Slide margiotta zambianchi_bucharest_24-25oct13

Transforming the educational relationship: adults learning for intergenerational creative experiences
Strengthening the reflectivity of parents
with creative and informal languages
Umberto Margiotta, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italia)
margiot@unive.it
Elena Zambianchi, PhD Student, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italia)
e.zambianchi@inwind.it
International conference
24-25 October 2013 - Bucharest, Romania

1. BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
By a long time the European Community highlights how parents – fundamental
resource for the education of the “tomorrow’ citizens” – must be supported in
the interpretation of their educative role and in the assumption of their whole
responsibility with respect to the related functions.
This paper presents an ALICE pilot project dedicated to the training of
parents with children aged 0-3 and realized as a laboratory of reflectionlaboratory of reflection
through creative and informal languagesthrough creative and informal languages.

In consequence, an ALICE pilot project has been
designed to support young parents.
A laboratorial path named “Parenting: thoughts and
creations to explore a new, though ancient,
identity. A laboratory to listen themselves, to
listen, to reflect” was been organized by Elena
Zambianchi assisted by Monica Gazzato,
kindergarten’s teacher, in collaboration with the
Association" Progetto Nascere Meglio“ of Venezia-
Mestre.
The laboratorial path, which also involved children, has
been realized from November to December 2012,
over six meeting sessions two hours’ long.
ALICE - Adults Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences is an European project
GRUNTWIG-LLP that aims to train adults interested in interacting with children through
creative and informal languages. The principal objectives are:
1. promoting the acquisition of skills enhancing the educational effectiveness from an
intergenerational perspective;
2. increasing the adults' awareness about their role "as educators" to develope skills of
citizenship and social cohesion in the new generations.
2. CONTEXT OF THE PRACTICE
In collaborazione con
Alice Project Pilot
Genitorialità: pensieri e creazioni
per esplorare una nuova, seppur antica, identità
UN LABORATORIO PER ASCOLTARSI, ASCOLTARE, RIFLETTERE
Elena Zambianchi* in collaborazione con Monica Gazzato**
ALICE- Adults Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences” è un Progetto Europeo
GRUNDVIG che sviluppainterventi formativi informali basati su metodologie e linguaggi
creativi dedicati all’adulto nel suo ruolo di educatore, in quanto potente leva per lo sviluppo
nei bambini e nei ragazzi di competenze di cittadinanza.
Il percorso “GENITORIALITÀ: pensieri e creazioni per esplorare una
nuova, seppur antica, identità” è una sperimentazione formativa che
rientra nell’ambito delle attività promosse da ALICE
www.alice-llp.eu
Obiettivi della proposta formativa
• Offrire un percorso di supporto alla
genitorialità per il riconoscimento, la
consapevolezza e il potenziamento delle
proprie capacità di accompagnare i figli
nel loro percorso di crescita e per formare
i “beni comuni”, cittadini di domani
Come?
• Attraverso una conviviale ricerca basata sul
rievocare, sentire, riflettere sui propri saperi
genitoriali, per attivare una rigenerazionealla cura
di sé e dei propri figli, esplorando assiemealcuni
interrogativi inerenti l’essere e il fare il genitore
Dedicato a chi?
• Mamme e papà con bimbi in età 0-3
Quando e dove?
• Sei incontri settimanali a partire da
giovedì 8 Novembre 2012 ore 17.00,
presso “Progetto Nascere Meglio”,
Via Torino 3, Mestre
Metodologia
• Saranno adottati linguaggi
informali e creativi:
narrazioni e forme
espressive per creazioni
individuali o collettive
dedicate a sé e ai propri figli:
parole, segni e colori,
manipolazioni plastiche, libri
e libroni, giochi e suoni
* Formatrice,psicologa psicoterapeuta
**Insegnantedi scuoladell’infanzia formata alla pedagogia steineriana
The locandina

3. PRACTICE PROBLEM
General purpose of this experimentation was to stimulate in young parents a
reflexive practice through the critical exploration of their experiences and their
lived as son/daughter and as parent, contributing to the explicitation - and
sometimes to the transformation - of their knowledges on parenting starting from
the enhancement of the resources derivable from their family.
4. APPROACH OF THE INTERVENTION
Using the dialogue and the autobiographic narration supported by informal and
creative languages, the objectives were to offer to parents:
a) a simple but essential help through forms of analogical expression in order to
recognize, strengthen and enhance their caregiving competences, favouring
awareness of them;
b) a support to the empowerment of the practices of reflection critics on the
educative tools for a better use of them in the educational relationship with
children.

5. METHODOLOGY AND CONTENTS
Each laboratory session was organized in two phases:
a) the first as a self-reflection as parent and then as son/daughter;
b) the second as a realization of creative activities to enhance the educational quality
of the relationship with their children, in order to support a reflexive parenting.
Among the techniques used: self-description, autobiographic narration, group
discussion, emotional resonance, role playing, use of literary and evocative
material, expressive forms for individual and/or collective creations, including the
realization of a tactile book dedicated to their child, so generating a texture of
emotions and thoughts, or to express “what had not been told”
Intergenerational Learning
Intergenerational Learning

Every occasion was functional to reflect on some
crucial questions: tales of birth, self-
exploration as son/daughter, models and
preconceptions of parents in action,
becoming a parent between stories,
memories and generations, educational
relationship.
Has been also adopted a “thinking diary”
(Mortari, 2006), devoted to the tracking of
thoughts on themes around “generating a
good life”, and “accompanying towards a
good life”, believing that writing of the life of
own mind is an effective approach – by
attributing a sense to the object of thinking –
in order to establish a reflexively critic
relation with themselves.
Thinking diary
Laboratory sessions

6. RESULTS
The results were quite encouraging, as it appears by considering the pre- and post- self-
evaluation on training path as respect to the perception of change for some indicators
related respectively (a) the role and parental function, (b) some personal implications.
SELF-EVALUATION (n=14/15)
Implications pertinent to the role and parenting function
8,4
8,3
8,3
7,9
7,8
7,1
7,4
7,5
6,5
7,2
6,1
7,4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Awareness of the importance of own role as educator in
society *
Ability to comparison with others / exchange of emotions
and experiences
Ability to listen
Confidence in their capacity to share parenting **
Capacity to communicate and relate to others
Capacity to "dissolve" nodes evolutive *
Indicators
Evaluation scale
Now Before
For what elements has been useful for you this training?
* p < 0,05
** p < 0,01
SELF-EVALUATION (n=14/15)
Personal implications
8,2
8,1
8,0
8,0
7,9
6,4
6,9
7,3
7,3
6,6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Take care oneself **
Self-knowledge / awareness
of self *
Capacity to get in the game
in the interpersonal
relationships of everyday life
Capacity to express feelings
and emotions
Capacity to get involved in
situations of hardship or
difficulty
Indicators
Evaluation scale
Now Before
What aspects of your character / personality had the chance to express themselves or grow in this path training?
* p < 0,05
** p < 0,01

The participants have globally valued a positive change with respect to every indicator
analysed and, in some cases, the difference between averages pre- and post-
intervention compared with the t Test (26 g.l) results statistically relevant.
Specifically, the parents believe that has been significantly improved:
 the capacity to face and dissolve the personal emotional/evolutive blocks;
 the trust in the personal action capacities;
 the awareness with respect to the relevance of the own role as educator in society;
 the knowledge and awareness of themselves;
 the capacity to take care of themselves.
The results appear supporting the hypothesis behind the present educational proposal
according to which the more effective support to parenting is obtained not much on
“empowerment of the role” but instead on the awareness of him/herself
6. RESULTS

In agreement with the objectives of ALICE, we wanted to understand whether this type of
support for a reflexive and aware parenting had a strategic impact also for the
strengthening and development of key-competence possessed by the parents.
In the last laboratory session was therefore carried out a group interview to explore the
possible change, strengthening or awareness of some key skills involved in the pilot project.
Key competences for lifelong learning
The following graphs report the answers -
grouped together by similarity - obtained
from parents: the correspondences appear
in the direction desired by ALICE.
6. RESULTS

Learning to learn (KC5): ….. changed the manner you
reflect on the events, on your life moments, on your
feelings? Have you changed the attention that you
generally put in the creation of your thoughts? If the
answer is yes, how?
Social and citizenship competences (KC6): ……
changed the criteria through which you relate to
the others, or you consider the diverse other
modalities to act, express sentiments, life
moments, to adopt different value metrics? If the
answer is yes, how?
KC5 = Learning to learn
Understanding the
influence of own
past in today's
actions both as a
parent and as a
person
26%
Accessing to own
wealth of experience
and lived
11%
Learn how to bring
attention on
themselves and on
own person
42%
Reflexivity and focus
on the thoughts that
underlie to thoughts
and actions
21%
KC6: Social and citizenship competences
Confront and learn
from the experience
of others
19%
Improved the way
we relate to others,
recognizing and
respecting
individuality,
feelings, and
experiences of the
other 46%
Reflections on own
judgments with
which one criticizes
the neighbor
without have
knowledge about
him/her
19%
Reassurance about
the relationship with
sons in the
expression of own
actions and
emotions
13%
Understanding of
some of the
dynamics with own
parents
6%
Dear parent, according to your
opinion, this training path has in
some way ………

Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (KC7): … changed your
habitual willingness and decisions regarding to your “to be” as
parent, for instance through changes in the relational and
educative practices with your son/daughter, by considering “risks”
and “possibilities” of parenting, in understanding your effective
capacity to know to anticipate events in the educative relation? If
the answer is yes, in which way?
Cultural awareness and expression (KC8): … reinforced or
increased in you the awareness of your knowledges, practices,
capacities in action that you own, and you have been favoured in
expressing it? If the answer is yes, in which way?
Dear parent, according to your
opinion, this training path has in
some way ………
KC7: Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
Desire to deepen
their self-awareness
in order to act at own
best the parenting
19%
Increased
willingness to
question
themselves in the
parent's role
30%
Increased of
attention to the
relationship with
offspring and
reflection before
acting
19%
Improvement of
relationship and
dialogue with own
sons
19%
New ideas for the
correction of
inadequate
educational
behaviors
13%
KC8: Cultural awareness and expression
Awakening of the
propensity
educative with an
approach manual
and creative
17%
Increased
awareness about
own parenting skills
41%
Free expression of
self in the
relationship and in
comparison with
others
17%
Awareness of the
need for continuing
education
8%
Reinforcement of
the link
intergenerational
and awareness of
the common
intergenerational
heritage
17%

7. CONCLUSIONS
The active response and positive of parents to every proposal of the laboratory make us
to believe that the educational paths in support to parenting are as more relevant as
more they are enactive, i.e. generative of knowledge, as intended by Maturana & Varela
(1984; see also Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1992).
Margiotta (2011a,b) interprets the enaction/generativity as that process able to “make
emerging of signified” and to “give shape” to the human action systems, believing that
the main device able to produce it lies in reflexivity (Margiotta, 2012).
On the view of this vision and the results of the experimentation, we think that
typologies of support to the parenting based on a approach both reflexive and creative
could contribute to make the parents conscious of the “enactive weft” of their relational
capabilities and to reinforce their role as educators.
We are convinced that the most effective parenting support is based not as much on
strengthening the role (“what” knowing to do to be a parent) as the awareness of own
self (“who” must be able to “be” an individual in order to act - for Winnicott's words - a
“good enough” parenting).

Bibliograpy
Demetrio D. (1998). Pedagogia della memoria. Per se stessi, per gli altri. Roma: Maltemi.
Margiotta U. (2011a). Prefazione. In: D. Olivieri, Mente, cervello ed educazione. Neuroscienze e pedagogia del
dialogo. Lecce: Pensa Multimedia.
Margiotta U. (2011b). La pedagogia e la questione trascendentale della formazione. In: R. Minello & U.
Margiotta, Poiein. La Pedagogia e le Scienze della Formazione. Lecce: Pensa Multimedia.
Margiotta U. (2012). Capacitazione e formazione. Nuovi paradigmi per la ricerca pedagogica. Relazione
presentata alla SIREF Summer School “Capability: Competenze, Capacitazione e formazione. Dopo la crisi
del welfare. Ve-Mestre, 6-8 settembre 2012.
Mortari L. (2002). Aver cura della vita della mente. Milano: La Nuova Italia.
Raffaghelli, J. (2012) An European strategy to implement adults’ informal learning activities for
intergenerational creative experiences, ALICE Project’s Newsletter, Issue 1, June 2012, pp. 6-10. Online:
http://www.alice-llp.eu/file/1CIRDFA_2.pdf
Varela F.J., Thompson E., Rosch E. (1991). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience.
Zambianchi E. (2012). Un percorso di supporto alla genitorialità attraverso l’approccio riflessivo. ALICE Project’s
Newsletter, Issue 1, June 2012, pp. 17-21. Online: http://www.alice-llp.eu/file/1CIRDFA_4.pdf
ALICE_link
http://www.alice-llp.eu (Website) http://www.alice-llp.eu/blog (ALICE Blog)
Synthetic reports of activities carried in the parenting pilot project can be found at the ALICE
Blog http://www.alice-llp.eu/blog/?p=214 and from here to the next page, click on next

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