Apprendimento trasformativo, ricerca collaborativa e approccio practice-based. Una proposta per lo sviluppo professionale dell’insegnante

Abstract

This article explores the epistemological and methodological implications of the transformative approach to teacher professional development, highlighting its connections with collaborative research and practice-based studies. The hypothesis of a construction of meaningful knowledge with (not on) the teachers is supported, emerging from the comparison with the real problems of school life and capable of coping with the complexity and mutability characterizing the current crisis scenarios and change of educational contexts. Adopting a practice-based perspective of transformative learning to promote trajectories of professional development implies the activation of cycles of action, dialogue, and reflection through collective and collaborative inquiry processes that know how to connect theory and practice, research and participation, rigor and relevance, conceptual coherence and impact. Two examples are presented that are useful for understanding the methodological implications of this approach, with particular reference to the technique of metaphors analysis and the protocol of action learning conversation.