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FrancoAngeli Journals

Articles/Articoli

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): Educating for Complexity: Intersectionality, Decolonial Approaches to Teaching, and Practices of Care in Education

Intersectionality, Ethics of Care and Epistemic Decolonization in Support Teacher Training. A Critical Analysis of an Anthropological Area Didactics Laboratory in the TFA Sostegno Programme

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/ess1-2026oa22378
Submitted
aprile 2, 2026
Published
2026-07-28

Abstract

This paper analyses a training laboratory conducted within the TFA Sostegno programme for lower secondary school, focused on the teaching of the anthropological area. Grounded in situated epistemology, the pathway engaged participants in the collaborative construction of low-cost teaching materials through a relay structure among small groups, operationally integrating three theoretical frameworks: intersectionality applied to teacher education, ethics of care as a relational pedagogical orientation, and the decolonization of disciplinary knowledge. Adopting a practitioner inquiry methodology, the paper documents three emergent transformative dynamics: initial resistance to the intersectional complexity of student profiles, systemic tensions arising during the collaborative design phase, and a shift from diagnostic to narrative registers in the professional language of prospective teachers. The findings suggest that training pathways designed with critical intentionality can activate processes of epistemic revision in the professional dispositions of prospective support teachers.

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