ITALY

University of Milano-Bicocca (https://www.unimib.it/unimib-international) / Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (https://www.unimib.it/)

EXPERTS

Laura FORMENTI, PhD in Education, MA in Psychology, specialized as a Family Systems Therapist, Full professor of Social and General Pedagogy at Milano Bicocca University, Laura has been working at the Department of Human Sciences for Education since 1999. She is the leader of the Research Group FROGS (Training, Research and Orientation in Groups and Systems), she teaches “Family Pedagogy” (BA level) and “Family Counselling” (MA level), with special attention for working with distressed and negligent families and the quality of training for professionals in child and family services.

She is also Coordinator of a PhD program in education, Chair of ESREA, the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, and joint convenor of the Life History and Biography Network, President of the Network of Italian Universities for Lifelong Learning (RUIAP), and member of the Board of the Association for Systemic Epistemologies and Methodologies (AIEMS), the Asiatic-European Network CBLL (Culture, Biography and Lifelong Learning) and editorial advisor of Italian and international scientific journals and book series (Journal of Transformative Education, European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, Educational Reflective Practices, etc.). She is a member of the SIPED groups on “Family pedagogy” and “Adult Education and Learning”.

She gave keynotes and workshops in Europe, Brazil, Chile, USA, Canada, and South Korea. In 2018, February and March, she was Visiting Professor at the Eastern Finland University, Joensuu, as an expert for the ERC AdG Project “Sensotra. Sensory Transformation and Transgenerational Environmental Relationships in Europe” (P.I. Prof. Helmi Järviluoma). She received the SCUTREA Jan Martin Award “for the paper that makes the most significant contribution to social justice” in 2017 and the AAACE Cyril O. Houle Award “for outstanding literature in Adult Education” in 2019.

Her main focus is on adult education and learning, in a transformative and systemic perspective. She collaborates with many public and private social agencies that manage welfare services, implementing action research projects related to educational practices and training for professional skills.

Email: laura.formenti@unimib.it

 

 

Alessandra RIGAMONTI, Post-doc researcher in Social Pedagogy, PhD in Education and Communication, MA in Pedagogical Sciences, Social Pedagogist in Welfare Services for Children and Families, and adjoint teacher at Milano Bicocca University.

Alessandra is also an experienced educator and pedagogist who worked in several services for Child and Family Welfare. She recently completed a PhD on “Learning by rhythms. A compositional inquiry with foster care professionals”and teaches a 16 hours workshop on Residential Child Care for students in education at the Department of Human Sciences for Education, Milano Bicocca University.

She presented her research work at international conferences and research networks addressing child protection and rights, as well as professional work with them and their vulnerable families: EUSARF, IFCO, AIFREF, FOSTER CARE RESEARCH NETWORK, FICE. In 2018, she was a Junior Visiting Scholar at the university of Siegen – Germany (Professor Dr. Klaus Wolf and Dr. Daniela Reimer).

Email: alessandra.rigamonti@unimib.it

 

 

 

ERCCI – EMPOWERING RESIDENTIAL CHILD CARE (RCC) THROUGH INTERPROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Why is our university involved?

The Department of Human Sciences for Education has a strong commitment to study education in all its forms and contexts. A special attention is paid to critical pedagogy for social justice, public engagement and working with the stakeholders who manage the welfare system at a regional and national level.

The department was founded in January 1999 by a group of scholars with different backgrounds, in education, history, philosophy and human and natural sciences, who wanted to promote interdisciplinary research on educational processes. It displays then a plurality of research perspectives and methods, meant to develop a critical, innovative and integrated approach and offer solid training to teachers, professional social educators working with children, adults, families and marginalized groups, professionals of communication and intercultural relationships (BA courses), as well as second level professionals in pedagogy, training and adult education, anthropology, philosophical practices, etc. (MA courses and Masters). Among the relevant topics, there are qualitative, arts-based and interpretative methodologies for education and training; adult and continuing education; skills and competences for teaching at school and in HE; philosophical practices and ethical issues in caring relationships and professions; education for social justice.

Strong collaboration with a large network of private and public agencies, enterprises, social cooperatives sustains applied research, training and the upgrading of professional skills, not least by workplace PhD projects and many cultural and developmental activities.

The research group FROGS (Formazione e Ricerca su Orientamento e Guidance nella prospettiva Sistemica – Training and Research on Orientation and Guidance with a Systemic view) is coordinated by Professor Laura Formenti and composed by researchers, educators, social pedagogists, MA students. From several years this research group study the learning processes, systems and contexts through the lens of the systemic view.

In relation to ERCCI, the research group FROGS and the department are interested in:

1) the transcultural exchange of good practices about RCC and the construction of relationships with international partners;

2) the collaborative design of RCC training, respecting cultural differences and diverse approaches, but also looking for commonalities and shared criteria for the quality of work;

3) the implementation of innovative e-learning tools to foster an integrated approach to RCC, which could bring a benefit to professionals (social educators and pedagogists) through workplace training, as well as to students at BA and MA levels.

In Italy, the need for training in RCC work is essential. The AGIA Report 2015 included a strong claim for the need of professional training for RCC workers and the Guidelines published by the Welfare Ministry in 2017 defined competences and requirements that professionals should have, in order to “appropriately answer” to the peculiar needs of each child or adolescent.

POTENZIARE LA CURA DEI MINORI IN COMUNITÀ ATTRAVERSO LA FORMAZIONE INTERPROFESSIONALE

 

Il progetto ERCCI afferma che gli esiti del lavoro in comunità possono essere migliorati attraverso la formazione mirata dei diversi professionisti coinvolti. ERCCI punta al ruolo che operatori competenti possono avere nel promuovere l’inclusione e nel ridurre l’ineguaglianza tra i bambini e adolescenti più vulnerabili, ospitati in istituzioni. Questi giovani richiedono il supporto di esperti nel tutelare i loro diritti e una guida stabile nel percorso di costruzione del loro futuro nella società.

Nei 3 anni del progetto, costruiremo un corso accessibile gratuitamente e online (MOOC: Massive Open Online Course) sulla cura dei minori in comunità volto a elevare il livello di professionalità dell’intervento con minori allontanati dalla loro famiglia. Co-finanziato dal programma Erasmus+, il progetto unisce diversi esperti internazionali, delle università di Turku (Finlandia), Kassel (Germania), Mykolas Romeris, Vilnius (Lituania), Milano Bicocca (Italia) e Oviedo (Spagna). Ciascuno di loro porta nel progetto uno specifico contributo all’innovazione delle pratiche e alla ricerca in comunità minori, nei rispettivi paesi. I primi risultati della mappatura di dati statistici riguardanti i sistemi di cura residenziale e di formazione degli operatori in Europa offrono una possibilità di comparazione che risulta oggi assente nella letteratura di settore.

I destinatari dell’innovativo corso online, open access, basato sulle competenze, sono gli operatori di comunità minori, che potranno migliorare le proprie prestazioni lavorative; i datori di lavoro, che potranno disporre di fondamenti unitari per la formazione del loro staff; le università, che potranno disporre di moduli formativi, attualmente mancanti nella formazione accademica; gli studenti universitari, che avranno la possibilità di accedere a opzioni formative più mirate rispetto alle loro future scelte lavorative; i policy makers, che potranno disporre di standard minimi per le competenze professionali nella cura comunitaria.

Il MOOC ERCCI sarà scalabile per diversi usi nelle istituzioni di alta formazione interessate a sviluppare competenze di cura comunitaria di elevata qualità. Nella migliore delle ipotesi, il valore del progetto ERCCI sarà assicurato se il MOOC diventerà un fondamento accreditato per gli studi degli operatori di RCC in Europa e nel mondo.