Childhoods on the margins and the university as a borderland space: a participatory researchtraining experience with children, families, practitioners, and students

Abstract

The article presents a participatory research-training experience carried out within the Intercultural Pedagogy course of the degree programme in Educational Sciences. The project involved university students, children, families, and practitioners from the “E. Balducci” Centre, taking the margin as a pedagogical, methodological, and experiential category. Through three steps (a visit to the Centre, a sociodramatic workshop in the classroom, and a university-based encounter with children and adults from the Centre) the experience explored the metaphors of margin, threshold, walls, doors, and keys. The data, consisting of transcripts, graphic productions, and students’ written reflections, highlight a decentring of the formative gaze: participants recognise children, families, and practitioners as experts by experience in relation to welcoming the “childhoods on the margins”, living together, and feeling at home. The article shows how the university classroom can become a borderland space for encounter and mutual learning.