Covid-19 and transformative learning: from the disorienting dilemma to the importance of relationships for teachers in the project ripARTiamo!

Abstract

The context of this contribution must be placed in the health emergency that has led to the closure of Italian schools in spring 2020. The ripARTiamo! pro-ject wanted to respond to the children’s feelings of disorientation and mourning by proposing to the teachers of the 62 kindergarten and primary school classes, that took part in the project, to create a collective artefact. This aimed to keep fostering the emotional and relational aspects that char-acterize the school context. The research presented here is concerned with the following question: from the voices of the teachers involved, is it possible to identify indicators of a transformative process? From a preliminary analysis of the interviews carried out, it is possible to highlight how the pandemic has initiated transformative learning processes, enabling teachers to restruc-ture the meanings of their educational role for a more sustainable “back to school”.