ANTHROPOLOGY IN TRAINING (2015/2016)

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Course code
4S001382
Name of lecturer
Marcella Milana
Coordinator
Marcella Milana
Number of ECTS credits allocated
6
Academic sector
M-PED/01 - PEDAGOGY, THEORIES OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL EDUCATION
Language of instruction
English
Location
VERONA
Period
Sem. IIA dal Feb 22, 2016 al Apr 24, 2016.

Lesson timetable

Learning outcomes

The course aims to:
1. Present the students with a perspective on education and training as an area of intervention framed by a broader context, and certain principles and procedures, which different professionals (like pedagogues, teachers, trainers, counselors, etc.) appropriate, either consciously or unconsciously, through their day-to-day work.
2. Introduce the students to the meaning of, and method for, adopting a comparative perspective in the study of education and learning.

Syllabus

The main theoretical premise of this course is that education and training may take many forms in formal and non-formal, but also in non-formal contexts if there is a pedagogical intention by some people to educate and train others. So conceived, any form of education and training is by its nature the resultant of the interplay between polity, policy and praxis. Here ‘policy’ serves as the identifier for a course of action, as guiding principles and procedures that influence and determine present and future decisions in education and training, ‘polity’ describes an organized community and particular system of government that constitute the political setting for such a policy, while ‘praxis’ refers to the habitual or established education and training practice performed by a professional.
However, there is a tendency among those that educate and train people as their main professional practice to underestimate, and sometime dismiss, the connections between what they do, the guiding principles and procedures behind it, or the broader framework from which such principles and procedures emerged. Consequently, education and training as a professional practice is normally perceived as independent from either polity or policy. In the meantime, contemporary developments in education and training are not any more the by-product of exclusively national perspectives, conditions and experiences, as they are contaminated by exchanges of ideas and knowledge about education and training across countries and by the work of major intergovernmental organizations to which most countries belong (like the European Union, etc.).
Comparative education, an academic discipline in the social sciences that analyzes and compares educational systems, such as those in different countries, as well as global tendencies in education and training, offers a vantage point in the study of the interplay between polity, policy and praxis, and proposes methods and approaches that can help professionals whose main practice is (or will be) education and training to problematize their current or future practice.
In this course, students will have the opportunity to reflect on what it is to think and study education and training as the resultant of the interplay between polity, policy and praxis. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to learn how a comparative perspective can provide more nuanced answers to questions such as: What is the influential polity for a professional praxis? Who makes education and training policy? How do professionals appropriate policy while educating and training people?


Reference book
Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M. (2007). Comparative education research: Approaches and methods. Hong Kong, China: Comparative Education Research Centre, the University of Hong Kong
Also available in Italian as: Bray, M., Adamson, B., Mason, M., & Gandolfi, S. (2009). Educazione comparata: Approcci e metodi di ricerca. Milano: Angeli)
A list of additional readings (i.e., journal articles and book chapters) will be available by the start of the course though the e-learning platform.

Assessment methods and criteria

Grading will be based on the quality of classroom participation, a group presentation, a final individual paper and interview.

(1) Class participation: 20% of the final grade.
Students are expected to participate in the classroom discussions. Students should not only be thought provoking in their participation, but should be respectful to their fellow classmate.

(2) Group Presentation: 20% of the final grade.
At the beginning of the course, a group of two to three students will select a chapter from the reference book. The presentation should include:
• an outline and introduction of the chapter,
• feedback and critique of the chapter,
• and how does the chapter relate to other chapters of the reference book and additional literature presented during the course.

All group members are expected to actively contribute in the preparation and oral presentation (30 minutes in total).

(3) Final Paper: 40% of the final grade
Students are encouraged to identify a topic of interest among those addressed in the course, as the subject for an individual essay of critical reflection. The final paper should have a minimum of 5 pages (2.500 digits per page), excluding bibliographical references.

(4) Interview: 20% of the final grade
Students will be interviewed on the final paper and its relations with the bibliography for this course.

STUDENT MODULE EVALUATION - 2015/2016


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