Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

No. 1 (2025)

Beyond reflexivity: Transformative learning and participatory methodologies in marginal educational contexts

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/erpoa1-2025oa20458
Submitted
giugno 25, 2025
Published
2026-10-09

Abstract

Reflexivity has long been recognized as a key element in the processes of learning, emancipation and the construction of inclusive educational contexts. However, its role and applications have evolved over time, generating new epistemological and methodological challenges. This paper explores the relationship between reflexivity and participatory methodologies, with particular attention to educational and training contexts involving vulnerable groups. Through the experiences of the Revers-ed project, the paper examines how reflexivity can be declined in a dialogic and co-creative way, supporting transformative learning processes and promoting educational research with, rather than on, the subjects involved. Methodologies for the validation of reflective processes in educational contexts (formal, non-formal and informal) are presented, with particular attention to the co-construction of knowledge and the evaluation of the social impact of educational practices.

References

  1. Aiello‐Cabrera E., Chiappelli T., & Troya Porras M. B. (2023). Participatory methodologies for the co‐construction of research on migration and refugee studies. Pedagogia delle differenze, LII(2), pp. I-XXI.
  2. Barone P. (2009). Pedagogia dell’adolescenza. Milano: Guerini Scientifica.
  3. bell hooks B. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
  4. Bourdieu P. (1979). La Distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Paris, France: Les Éditions de Minuit.
  5. Bourdieu P., Passeron J. C. (1970). La Reproduction: Éléments pour une théorie du système d’enseignement. Paris, France: Les Éditions de Minuit.
  6. Chello F. (2019). La “genuina contingenza” del lavoro educativo. Prospettive epistemologiche nella professionalizzazione dell’educatore. Lecce-Brescia: Pensa MultiMedia.
  7. Davis B., & Sumara D. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  8. Don Milani (1965). L’obbedienza non è più una virtù. Firenze: Libreria editrice fiorentina.
  9. Fabbri L., Striano M., e Melacarne C. (2008). L’insegnante riflessivo. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  10. Fabbri L. (2024). Transformative learning in the era of post-reflexivity. Adult Education Critical Issues, 4(1), pp. 11-20. DOI: 10.12681/haea.37679.
  11. Fabbri L. et al. (2008). Nuove narrative professionali. La svolta riflessiva. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  12. Flecha R. (2000). Sharing words: Theory and practice of dialogic learning. Lanham:Rowman & Littlefield.
  13. Flecha R. (2015). Successful Educational Action for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
  14. Freire P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Freiburg: Herder and Herder.
  15. Gómez J., and Flecha R. (2004). Participatory Paradigms: Researching ‘with’ rather than ‘on’. In: Crossan B., Gallacher J., and M. Osborne (Eds.). Researching Widening Access: Issues and Approaches in an International Context, (pp. 129-140). London: Routledge.
  16. Habermas J. (1984). The theory of communicative action (Vol. 1). Boston: Beacon Press.
  17. Kingston P. W. (2001). The unfulfilled promise of cultural capital theory. Sociology of Education, 74(4), pp. 88-99.
  18. Lareau A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  19. Mancaniello M. R. (2018) Per una pedagogia dell’adolescenza. Società complessa e paesaggi della metamorfosi identitaria. Lecce-Brescia: Pensa MultiMedia.
  20. Melacarne C. (2016). La ricerca educativa come indagine riflessiva. Logiche non lineari. Civitas educationis: education, politics and culture, V(2), pp. 171-187.
  21. Mezirow J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  22. Mezirow J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, pp. 5-12. DOI: 10.1002/ace.7401.
  23. Ceccatelli G. (2016). Maria Montessori. La libertà dei bambini. Firenze: Edizioni Clichy.
  24. Morin E. (1999). La tête bien faite: Repenser la réforme, réformer la pensée. Paris: Seuil.
  25. Nussbaum M. (2013). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  26. Popkewitz T.S. (2008). Cosmopolitanism and the Age of School Reform. New York: Routledge.
  27. Romano A. (2023). Transformative Inclusive Learning in Multi-Diverse Schools: An Intersectionality-Based Approach. In: Fabbri L., Melacarne C. Understanding Radicalization in Everyday Life (pp. 203-226). Milano: McGraw-Hill.
  28. Schön D. A. (1993). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. trad. it. Il professionista riflessivo. Bari: Dedalo, 1993.
  29. Sen A. (2000). Development as freedom. New York: Knopf.
  30. Serrelli E. (2023). La metamorfosi del professionista riflessivo? Mutamenti axiologici e semantici nella diffusione della riflessività alle professioni educative e di cura. Educational Reflective Practices, (1): 173-189. DOI: 10.3280/erp1-2023oa15885.
  31. Sordé-Martí T., Ghani A. A., Almobarak B., & Chiappelli T. et al. (2023). The REFUGE-ED dialogic co-creation process: Working with and for refugee children and minors. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(463), pp. 1-10.
  32. Striano M. (2000). Educare al pensare: Percorsi e prospettive. Lecce: Pensa Multimedia.
  33. Striano M., Oliverio S., Melacarne C. (2018) La riflessività in educazione: prospettive, modelli, pratiche. Brescia: Scholé.
  34. Tolomelli A. (2021). Adolescence does not exist. Guidelines for a Pedagogical Problematicism of adolescence. Encyclopaideia, 25(61), pp. 11-19. DOI: 10.6092/issn.1825-8670/12714.
  35. Tramma S., & Kanizsa S. (Eds.) (2010) Introduzione alla pedagogia e al lavoro educativo. Roma: Carocci.
  36. UNESCO (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. UNESCO Publishing.
  37. Zubiri-Esnaola H., Vidu A., Rios-Gonzalez O., & Morla-Folch T. (2020). Inclusivity, participation and collaboration: Learning in interactive groups. Educational Research, 62(2), pp. 162-180. DOI: 10.1080/00131881.2020.1755605.
  38. Sitografia
  39. https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/454266-successful-educational-actions-to-give-child-refugees-a-fair-start/it.
  40. https://www.refuge-ed.eu/successful-educational-actions/.
  41. https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eac/education-and-training-monitor/en/.
  42. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/immigrant-students-at-school_978 9264249509-en.html.
  43. https://revers-ed.eu/.