“My kid, my rule”: Governing children’s digital footprints as a source of dialectical tensions between mothers and daughters-in-law

This paper reports on findings from an exploratory study on social media dilemmas (SMDs) mothers experience about their children’s social media presence when their mothers-in-law share about their offspring online, violating their boundaries expectations. The work is theoretically informed by systems theory and communication privacy management theory. A parenting forum was researched to investigate how mothers themselves frame these dilemmatic situations through a thematic analysis of a sample of 1224 posts from 38 discussion threads focusing on these issues. This work shows the disorienting nature of SMDs leading mothers to seek support through online communication. Findings from this study further suggest that sharing about minors on social media can cause dialectical tensions between interacting systems (i. e. the nuclear and the extended family), with mothers claiming and expecting first-level agency in managing their children’s digital footprints to foster systemic differentiation in the digital home

The management of knowledge and the negotiation of epistemic authority in parent-teacher conferences: Epistemic agency and interactional competence

A partire dalle teorie di Bronfenbrenner sull'ecologia dello sviluppo umano (1979), una quantità impressionante di ricerca è stata dedicata ad esplorare i modi in cui i mondi di socializzazione primaria dei bambini ( famiglia e scuola) si connettono e creano (o meno) un ambiente ecologico in cui stabilire legami e in cui far circolare conoscenze e competenze allo scopo di favorire uno sviluppo armonioso del bambino. Da allora, i colloqui scolastici tra genitori e insegnanti sono stati legalmente stabiliti in molti paesi, come fondamentali occasioni in cui realizzare e incentivare la partnership e il dialogo costruttivo tra scuola e famiglia. Durante i colloqui, genitori e insegnanti dispongono di un “tempo” e di uno “spazio” istituzionale all’interno del quale è possibile costruire un terreno condiviso di pratiche, esperienze, vissuti e possibili preoccupazioni (Davitti, 2013). Poiché i colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti possono essere considerati come “la chiave di volta” della comunicazione istituzionale tra scuola e famiglia volta a favorire e incentivare le alleanze (Sanchez e Orellana, 2006: 212), una grande quantità di ricerche è stata dedicata all'analisi delle percezioni e dei vissuti di insegnanti e genitori, principalmente attraverso metodologie di self-report (Epstein & Salinas, 2004; Milani, 2008). Tuttavia, sono ancora pochi gli studi che si sono occupati di analizzare come i colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti si realizzano in quanto eventi comunicativi. Pertanto, lo studio dei colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti come evento comunicativo può gettare luce su come le conoscenze e le esperienze relative alla famiglia e alla scuola domestici vengono "portati in essere" (Heritage, 1984) dai partecipanti, su come l’autorità e i ruoli siano negoziati e sul modo in cui questa negoziazione possa avere un impatto sul lavoro degli insegnanti e - in ultima analisi - anche sulla carriera scolastica dei bambini.Since Bronfenbrenner’s claims on the ecology of human development (1979), an impressive amount of research in child development has been devoted to exploring the ways in which children’s primary social worlds (i.e. the family and the school) connect and create (or not) an osmotic ecological milieu where information circulates. Since then, mandatory and/or optional encounters between parents and teachers have been established in many countries as one of the major institutional loci where such an osmosis should take place (Milani, 2012). The general pedagogical frame defines these encounters as a common ground for family and school, with their institutional aim being communicating the evaluation of the child’s school performance, along with possible problems and ways to solve them (Kotthoff, 2015; Pillet Shore, 2003). Since parent-teacher conferences are the cornerstone of the institutional communication between schools and families, a great amount of research has been devoted to analyzing teachers’ and parents’ perception as well as students’ perceptions mostly by means of self-report methodologies (Epstein & Salinas, 2004; Milani, 2008, Granata, Mejeri & Rizzi, 2015). Comparatively, there are relatively few studies on how PTC are accomplished as an interactive achievement (but see Baker & Keogh, 1995; Pillet-Shore, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2015; Kotthoff, 2015; Howard & Lipinoga, 2010; MacLure & Walker, 2000). Hence, studying parent-teacher conferences as communicative events may shed light on how domestic and scholastic epistemic territories are “talked into being” (Heritage, 1984) by partcipants, how their relative epistemic rights are negotiated and how this negotiation can impact on teachers’ work and - ultimately - on the children’s career. We advance that a detailed analysis of how the management of knowledge and the negotiation of epistemic authority occur in parent-teacher conference, will also help in critically rethinking some “pedagogical certainties” concerning school-family communication and their possible outcomes

Sostenere la professionalità degli educatori attraverso la videoanalisi: Una ricerca condotta nei nidi d’infanzia di Trento

In this paper we will present a two-year training project, conducted in two kindergartens in the province of Trento, in which video-analysis was used as a training tool aimed at supporting and accompanying the professional growth of educators. In order to support an intentional and conscious process of didactic innovation, the training set out to work on the development of observational and reflective skills that would enable the educators to maintain a continuous dialogue between the pedagogical theories and daily educational practices. Through the analysis of video-frames depicting children's learning experiences, it is possible to reflect not only on “what” educators propose to children but especially on “how” they do it, in order to understand what relational and communicative ways of negotiating and co-constructing, together with children, the delicate balance between support and autonomy and between care and education.Nel presente articolo saranno presentati gli esiti di un progetto di formazione biennale, condotto in due nidi di infanzia della provincia di Trento, nel quale è stata usata la videoanalisi come strumento di formazione volto a sostenere e accompagnare la crescita professionale delle educatrici. Per supportare un processo di innovazione didattica intenzionale e consapevole, il percorso di formazione si è posto l’obiettivo di lavorare sullo sviluppo di competenze osservative e riflessive che consentissero alle educatrici di mantenere un dialogo continuo tra le teorie pedagogiche di riferimento e le pratiche educative quotidiane. Infatti, attraverso l’analisi di video-frammenti che ritraggono le esperienze di apprendimento dei bambini, è possibile riflettere non solamente su che cosa le educatrici propongano ai bambini ma soprattutto sul come esse lo facciano, per comprendere quali siano quelle modalità relazionali che consentono di co-costruire, insieme ai bambini, il delicato equilibrio tra sostegno e autonomia e tra cura ed educazione

Lessons learnt from case studies : TOOLBOX OF KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCES AND GOOD PRACTICES. Outcome of the TRACKs project

The project Transition Children and Kindergarten (TRACKs) is funded by the Erasmus+ European program and it is carried out in partnership with different institutions in three partner countries: Poland, Italy and Belgium. The University institutions are the Jagiellonian University of Krakow in Poland, the University of Bologna in Italy, and the University of Ghent in Belgium. Other local educational organizations collaborating are Artevelde University College in Belgium, the Komensky Institute in Poland, and the Cooperativa Assistenza Disabili Infermi Anziani Infanzia (CADIAI) in Italy. The purpose of our project is to focus on the voices of practitioners \u2013 such as Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) professionals currently working with children aged 1 to 6 years old \u2013 and future ECEC professionals, such as early years educators and pre-school teachers still in training. The project\u2019s foundation rests on the dynamic exchange of knowledge and practice between the two target groups in the three countries involved in the project. This transnational exchange between the ECEC professionals across the three European Member States is intended to improve quality of learning, assuming that the international contexts can feed into each other, exchange solutions and practices and respond to shared challenges. A further essential purpose of the project is providing high quality learning opportunities and nurturing environments for all children, especially those coming from multiply marginalized backgrounds, and those that are experiencing social inequalities, poverty and racism. Drawing on the method of video-coaching and video-analysis, the project encourages high-quality interaction of ECEC professionals with children (Fukkink & Lont, 2007; Fukkink & Tavecchio, 2010; Fukkink, Trienekens & Kramer, 2010). The research teams and professionals from the different countries observe the video recordings collectively, or in one-to-one sessions, and reflect on the interactions between professionals and children and among children. This report will shed light on the contextual conditions where such tools and methods were implemented and how. The purpose is to show how the video-coaching methodology can be implemented in different ways in relation to diverse contexts (\u2018no one model fits all\u2019). This will also facilitate reflection by trainers/pedagogical leaders/coordinators who might want to use this methodology in their services/with their teams on how to develop context-appropriate procedures and tools that make it relevant to the settings/professionals within which/with whom they are working

Gestione della conoscenza e negoziazione dell\u2019autorit\ue0 epistemica nei colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti: Competenza interazionale ed efficacia epistemica

Questa tesi riguarda un particolare evento comunicativo (Hymes, 1974): i colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti. Con questa ricerca ci siamo posti l\u2019obiettivo di analizzare e descrivere le modalit\ue0 comunicative di genitori e insegnanti durante i colloqui scuola famiglia. Lo scopo \ue8 quello di mettere in evidenza quelle dimensioni invisibili dei rapporti che intercorrono tra le due istituzioni protagoniste, costantemente riprodotti in e attraverso le pratiche discorsive e le interazioni situate. I colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti rappresentano la pietra miliare della pi\uf9 ampia e complessa questione della comunicazione scuola-famiglia e sono certamente uno dei \u201cluoghi\u201d e momenti pi\uf9 studiati a partire dagli anni \u201970, anni in cui compaiono i primi decreti legislativi che sancivano ci\uf2 che la ricerca in ambito pedagogico aveva gi\ue0 ampiamente sottolineato: l\u2019importanza di una relazione positiva tra scuola e famiglia. A questo punto sembrerebbe opportuno chiedersi perch\ue9 trattare ancora questo tema? Qual \ue8 la novit\ue0 di questo lavoro? Questa tesi intende dimostrare che, malgrado l\u2019indubbia mole di ricerche, tale fenomeno presenta degli aspetti ancora poco indagati la cui analisi pu\uf2 rivelarsi estremamente utile nell\u2019ottica di poter realizzare occasioni di training e di formazione indirizzate al miglioramento delle relazioni scuola-famiglia, soprattutto in risposta alle difficolt\ue0 percepite dagli insegnanti nel gestire le relazioni con le famiglie (Walker, 1998; Amadini, Zini, 2010; Cesari Lusso, 2005; Addimando, 2013; Walker e Legg, 2018; deBruine et al., 2018) e alla percezione di scarsa preparazione e formazione rispetto alle dinamiche comunicative (Thompson et. al, 2018; Willemse et sl. 2018; deBruine et al, 2018; Epstein 2005, 2018).  In questo lavoro di tesi ci riferiremo in particolare allo studio delle \u201crisorse comunicative\u201d attraverso cui genitori e insegnanti perseguono le loro traiettorie discorsive, costruiscono (o meno) la loro autorevolezza e rendono (o meno) i rispettivi territori epistemici (Heritage, 2012) \u201cispezionabili\u201d dall\u2019interlocutore. A fronte di una mole considerevole di ricercatori che si sono interessati a cogliere i vissuti e le percezioni, poco si sa sui colloqui intesi come eventi comunicativi in cui genitori e insegnanti negoziano ruoli, funzioni, responsabilit\ue0 e autorit\ue0 in attraverso le pratiche comunicative dispiegate durante l\u2019interazione. Questo lavoro intende colmare questo scarto e inserirsi nel solco di una linea di ricerca relativamente recente inaugurata negli Stati Uniti da Pillet-Shore (2012, 2015, 2016) e (a nostra conoscenza) ancora poco sviluppata in Italia. Presentando un\u2019analisi dei colloqui tra genitori e insegnanti estratti da un corpus di 47 videoregistrazioni svolte in due scuole primarie una nel nord Italia e una nel centro Italia, si mostrer\ue0 come genitori e insegnanti co-costruiscano la realt\ue0 comunicativa all\u2019interno della quale si trovano ad interagire indagando sui modi attraverso cui genitori e insegnanti interpretano e costruiscono le loro identit\ue0, ruoli, posizioni sociali come continue ed emergenti realizzazioni pratiche (Saks, 1984) all\u2019interno dei colloqui intesi come fenomeni radicalmente interattivi. In questo lavoro di ricerca crediamo che un'analisi dettagliata di come vengono gestite le conoscenze in possesso degli interagenti (knowledge management) e negoziata l'autorit\ue0 epistemica possa essere un interessante spunto di riflessione volto a rivedere e a ripensare criticamente alcune "certezze pedagogiche" riguardanti la comunicazione scuola-famiglia. Crediamo, inoltre, che analizzare il linguaggio come veicolo di azione nei contesti educativi consenta di portare lo sguardo su una serie di pratiche che, pur essendo quotidianamente sotto lo sguardo di ognuno, solitamente non vengono fatte oggetto di disamina critica e consapevole

Managing knowledge in parent-teacher conferences :participants\u2019 resources to pursue different assessment trajectories = La gestione della conoscenza nei colloqui genitori-insegnanti : risorse comunicative e traiettorie valutative

As institutional interactions, parent-teacher conferences are the \u201ctypical\u201d milieu where teachers try to enact their professional oriented identity. This paper reports data from a mother-teachers conference where two teachers talk with a mother about the school achievements of her gifted child. Data were analyzed following the multimodal Conversation Analysis techniques. The authors advance that, as the interacting parts talk about the child, these social actors follow two different assessment trajectories. While teachers pursue a no-problem trajectory, constructing the \u201cchild-at-school\u201d as a relatively non-problematic pupil, the mother pursues a problem trajectory by framing the troublesome \u201cchild-at-home\u201d. Analyses illustrate how the mother\u2019s communicative strategies allow her to act as a \u201cfinal arbiter\u201d of the conference, demanding and getting a customized education for her child

\u201cMy kid, my rule\u201d: Governing children\u2019s digital footprints as a source of dialectical tensions between mothers and daughters-in-law

This paper reports on findings from an exploratory study on social media dilemmas (SMDs) mothers experience about their children\u2019s social media presence when their mothers-in-law share about their offspring online, violating their boundaries expectations. The work is theoretically informed by systems theory and communication privacy management theory. A parenting forum was researched to investigate how mothers themselves frame these dilemmatic situations through a thematic analysis of a sample of 1224 posts from 38 discussion threads focusing on these issues. This work shows the disorienting nature of SMDs leading mothers to seek support through online communication. Findings from this study further suggest that sharing about minors on social media can cause dialectical tensions between interacting systems (i.e. the nuclear and the extended family), with mothers claiming and expecting first-level agency in managing their children\u2019s digital footprints to foster systemic differentiation in the digital home

Assessing a (gifted) child in parent-teacher conference: Participants\u2019 resources to pursue (and resist) a no-problem trajectory

Delivering and acknowledging assessments are the most recurrent institutional activities occurring in parent-teacher conference. This paper reports data from a mother-teacher conference concerning a gifted child. We show how participants\u2019 practices to accomplish and receive assessment in the report-assessment phase of the event: (a) display their relative epistemic and deontic rights, (b) are oriented to participants\u2019 institutional relevant identities, and (c) project or even enact different and quite opposite assessment trajectories. We contend that struggles in assessing the child display participants\u2019 different stances: teachers\u2019 \u2018normalizing\u2019 and \u2018group oriented\u2019 trajectory vs. and the mother\u2019s orientation toward \u2018doctorability\u2019 and pressure for individualized treatment. Although typically occurring between routinecase oriented institutions vs. idiosyncratic-case oriented clients, such a struggle displays also the \u2018paradoxical injunctions\u2019 that frame teachers\u2019 everyday work: adopting a \u2018group-oriented\u2019 perspective while at the same time being accountable for an individualized approach

\u201cWhy Does a Teacher Feel the Need to Post My Kid?\u201d : Parents and Teachers Constructing Morally Acceptable Boundaries of Children\u2019s Social Media PresencE

Posting about children on social media is common practice today, with adults acting as agents who make choices about these digital representations. This study focuses on the management of children\u2019s online presence as debated in an online parenting forum by thematically analyzing 556 posts from 13 discussion threads about daycare and elementary school teachers sharing pictures of their students online. Findings show how this event is framed as a boundary crossing undermining parents\u2019 ability to steward their children\u2019s digital footprints. Furthermore, posters stress the risks associated with such photo-sharing behavior, construct moral identities creating the roles of the good or bad parent and teacher in a social media age, and propose solutions to regain control and restore parental agency. These findings suggest that this occurs to affirm the family as a higher-level system when it comes to setting boundaries about children\u2019s social media presence

Negotiating epistemic authority in parent-teacher conferences : non-native parents reclaiming agency against the backdrop of linguistic and cultural differences

In this paper we analyze the degree of participation, epistemic management, and authority performance during Parent-Teacher Conferences with non-native parents. Studies focusing on ethnic minority communities illustrate the dominance of the teacher\u2019s epistemic authority (see Lareau and Weininger, 2003; Garcia-Sanchez and Orellana, 2007). Describing differences in mastering both the expert and the institutional knowledge, Howard and Lipinoga (2010) illustrate how immigrated parents remain relatively silent during the report phase of the encounter. This paper reports data from eight parent-teacher conferences with non-native parents. We show how parents\u2019 practices to accomplish and receive assessment confirm in part what has already been identified by the literature, but also adds new communicative \u201cnuances\u201d. We contend that also non-native parents could be able to challenge the teachers\u2019 authority by questioning them and making the information from their territory of knowledge (i.e. the \u201cchild-at-home\u201d) relevant. We advance that a detailed analysis of how the management of knowledge and the negotiation of epistemic authority occur in parent-teacher conferences, will also help in critically rethinking some \u201cpedagogical certainties\u201d concerning school-family communication and their possible outcomes