involved in the evaluation of adult education. A key role was played by a Mobility Workshop: viewed as the core of the collaborative approach proposed, the Workshop provided a concrete opportunity for collaboration amongevaluators and researchers from different countries within Europe

Il saggio presenta una riflessione metodologica sul contributo di un approccio autobiografico alla realizzazione di una didattica inclusiva nella scuola primaria.

Il presente contributo intende riflettere sull’utilizzo di una tecnica artistica, il collage, all’interno della formazione degli insegnanti e degli educatori. Si tratta di una differente modalità di azione da parte dei formatori che è inserita nell’ambito dell’art-based research (McNiff, 2008), e dell’arts-informed research (Cole & Knowles, 2008). Per comprendere in modo approfondito questa scelta è necessario conoscere la nascita di questa tecnica e l’utilizzo che di questa hanno fatto vari artisti. Questo consente di delineare alcuni processi cognitivi riflessivi connessi alla pratica del collage che lo rendono strumento efficace in contesti formativi, soprattutto quando rivolti a insegnanti ed educatori. In chiusura, pertanto, si andranno presentando alcuni esempi di esperienze formative che hanno visto il ricorso al collage come strategia riflessiva., This paper presents a reflection on the use of an artistic technique, the collage, for teachers and educators training. It is a different mode of action carried on by the trainers that is inserted as part of the art-based research (McNiff, 2008), and the arts-informed research (Cole & Knowles, 2008). In order to thoroughly understand this choice it‟s important to know the birth of this technique and the collage artists‟ process of research. This passage allows us to identify some cognitive and reflective processes related to the practice of collage that make it an effective tool in training context, especially when aimed at teachers and educators. In closing, indeed, we will be presenting examples of learning experiences that used the collage as a reflective strategy.