Generativity and Talents in Times of Transition
Generatività e talenti in un’epoca di transizione
Maria Tomarchio
Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione; Università di Catania (Italy); maria.tomarchio@unict.it
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0016-2939
Fiorino Tessaro
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy); tessaro@unive.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1394-4994
Raffaella Strongoli
Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione; Università di Catania (Italy); raffaella.strongoli@unict.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3606-4172
Margherita Gentile Margiotta
Fondazione Umberto Margiotta (Italy); info@fondazionemargiotta.it
Piergiuseppe Ellerani
Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione “Giovanni Maria Bertin”; Alma Mater Università di Bologna; piergiusepp.ellerani@unibo.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4730-3928
Liliana Dozza
Professoressa Senior; Libera Università di Bolzano-Bozen (Italy); lillidozza50@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8707-0455
This paper constitutes the call for papers for the Volume 23, issue S1, of Formazione & insegnamento (ISSN 2279-7505). It serves as a placeholder and as the first version of record for the editorial. We invite all Authors to cite this journal entry in the bibliography of their full papers. Once the issue is ready, it will be replaced by the final version of the editorial, which will expand on the current text. Please see the full text (below) for all details.
Questo contributo costituisce la call for papers per il Volume 23, fascicolo S1 di Formazione & insegnamento (ISSN 2279-7505). Ha lo scopo di fare da segnaposto e di rappresentare la prima version of record dell’editoriale. Invitiamo tutti gli Autori a citare questo contributo nella bibliografia dei loro articoli completi. Una volta completato il fascicolo, questo testo sarà sostituito dalla versione finale dell’editoriale. Si prega di consultare il testo a seguire per tutti i dettagli.
Educational transitions, Hybrid learning environments, Technological convergence, Sustainable education, Talent development, Pedagogical innovation, Chronos and Kairos in learning
Transizioni educative, Ambienti di apprendimento ibridi, Convergenza tecnologica, Educazione sostenibile, Formazione dei talenti, Innovazione pedagogica, Chronos e Kairos nell’apprendimento
The publication of the journal issue is supported by Fondazione Umberto Margiotta (https://www.fondazionemargiotta.org/). The English version of this Call has been translated with GTP 4o and reviewed by a human editor with C2 fluency.
Januray 1, 2025
January 14, 2025
January 15, 2025
June 30, 2025 (no papers
accepted beyond this date)
In the post-pandemic landscape and in the context of international recovery plans, a cluster of urgent themes has emerged, summarised in the triad transitions-hybridisations-sustainability. Together, they sketch a possible direction—a specific gaze—through which to reconsider certain educational and pedagogical responses. In this respect, Umberto Margiotta has emphasised that
“transitions become the dominant existential paradigm: of work, in work, of lifestyles, within the hybridisation of skills required to respond to the emergence of new professions, new horizons of educational success, new action profiles necessary to manage the use-value of experiences and technologies, with no clear distinction between public life and the private sphere. Advanced and accelerated transitions in the very production of knowledge and experience. Transition and anthropological mutation: these are the poles of the equation—existential, cultural, and professional—that today shape human life” (Margiotta, 2018, p. 16).
We are witnessing epochal transitions sustained by hybridisations, including—not least—the human-machine interface, evident in the increasingly pervasive use of algorithms and electronic prostheses, immersive classrooms and environments, metaverses, robotised workplaces and factories co-managed by humanoid workers, where the real and the virtual appear to merge in interdependent forms, generating new existential and contextual states. A metamorphosis that also affects the meaning and intentionality of pedagogy itself, within what has been called an age of technological convergence and of accelerating forces which, in our lives, societies, and economies, provoke unprecedented changes—perhaps more dystopian than utopian.
Some of the cultural and social implications of hybridisation have gone largely unnoticed, even though early explorations within pedagogy had already indicated possible directions (Galelli, 2013). On this point, Giuseppe O. Longo noted that:
“through hybridisation with technology, human nature changes; the way we communicate, learn, teach changes; our notions of time and our perception of space change, as does our concept of reality. Above all, there is a significant shift in the evolution of human beings: the contrast between biological timescales and those of bio-technological development. The epidemic nature of technological change makes its evolution faster than that of biology, but its outcomes are more fragile and volatile” (Longo, 2009, pp. 3–20).
Observing the trajectory of acceleration, we may now affirm that the transition of state, of environment, of form has, in effect, become permanent. Indeed,
“from the certainties of tradition we feel cast into unfamiliar spaces, governed by new laws and rules, beyond familiar systems. Pedagogy—and methodology—of tradition is our known system. But the unknown? We certainly know that each of us can learn from the past. Yet we are now aware that it is even more important to learn from the future” (Margiotta, 2018, p. 16).
The acceleration emblematised by artificial intelligence has a direct impact on education and learning, revealing how human existence is increasingly governed by the supremacy of Chronos [Χρόνος] time over Kairós [Καιρός] time. Chronos, structurally grounded in quantitative measurements (economic performance, skill benchmarks, etc.), prevails over the time of events, of reflection, expression, and development. As if in digital times, ruled by algorithms and hybridisation, time for growth and maturation—still biologically rooted in the bio-psycho-social tradition—has become secondary. Facts are deprived of the time they need to mature, to unfold, to incarnate themselves, becoming obsolete the moment they are generated. Existence is thus wrapped in a sense of ongoing dissatisfaction, and everyday time is colonised. In contrast, time is necessary for development to occur as improvement, as creation, as transformation grounded in experience. This kind of time, linked to the purpose of existing, forces us to look beyond the completion of any single “process” – however well executed – and opens up a systemic perspective, becoming a generative labour:
“A space where one’s being manifests itself; a space in which everyone is allowed to express their subjectivity in relation to the environment and to others, constantly evolving to adapt to changing, often unpredictable, conditions” (Mannese, 2019, p. 17).
The alliance within generative spaces characterises the shared experience of human, cultural, social and economic development potential, transforming the contexts in which they are situated into places of innovation, dynamic learning, and emergent interculturality. These spaces foster capabilities—acquired, cultivated, and combined—through blended learning experiences that integrate formal, non-formal, and informal modes, expanding widespread learning and narrowing the range of inequalities.
How have these ideas of sustainability and development been embraced in schools, classrooms, organisational settings, and pedagogical practices? In schools and other intentionally educational contexts, the theme of talent development becomes a meaningful measure to revitalise and reorient the school’s educational purpose in a time of transition. For Margiotta, this concept is understood as a plural and context-sensitive principle:
“If we do not allow talent to emerge, we do not generate creativity, and thus we deny personal dignity—as well as the opportunity for negotiable mobility that impacts the value of a country system, the growth potential and autonomy of individuals, their empowerment, and their positioning on the global stage. Talent is never just a natural gift, but rather the outcome of a journey—or better, that individual disposition which is expressed in traits, modes of expression, and personal combinations, revealing through actions and feelings those qualities of intelligence, will, culture and character that make us unique” (Margiotta, 2018, p. 18).
Thus, it is never just a natural endowment that determines educational or personal success, but the delicate interplay of passion, inclination, commitment, and opportunity; talent is both disposition and will, freedom and responsibility. To speak of talent is, above all, to speak of the social mechanisms through which a society educates its citizens, stimulates individual agency, and supports collective well-being.
Understood in this way, talent development also reflects a vision of renewed quality in education, grounded in the principle of learner-centred schooling:
“Adapting its practices to the characteristics of students and enabling each of them to learn and grow meaningfully. It is a pedagogical principle that unfolds through educational design attentive to the person’s differences across their multiple individual (cognitive and emotional) and social (contextual) dimensions, and that takes seriously the learner’s subjectivity” (Margiotta, 2018, p. 20).
A crucial insight, to avoid an elitist model of education, is to adopt Umberto Margiotta’s perspective: talent is not a gift, but the outcome of educational, institutional, social and cultural trajectories.
The concept of talent development within a school designed around learning—subjective and differentiated, plural, creative, and fully human—embraces cooperation as the organising principle of classroom life. It positions problems to be solved as opportunities for learning, extends the educational scope of the classroom into its community, transforming it into a space of cultural hybridisation between formal and non-formal contexts, co-designs learning activities, and cultivates processes of activation, participation, and citizenship. A naturally immersive environment, further enriched by technology-mediated experience, becomes a formative eduverse.
2.1. Timeline
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Galelli, R. (2013). Il corpo delle donne e le tecnologie visuali: Insegnare l’arte della rappresentazione. In A. Cagnolati, F. Pinto Minerva, S. Ulivieri (Eds.), Le frontiere del corpo: Mutamenti e metamorfosi (pp. 145–166). ETS.
Longo, G. O. (2009). Nascere digitali: Verso un mutamento antropologico?. Mondo Digitale, 9(4), 3–20. Retrieved December 20, 2024, from https://archivio-mondodigitale.aicanet.net/Rivista/09_numero_4/Longo_p_3_20.pdf
Mannese, E. (2019). L’orientamento efficace: Per una pedagogia del lavoro e delle organizzazioni. FrancoAngeli.
Margiotta, U. (2018). La formazione dei talenti. FrancoAngeli.