Writing professional experience to reactivate reflexivity and pedagogical sense of educational action. An experience of research-training of extra-scholastic educators

Abstract

In the last 2 years I have developed a transformative-research-action process which involved the educators of the extra-curricular educational services for adolescents in the Municipality of Bologna. The path was based on the involvement of educators as a "community of practice" on writing about professional experience. The focus on the practice of writing was interpreted according to a multiple perspective: as a reflective device, as a tool on which to develop a specific competence, as a medium to counteract the hegemonic narrative on adolescents and on socio-educational work, as a context through which to develop " widespread pedagogical culture". Over seventy male and female educators participated in the process and this contribution aims to return the outcomes and critical elements that emerged and, furthermore, to encourage the scientific debate surrounding the practice of writing professional experience as a device for professional empowerment of care professions.