L'Europa dei romanzi: Galeotto o dell'amicizia

L'articolo analizza il ruolo del personaggio di Galeotto come civilizzatore e portatore di valori come l'amicizia. Sarà proprio l'amicizia per Lancillotto a mettere in crisi l'ambizione sfrenata che lo animav

The Emerging Chinese Theory and Practice of Media

Since the foundation of the People\u2019s Republic of China, the country has developed its own model of media management and journalism. This model, which traditionally encompasses a very strong relation between politics and media practices, has evolved over the last 40 years of reforms. At the national level, it has transformed into a much more complex and nuanced system based on the mediation between political, commercial and professional interests. At the international level, the ambition of China to contribute to the media agenda and flow of information has grown significantly. These transformations are reflected in the discursive representations of the Chinese media coming from the political, academic and media realms, and in the practice of media production in the country. This issue is aimed at providing original and up-to-date explorations and reflections on the role and functions of the media in today\u2019s China as well as on journalism values and products

Ricerca sull’amministrazione scolastica in Portogallo: temi, punto focale e metodologie

Today, educational management is an expanding scientific field that has been attracting ever more social and political visibility, and it has been the object of a considerable amount of research. In the Portuguese context, over the past two decades there has been a sharp movement to create post-graduate courses, to increase individual and collective research and the number of scientific publications. The growing centrality assumed by the sociological approaches of educational organisations, associated with a vast collection of scientific research and publications, promoted a meta-analysis of a considerable amount of work produced in this area. For this analysis, we selected 80 dissertations all presented within the context of the pioneering Master’s course, and the oldest course in the country on educational management, the Master in «Education Sciences», specialising in «Educational Management», offered by the University of Minho. Of the main trends identified, the most important were: (i) synchronization between the political agenda, professional experience and research interests; (ii) use of a certain theoretical pluralism, mobilizing two or more models of organizational analysis; (iii) the use of a largely qualitative methodology, tending towards the case study method; (iv) mobilizing a meso-approach to school organization, seeking to coordinate micro and macro analytical levels. On a more substantive plane, this study has contributed to discussions on some dilemmas and agendas that, in our opinion, are involved in constructing the object of educational management.L’amministrazione scolastica rappresenta oggi un campo scientifico in espansione, con un notevole dinamismo a livello di ricerca ed una crescente visibilità sociale e politica. Nel contesto della realtà portoghese si è osservato, nell’ultimo ventennio, il proliferare di corsi post-laurea, un aumento della ricerca individuale e collettiva ed un maggior numero di pubblicazioni scientifiche. La crescente centralità assunta dagli approcci sociologici alle organizzazioni educative, associata alle numerose ricerche e pubblicazioni scientifiche, ha permesso di sviluppare una meta-analisi su un insieme di opere prodotte in questo campo. Abbiamo selezionato ed analizzato 80 tesi svolte nell’ambito della laurea specialistica pioniera e più antica del Paese nel campo della amministrazione scolastica – la laurea specialistica in «Scienze dell’Educazione», specializzazione in «Amministrazione Scolastica» presso l’Università del Minho (ufficialmente Universidade do Minho). Tra le principali tendenze individuate emergono: (i) la sincronia tra agenda politica, esperienze professionali ed interessi di ricerca; (ii) l’adesione ad un certo pluralismo teorico, mobilitando due o più modelli di analisi organizzativa; (iii) l’uso di una metodologia prevalentemente qualitativa, concentrata sul metodo dello studio di caso; (iv) la mobilitazione di un meso-approccio dell’organizzazione scolastica, volto ad articolare i livelli di analisi micro e macro. Su un piano più sostanziale, questo studio ha inoltre contribuito alla discussione intorno ad alcuni dilemmi e questioni che, dal nostro punto di vista, si ricollegano alla definizione del ruolo dell’amministrazione scolastica.(undefined

Nuovo realismo e metodi di ricerca misti

Il nuovo realismo ha evidenziato i limiti del costruttivismo sociale e del cosiddetto \uabpensiero debole\ubb, che rischia di sfociare nel nichilismo. Sono stati recentemente rimossi dei pregiudizi che impedivano di cogliere la realt\ue0 dei fatti educativi nella sua concreta evidenza. Tuttavia un\u2019apertura alla prospettiva metafisica offrirebbe al nuovo realismo ulteriori spazi epistemologici. In tale senso il contributo del realismo critico potrebbe aiutare a superare l\u2019artificiosa antinomia tra il ruolo attivo del soggetto conoscente e la rilevazione oggettiva dei fatti educativi. Se si realizzasse questa apertura la conoscenza scientifica e la conoscenza corrente non sarebbero pi\uf9 viste come antinomiche perch\ue9 la seconda costituirebbe un approfondimento della prima, in una linea di continuit\ue0. I metodi sperimentali di ricerca in campo educativo si sono recentemente avvalsi delle riflessioni filosofiche dei realisti per integrare l\u2019approccio qualitativo e quello quantitativo allo studio della realt\ue0 dell\u2019educazione. Anche i nuovi disegni di ricerca che intendono seguire e rilevare, senza ingabbiarli, i processi educativi sono per lo pi\uf9 misti.\uabNew Realism\ubb has highlighted the limits of social constructivism and of so-called \uabweak thought\ubb that risks producing nihilism. Some prejudices have recently been removed that prevented researchers and theorists from grasping the real core of educational facts in their concrete evidence. However, an opening to a metaphysical view would offer \uabnew realism\ubb further epistemological perspectives. In this sense, the contribution of critical realism might help to overcome the artificial antinomy between the active role of the knowing subject and the objective measurement of educational facts. With this \uabopening\ubb, scientific knowledge and current knowledge would no longer be seen as opposites because the latter would be considered as a deepening of the former, in a line of continuity. The experimental methods of research in the education field have recently made use of the philosophical reflections of realists to integrate the quantitative and qualitative approach to the study of education. New research designs, aimed at monitoring and observing educational processes, without \uabencaging\ubb them, are mainly of a \uabmixed\ubb kind

New Literacy for Reading Using ICT

This article will analyse the key strategies in the relationship between reading and writing in the area of ICT and the resulting importance in supporting literacy in this area so that the education system as a whole (primary and secondary schools and universities) can be guided to make full use of the opportunities ICT can provide. ICTs are able to help improve overall comprehension, evaluate general perspectives and raise awareness of the value of cooperation and, as a result, the essential quality of individuals and their contributions. These contributions are far-reaching and strategic. The benefits of applying ICT in reading and writing are also felt in oral expression and can result in education based more on dialogue which, in turn, leads to social change

Studenti svantaggiati e fattori di promozione della resilienza

Molti studi evidenziano l’impatto che il contesto socio-economico e diverse caratteristiche degli studenti, quali il genere e il background migratorio, hanno sul raggiungimento di adeguate competenze in matematica. Questa situazione pone un problema di equità del sistema educativo e formativo: alcuni gruppi di giovani sono infatti svantaggiati in partenza per motivi indipendenti dal loro impegno nello studio. L’obiettivo del presente lavoro è valutare la presenza di fattori, su cui è possibile un intervento da parte degli insegnanti, che consentano a studenti svantaggiati di raggiungere risultati di eccellenza. Il contributo mira a identificare fattori associati non solo a una compensazione dello svantaggio legato alle condizioni di sfondo degli studenti, ma a una vera e propria inversione delle previsioni in termini di competenze raggiunte. I risultati mostrano l’impatto che l’appartenenza geografica, il background socio-economico-culturale delle scuole e delle famiglie e il genere, nella loro interazione, esercitano nel definire situazioni di forte svantaggio di partenza per gli studenti. Allo stesso tempo, gli esiti mettono in luce il ruolo protettivo giocato da alcune strategie d’insegnamento, dalle convinzioni di autoefficacia degli studenti e da altri fattori legati a specifiche situazioni di contesto.Many studies showed the impact that the socio-economic context and students’ characteristics, such as gender and migratory background, have on mathematical performance. This situation poses a problem of equity of the educational system: some groups of young people are in fact disadvantaged for reasons independent of their commitment to the study. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the presence of factors on which teachers can intervene, allowing disadvantaged students to achieve excellence. The contribution aims to identify associated factors not only to compensate for the disadvantage associated with student background conditions, but to a real reversal of predictions in terms of skills acquired. The results show the impact that geographic membership, the socio-economic-cultural background of schools and families and gender, in their interaction, exert in defining situations of major disadvantage for students. At the same time, there is evidence for the protective role played by some teaching strategies, student self-beliefs, and other factors related to specific background situations

Leader as Policy Device: The Hybridization of Head Teachers in Italy

The aim of this article is to show how educational policies in Italy in the last 15 years have conceived headship as a «lever of change», producing a sort of «subjection» which implies a remarkable hybridization of the role. The ongoing pressures on policymaking by «noneducational» actors are depicted as a feature of the Italian policies on the restructuring of school governance and headship. The topics presented are based on researches carried out in recent years and focusing on the training, selection and evaluation of Italian head teachers. The article is structured as follows. Firstly, we present the theoretical framework based on the conceptual tools of discourse and governance. Secondly, we offer a brief outline on how head teachers were «formed» as educators before the 1997 Autonomy Reform. In the final section, some tensions that emerge during the discussions on headship are presented by analysing a particular set of «technologies» such as training, selection and evaluation that aim to «S-Objectivate» specific head teachers. The analysis will allow us to shed light on what we think of as an invisible and politically remarkable dilemma that is at stake here: «headship as a managerialist device to ‘control’ education policies»

Supporting School Resilience: A Study on a Sample of Teachers after the 2016/2017 Seismic Events in Central Italy

Between 2016 and 2017, a series of high-intensity earthquakes devastated Central Italy, with great repercussions on the lives of people and local communities. The article reports the results of a research concerning the impact of the catastrophe on the school world, on the teaching profession and on the behavior of the students. Special attention was paid to teachers’ resilient skills and their professional responses in catastrophic situations. For the survey, we used a questionnaire and a test for the study of resilience, administered to a sample of 477 teachers from Lazio and Abruzzo. The results showed that the experience of the catastrophe has a significant influence on teaching professionalism, professional motivation, levels of resilience and behaviors observed in the students. In the light of the results, it is possible to state that in emergency situations teacher training on help relationship and resilience becomes a crucial factor in supporting their professionalism, with important repercussions on students and on school organization

Educational Leadership in Latin Europe: A European Perspective

Much of the contemporary literature and theory of leadership has, as its starting point, the image of governance and public school leadership, an image that is very close to the vision proposed by the OECD. This view is strongly influenced by the way the neo-liberal Anglo-American approach analyzes and outlines the political and administrative characteristics of school organization. However, you cannot apply the same practices and policies all over the world, such as in the countries of Latin America. This general introduction is put forward with a framework in which we can reflect their own situation. It cannot be realistic to have a «one size fits all» policy such as the method of governance the OECD implies. An important addition to the traditional Anglo-American perspective presented in these pages is the discussion on the fact that strong leadership from above can be replaced by a perspective of distributed leadership, inserting the concepts of leadership within social contexts and a broader policy

English as a Lingua Franca in the Academic Context: The Role of University Language Centres

English is now the dominant language in the higher education sector in Europe, as can be seen from objective indicators such as the growing number of degree programmes which use English as a medium of instruction. Teaching subjects through the medium of English (English Medium Instruction or EMI) may raise a series of questions and challenges for what concerns the accreditation and training of teaching staff. University language centres can play a fundamental role in helping the academic staff from feeling pushed towards teaching through English without a great deal of training and preparation. The present contribution reports on the activities implemented by the Language Centre in order to assist those members of the teaching staff (lecturers) who are confronted with the inherent challenges of teaching through English on a daily basis, and also highlights possible future avenues of research and instances of best practices