Parenting: The awareness of one’s own educational role and citizenship skills

Abstract

Thanks to a line of research and intervention named Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), the European Union has been stressing for a long time that parents should be supported when acting their educative role and, thus, take full responsibility for the functions related to it. In fact, they ought to be considered a crucial resource for the education of the “citizens of tomorrow”.
Within this perspective, we present a section of the results that were obtained in a pilot project meant for the support of reflexive parenting. Such pilot project is included in the wider European Project ALICE – Adults Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences. Among its goals, it lists the training of adults interested in interacting with children through informal languages
and creative languages, with the dual purpose of (a) promoting and
strengthening in them the acquisition of skills that will improve the effectiveness of education in an intergenerational perspective and (b) increase the awareness about the importance of their role as educators for the purposes of developing, in the new generations, citizenship skills and social cohesion.