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Institutional affiliation
I am a first year Ph.D. student in Applied Social Sciences at “La Sapienza” University of Rome (Italy), Department of Social Sciences and Economics (DiSSE).Training background
–– 2017 | Master’s Degree in Applied Social Sciences at «La Sapienza» University of Rome (Italy);
–– 2017 | Internship at «La Sapienza» University of Rome (Italy), DiSSE (topics: «Density of the formative experiences in the university path»; «Inquiry on Applied Social Sciences’ first-year students»);
–– 2016-2017 | Internship at CNR-IRPPS (topic: «Migrants’ representation on media and textbooks»);
–– 2014 | Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology at «La Sapienza» University of Rome (Italy).Main themes of investigation
In my PhD project (Bridging Boundaries in Higher Education: from Ideas to Practices, from Global to Local. Curricula, Didactic Practices and Assessment in a Changing Landscape) I try to make my research interests come together and hold together fine.
The first purpose of the project is to explore and tentatively define the ‘new vision of learning’ (NVL) which, I believe, is nowadays widely spreading through the changing contexts of the Western higher education (HE) systems. In my hypothesis, the cross-cutting theme of the NVL in HE is that of boundaries bridging – i.e., integration – declined in multiple articulations through teaching and learning practices: inter/transdisciplinarity, competencies approaches, work/practice-based learning, individualization of the learning processes, lifelong learning, etc.
The second aim is to explore how these global ideas get translated and enacted into local practices. I argue that these translation processes occur within, and by means of, three interwoven networks – or, more specifically, through three «action nets» (Czarniawska, 2004) – in which they become visible: those of curriculum designing, teaching practices, research and didactics assessment. What happens, then, when these new global ideas are translated and stabilised in the local contexts of university practices and governance? How do the curricula and their design practices change? How do teaching and assessment practices transmorph? What are the margins of (dis)alignment between procedures and practices, and what (re)actions on the part of the actors enrolled in the networks?
On the one hand, the policy documents most relevant to the various scalar levels will be analysed using content analysis techniques. On the other hand, a multi-sited shadowing strategy will allow me to follow the translation of the NVL within the three action nets identified so far.The paper I intend to write
I am very interested in writing a paper aimed at:
–– providing a first review and systematization of the various meanings and dimensions that make up the ‘new vision of learning’ that I briefly sketched out earlier;
–– analysing the processes and the effects of the translation of these global ideas in the local discourses and practices for the action net of curriculum designing, within a specific case study (e.g., an Italian HE course of study).The starting knowledge-base (empirical materials, theory, methodology, etc.)
To fulfil these purposes, I can mobilize knowledges related to:
–– higher education studies (e.g., Barnett, Ball, etc.);
–– curricula theory and practice (e.g., Stenhouse, Young, etc.);
–– sociology of translation/actor-network theory (e.g., Czarniawska, Latour, etc.), practice-based approaches to knowledge and learning (e.g., Gherardi, Viteritti, etc.);
–– competence/skills theories (e.g., Le Boterf, Benadusi, etc.).
At a methodological level, I have skills in policy content analysis, ethnographic observation, interviewing.The knowledge needed to complete the paper
A more thorough knowledge about the European governance of education will certainly prove useful for my purposes. In fact, it will provide me with valuable tools both for consolidating the systematization of the NVL that I propose to carry out, and for exploring the genealogy and the effects of the NVL on HE policies at different scalar levels.
I will also attend with great pleasure the lectures about evaluation – one of the action net in which, I argue, the NVL becomes more visible – and about the digitalization of education, a fairly new global trend with important implications on learning representations and practices.-
This topic was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by
Leonardo Piromalli.
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This topic was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by
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