The challenge of intercultural mediation as 'educational competence' in plural contexts

Abstract

Now, alterity and difference continue to remain a “problem” – and an “emergency” – that upsets and challenges individual and communities on human, political, social, cultural and religious levels. The purpose of this contribution is to highlight how intercultural mediation, as a “structural dimension” of educational action in multicultural contexts, represents a “professional competence” that the educator and the various socio-educational operators are called to acquire. Specifically, referring to a qualitative research conducted on 40 adolescents belonging to the second generation of immigrants, the text intends to highlight the coordinates that, at anthropological, ethical and socio-cultural levels, should characterize the educational competence of intercultural educational mediation.

Keywords

• human relationality
• education
• intercultural mediation
• adolescents of the second generation of immigrants
• human citizenship
• psychology
• sociology
• pedagogy