BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to allow students:
- to learn knowledge regarding the main themes, concepts, and methods which form the foundations of anthropological interpretations of socio-educational services within the wider framework of the major anthropological schools of thought and the specific features of the ethnographic and interpretative method;
- to learn skills to critically discuss the main paradigms, works and current thinking in anthropological research applied to social and educational services as well as to apply analytical tools provided by anthropology to ethnographic research in socio-educational contexts;
- to learn a subject specific vocabulary, acknowledging particular characteristics of an anthropological approach to the study of socio-educational services in comparison with other human and social sciences, while enhancing interdisciplinary approaches;
- to develop discursive and critical analysis skills (regarding texts and contexts) through a cultural-anthropological approach to socio-educational services, with particular regard to cultural diversity and plurality in education and training as well as in the wider social field.
At the end of the course the student will be able:
- to translate the theoretical and methodological knowledge of anthropology, with particular regard to the study of social and educational services, into critical and self-critical skills in his/her professional environment as well as into a capacity of professional reflexivity;
- to interpret the information emerging from social, communicative, training, and educational processes involved in the professional work in various organizational contexts as data to be processed according to an ethnographic approach;
- to communicate his/her critical analysis of contexts within his/her working group;
- to autonomously and critically apply anthropological knowledge and the ethnographic approach in his/her future professional practice, with particular regard to the interpretation of the cultural, and specifically inter and transcultural, dimension of socio-educational services favoring social inclusion;
- to develop his/her anthropological knowledge in order to deepen his/her own analytical tools in terms of processes of change that are characterizing socio-educational services.
Course Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
The course consists in lectures with a particular attention to the discussion and dialogue with the students, who will be invited to make proposals for further discussion and deepening.
During the course, workshop-style lessons with a strong interactive component will be organized for attending students. During the workshop-style lessons case studies will be analysed, working groups and practical exercises will be organized to show the opportunities offered by the anthropological discipline and the ethnographic method in students’ future professional practice in organizational contexts and services in the field education, training, business, humanitarianism, ... The results of group workshop activities will be presented in class and described in a written text prepared at home.
Assessment Methods
The exam consists of an oral examination. The grade is expressed as a mark out of thirty.
The oral examination consists of 3 questions concerning the exam bibliography aimed at assessing knowledge of the course contents taught during lessons (for attending students only) and the corresponding set texts.
Any research projects carried out during workshops will be part of the examination assessment (for attending students only). The final grade earned is the average of the grades obtained for workshop activities (presentation in class and written text prepared at home) and for the final oral exam, which is (only for attending students who have participated in workshop activities) a discussion about the workshop activities they have carried out during the course. The discussion will be also aimed at checking students’ ability of connecting the workshop activities with the course contents taught during lessons and the corresponding set texts.
The final mark will take into consideration: depth of knowledge; coherence of the discursive articulation, and ability to express themselves appropriately; ability to develop a personal and critical point of view on the topics of the course.
Contents
The course aims to show the specific contribution of the anthropological studies to a critical understanding of social and educational processes in the time of contemporary globalization, as well as to a re-definition of some key-themes (welfare, culture of social rights, family/ies, gender, work, health, migration policies, housing right, education, training and school, …) for a productive management of complex processes of change at work in socio-educational services. The anthropological perspective has contributed to developing a more complex understanding of social and educational services, which have been analysed in reductionist terms (order, integration, coherence, ...) for a long time, highlighting the ambiguous nature of the organizational life of socio-educational services through ethnographic studies attentive to implicit and processual dimensions as well as through methodological approaches focused on the “situated” nature and “narrative” dimension of these contexts. Within this framework, the course provides an approach based on observation, analysis and interpretation of socio-educational services, which highlights the practical dimension and negotiating element of such services, at the same time revealing complex systems of relations, languages, symbols, and objects in the very heart of never-ended processes of signification and organizational work.
The course will be divided in two parts. The first part will adopt a theoretical perspective aimed to understand conceptual, analytical and methodological (ethnographic method) tools of anthropological investigation for a critical analysis and reading of social, educational and training processes, thereby highlighting the ability of anthropology to contribute at both the theoretical and applied level to a better understanding of the sociocultural system where we live. The second part will take an applicative perspective aimed to enhance - through ethnographic examples and workshop activities with expert witnesses - a cultural-anthropological understanding of educational and social services by especially focusing on the contexts, issues and problems the students will face in doing their future professional career. At the same time, the second part of the course will aim to develop a particular ethnographic ‘sensibility’ in the training projecting in the social and educational field.
Online Resources
More information
Non-attending students should add to the required readings the following text: Fabio Dei, Antropologia culturale (il Mulino, Bologna, 2 ed., 2016), ONLY the following parts: Capitolo II. Razza, cultura, etnia, pp. 35-50 e Capitolo III. Etnocentrismo, relativismo, diritti umani, pp. 51-64.
Erasmus students are asked to contact the teacher by e-mail to arrange a specific exam program. Erasmus students can take the exam in English, but this must be agreed before the examination period starts, and under direct request of the Erasmus incoming student.