The discussion group: a research and training context with asylum seekers and practitioners of the reception system

Abstract

The article is based on an participatory action and training research carried out from 2015 to 2018 in collaboration with an association committed to the reception of asylum seekers. Since the research was characterized by a very complex methodological framework, that included several research and training spaces, the article will focus only on a specific dimension, in which the author was involved in a more significant way as a research fellow: the discussion group with men asylum seekers and some male and female practitioners of the association. Therefore, after contextualizing the research, the article will take in consideration the conduction, the planning, the documentation and the restitution of the group's activities, in order to highlight theoretical and methodological principles, results in terms of knowledge and action, but also some relevant critical issues.

Keywords

• asylum seekers
• reception system
• participatory research
• popular pedagogy
• decolonial pedagogy