Educating Communities: From the Epistemology of Educational Research to the Case of Adult Learning Centres in Italy

Abstract

In this multi-voice essay, the authors will endeavour to prove a point on the epistemology of educational research and show its consequences for a specific case. Section 1 introduces the notion of educational research as a practical science belonging to the Greater Humanities paradigm. Hence, Section 2 uses discourse analysis to reconstruct the hermeneutic framework surrounding the Scienze della formazione educational research programme, which is currently trending in the Italian academic debate. In the ‘discourse’, communities emerge as the key players in achieving welfare goals notwithstanding the socioeconomical and environmental challenges they face. Drawing on participant observation and policy analysis, Section 3 shows how the above understanding is validated by the case of the Italian Provincial Centres for Adult Education. These work as networks rather than monolithic institutions and cater for the welfare of communities by interacting with their stakeholders. Section 4 draws the conclusions: the Scienze della formazione research programme is fertile grounds for ecopedagogy, which is corroborated by the case of CPIAs. This paper constitutes one of the research outputs of the SIREF Summer School 2021.

Keywords

• Adult learning
• Common good
• Community education
• Education sciences in Italy
• Welfare