Research projects

This action research project started on 1 September 2018, responding to the request made by the Headteacher of the primary and secondary school "Vladimiro Spallanzani" (in the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia). The school asked for an academic assessment of its educative project and its teaching practice, in order to gather a scientific evaluation of what had been experienced in over forty years of activity. The school is characterized by the specific use of artistic expression in the basic activities of the school, together with a strong interdisciplinary approach and a particular focus on the dimension of personalized learning.

During the first year (1 September 2018 - 31 August 2019), the project included participant observation within the school, alongside interviews with all teaching and educational staff. In the second year (1 September 2019 - 31 August 2020) we moved to a “second-level” observation by activating several DL (distance learning) internships due to the closure of schools caused by the covid-19 health emergency.

The action research carried out at the “Spallanzani” schools made it possible to observe a particular declination of the concept of “community of practice”, and to identify its connection with personalized learning. Hence, a third and final year of research (1 September 2020 - 31 August 2021) was activated, and the project expanded by including various lower and upper secondary schools in Emilia-Romagna. The final goal is to encourage the building of a schools’ network for educational innovation and the development of personalized learning, a perspective that is sensitive to the transcendent dimension of the person’s development beyond any psychosocial reductionism. At the same time, a second goal of the action-research project is the consolidation of internships for teachers’ pre-service and in-service training.

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This project is structurally connected to the Pedagogy of Artistic Expression course, which is active at the Department of Arts from the academic year 2015/16.
The course has a partially experimental structure, which requires active and critical participation of the attending students and personal writing work (followed by a tutor) for non-attending students.
The project involves a definition of "artistic expression" as a holistic and integral activity. It aims at the understanding of the relationship that is established during the pupils’ period of growth between the subject’s emotional/motivational dimensions and the specific technical and artistic skills. At the same time, the project focuses on the experiences (representations, motivations, emotions) of those who, as educators or teachers, carry out activities related to artistic expression, to train them to control their communication.

A specific research focus is on the intersections between art, religiosity, and education, with particular attention to music, dance, dramatization, and visual arts.

The increasing multiculturalism of our societies draws attention to the theme of religiosity, which for a long time has been neglected in the pedagogical field (except for pastoral or catechetical contributions).
This research field is built on a definition of religiosity as a personal human capacity, which includes cognitive, affective, behavioral aspects, without being totally defined by them. Religiosity thus appears to be an "open possibility", the vital nucleus of every experience of faith, characterized by intrinsic psychological dynamism and historical concreteness.
This definition of religiosity makes it possible to appreciate its educability and makes it an identity component in all respects (regardless of the actual religious affiliation of the subject).

The field of affectivity and love relationships is a point of interest for anyone involved in education. Indeed, it is an “educative issue” in the full sense, which presupposes a precise vision of the nature of human beings, education, and love itself. At the same time, this theme should avoid as much as possible being flattened on the mere genitality and ideologizations, which are now prevalent in the media and political debate.
The theme is also interesting for its connections to the contemporary dynamism of the family and the frequency of marital conflicts. These dynamisms may find correspondence in early adolescent relationships that continue in youth and adulthood, without ever actually becoming a mature adult relationship.

In this research area, the teaching process is approached and interpreted as the result of the whole teacher’s personal life story, which inevitably includes aspects that are not only strictly training-related but that can be thought of as personal and educational in a broad sense. According to this perspective, the teaching activity is investigated also in those aspects that are not directly accessible by the subject’s consciousness. Indeed, these aspects orient the teacher’s action and interpretation of the everyday experience in the classroom (and, more generally, in the school environment). Considering the teaching process with all its implications and as a "reflection-in-action" raises the need for a pedagogical rethinking of the teacher's training.