Voices from residential care. Action research with pedagogical coordinators

Abstract

Residential care – regulated by Law 149/2001 – is a system in which small groups of professionals host minors livingin vulnerable conditions and provide positive family contexts. However, even though in Italy the phenomenon of minors in residential care is significant, it emerges when linked to critical issues, rather than in its ordinariness. The research project Minors and educators in residential care of the University of Parma aims to respond to this criticality by exploring the dynamics characterizing the phenomenon, starting from the voice of educators. In this logic, the contribution defines the overall research framework, placed in the broader panorama of action-research, and reports the results the emerged from the interviews conducted with pedagogical coordinators from Parma, Reggio Emilia, and Piacenza.