Mabel Giraldo | Università degli Studi di Bergamo (University of Bergamo) (original) (raw)
Books by Mabel Giraldo
A partire dagli anni Novanta, il costrutto di autodeterminazione ha ricevuto maggiore visibilità ... more A partire dagli anni Novanta, il costrutto di autodeterminazione ha ricevuto maggiore visibilità e utilizzo nel campo della pedagogia speciale dando origine a un’ampia letteratura di settore. Tuttavia, questa ricca produzione scientifica ha portato a un’eterogeneità di prospettive teoriche e modelli operativi di valutazione e intervento per supportare le persone con disabilità nello sviluppo di condotte autodeterminate, tanto da trasformare il costrutto in una sorta di pass-partout concettuale. Al fine di rendere conto dello stato dell’arte delle principali ricerche che, nel campo della pedagogia speciale e delle scienze dell’educazione, hanno affrontato il concetto di autodeterminazione fornendone definizioni e approcci operativi, il volume, da un lato, restituisce una ricognizione generale del dibattito internazionale sviluppatosi e una analisi critica dei temi, dei problemi e delle prospettive in esso emersi e, dall’altra, intende offrire una inedita cornice epistemologica con la quale re-interpretare la complessità della rete di rapporti che caratterizza i contesti di vita e la condotta (anche autodeterminata) della persona adulta con disabilità intellettiva.
Il libro (p. 160), è il frutto dell'esperienza di tirocinio formativo curriculare (TdE – Tirocini... more Il libro (p. 160), è il frutto dell'esperienza di tirocinio formativo curriculare (TdE – Tirocini di Eccellenza) promosso dal Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali dell’Università degli Studi di Bergamo e dall’associazione bergamasca Domitilla Rota Hyams Onlus presso Little Eden Society for the Care of Persons with Mental Handicap, un’organizzazione no-profit, fondata da Domitilla Rota Hyams oltre 50 anni fa in Sudafrica, con sede a Johannesburg che accoglie, dal 1967, persone con disabilità intellettiva.
Il volume si apre con il racconto della storia di Little Eden dalla sua fondazione fino ai giorni nostri, con un’attenzione particolare alle travagliate vicende storiche del Sudafrica e alle relative evoluzioni del contesto sociale, culturale e politico.
Nella seconda parte, invece, sono indagate dal punto di vista della sostenibilità pedagogica le attività educative portate avanti nel corso degli anni da Little Eden. Si rintraccia nello sguardo alla singola persona e all’integralità delle sue esigenze il centro unificatore che ha contraddistinto gli interventi messi in campo dal centro sudafricano.
Infine, partendo da quello che Little Eden è oggi e ripercorrendone, anche grazie a numerose testimonianze dirette, la sua storia, nell’ultima parte del contributo ci si interroga sulle prospettive future di miglioramento.
Come ha scritto Giuseppe Bertagna nella prefazione del volume, tale progetto guarda non più alla «vecchia logica di un sapere accademico separato dall’esperienza e dalla vita. Anzi, lo sforzo di procedere al contrario: partire dalle esperienze educative che gli studenti compiono (…) e scoprire le dimensioni teoriche implicite ed esplicite che tali esperienze contengono».
Book Translations by Mabel Giraldo
Book Chapters by Mabel Giraldo
Pedagogia speciale per la prima infanzia. Politiche, famiglie e servizi, 2021
Memorie ed Educazione. Identità, Narrazione, Diversità, 2020
La tecnica delle domande circolari viene utilizzata, nella psicoterapia sistemica integrata, per ... more La tecnica delle domande circolari viene utilizzata, nella psicoterapia sistemica integrata, per esplorare le interazioni che, all’interno del contesto famigliare, ciascun membro instaura con sé stesso, con gli altri, con l’ambiente circostante e i significati e i valori ad esse attribuiti. All’interno di questo processo, la circolarità dell’informazione induce ciascun partecipante ad impegnarsi in letture alternative e ad immaginare nuovi possibili percorsi e ipotesi sulla propria vita. Il presente contributo intende fornire un esempio di declinazione di questa metodologia, propria della clinica psicoterapeutica, nell’ambito della pedagogia speciale e, in particolare, nel progetto “Inclusione sociale ecologica”, condotto dall’Università di Bergamo in collaborazione del Coordinamento Bergamasco Integrazione (CBI). Allo scopo ultimo di favorire e sostenere l’inclusione sociale di 15 adulti con disabilità (tra i 20 e 54 anni) all’interno dei loro contesti di vita quotidiana, è stata condotta una ricerca qualitativa per far emergere, in modo riflessivo e circolare, bisogni, desideri, consuetudini, pregiudizi, credenze e orizzonti di senso intorno ad alcuni temi cruciali per l’adultità (tempo libero, processi e spazi decisionali, autodeterminazione, partecipazione sociale, ecc.). L’applicazione della tecnica delle domande circolari in sede di intervista e la successiva triangolazione e analisi semantica delle narrazioni raccolte hanno prodotto due principali risultati: 1. hanno permesso di aprire spazi di interpretazione molto ampi che, proprio in un’ottica sistemica, hanno portato tutti gli attori coinvolti a riconfigurare (in senso soggettivo e intersoggettivo) significati e prospettive della propria realtà e del proprio progetto di vita; 2. hanno consentito di integrare le sottese dimensioni (culturali, sociali, psicologiche e pedagogiche) che caratterizzano la persona adulta con disabilità e i suoi contesti di vita in una progettualità educativa condivisa. Infine, nel tentativo di informare la ricerca sulla disabilità, il contributo vuole offrire alcuni spunti di riflessione che l’allargamento di campo, inaugurato dall’approccio sistemico e dalle sue tecniche di indagine, ha consentito di rivelare su diversi livelli (epistemologico, pedagogico, metodologico, sociale, culturale e valoriale).
Bulgarelli D., PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH ON PLAY FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH ON PLAY FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES COLLECTED PAPERS, 2020
The scientific literature (mainly psycho-pedagogical) on the child’s play is immense and epistemo... more The scientific literature (mainly psycho-pedagogical) on the child’s play is immense and epistemologically recognized, but the same cannot be said about the use of play in emergency situations (natural, humanitarian, social, political). Few researches exist on this subject, especially focused on children with disabilities.
The paper analyses the situation of children (with and without disabilities) in natural and man-made disasters and of the attention given to this vulnerable population within academic researches and humanitarian programmes. Then, this article reflects on the pedagogical value of the role and the use of play in crisis situations for all the children. In particular, starting from a narrative review of the academic literature and research in area, it aims at proposing a preliminary overview of the different play-based interventions promoted worldwide in such emergencies.
Ebook integrale degli interventi dell’International Conference of SIPES, SIRD e SIREM “Le Società pedagogiche per la società. Ricerche, scenari ed emergenze”, 2020
Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (spe-cialized/mainstream) used by person... more Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (spe-cialized/mainstream) used by persons with disabilities to im-prove their quality of life by supporting cognitive and social skills and autonomy. Given the increase in mainstream tech-nologies in everyone’s life, is there still a specific AT develop-ment filed and a dedicated market? How are they characteri-zed? To explore the areas of development, a systematic review was conducted following a multiphase procedure in order to analyze the AT dedicated to children and young people, adults and the elderly. The research, in three databases, identified 951 articles. 77 duplicates removed, the AT identified in the remaining 874 articles (415 children/young people, 106 adults, 353 elderly) were classified according to definition and the classification of the Standard ISO 9999:2016. Despite the heterogeneity of the identified products, research lines emerge according to the age groups: technologies for practicing skills and communication for children and adolescents, for work and professional training for adults and for the care and pro-tection for the elderly. The results highlight the renewed atten-tion of the scientific community for AT, characterized by a high technological innovation. This makes the sector as a bor-der area, challenging for special education and for the life pro-ject of the person with disability.
in Galanti, Pavone (Eds.), Didattiche da scoprire, Milano: Mondadori, 2020
Papers by Mabel Giraldo
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2023
In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political... more In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political and socio-cultural level, urging to rethink the Life Project of persons with disabilities (PwD) from a lifelong and life wide perspective. From the Nineties, in Italy this change has been introduced by a policy agenda introducing the construct of individual Life Project as a crucial mean to guarantee rights and quality of life aimed at fully implementing the principle of social inclusion. However, this evolution continues to clash with standard and fragmented solutions that does not respond to the need of an individualized, emancipatory, rights-based planning. The paper presents a model of PwD' Life Project developed by the researchers in Special Education of University of Bergamo (UNIBG) as a result of the "Training Program on Life Project related to the Dopo di Noi" promoted in collaboration with Agenzia Tutela Salute (ATS) of Bergamo. Adopting a participatory design approach, UNIBG researchers follow a three steps model: 1) defining the conceptual framework (ontology) with respect to disability, the rights of the PwD and the load-bearing features and steps characterizing the individual Life Project planning; 2) organizing the overall architecture of the system; 3) designing a low-fidelity prototype. The current state of the art of the UNIBG research contributes to inform PwD's Life Project design process and preliminary results highlight the overall validity of the model ontology and the proposed architecture. As next research step, the prototype will be discussed with some selected stakeholders participating in ATS-UNIBG "Training Program" to collect their feedback and proceed with the redesign phase.
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion
Reinventing Education: Second International Conference of the journal "Scuola Democratica", 2-5 June 2021, 2021
In the 19th century, disability was turned into a spectacle through the freak shows, where deform... more In the 19th century, disability was turned into a spectacle through the freak shows, where deformities were enjoyed as something extraordinary to be observed. Today these shows are considered immoral and some disabled artists have retaken the power of exhibiting their bodies to challenge the idea of disabled as “other.” Such is the case of Sue Austin, the English artistic director of Freewheeling , a project that transforms her life experience in a wheelchair into a spectacle. She dives into the Red Sea with her underwater wheelchair in “Creating the Spectacle!,” or paints ith the chair's wheels in “Traces from a Wheelchair.” With her performances she dramatizes the vulnerability of the body, claims the power of the chair, and brings the audience into an authentic dimension of participation. Sue Austin, rewriting the meanings of the disabled body image, gives us the opportunity to think through, from a pedagogical point of view, the potential condition of being a disabled perfo...
The transition phase represented by the end of high school can be for persons with disabilities b... more The transition phase represented by the end of high school can be for persons with disabilities both a time laden with expectations and hopes (Wagner, 2005; Rush et al., 2009) and a moment of risk, a real puzzling dilemma (Rush et al., 2009) conducting to a crystallization in a image of an eternal child, the transition from student to a retired person (Giaconi, 2015). Such an outcome can be considered the result of an approach to disability suffering from a lack of utopia (Caldin, 2001) regarding the different dimensions of adulthood: a poor correspondence of the training received to the working reality (European Agency, 2002), an underestimation of actual potential (Alston et al., 2002) and mainly training orientation practices (Pavone, 2006). Some studies (Test et al., 2009; Cease-Cook et al., 2015) highlighted how paths aimed at getting to know various professions, to discover own interests, to give greater significance to school learnings, to meet personal limits and potentials ...
Self-determination is a complex notion with deep historical and philosophical roots. The Oxford E... more Self-determination is a complex notion with deep historical and philosophical roots. The Oxford English Dictionary identifies the earliest use of the word in 1683 as referring to “determination of one’s mind or will by itself towards an object” (Simpson, Weiner, 1989: 919). Similarly, Wehmeyer states that self-determination refers to the attitudes and abilities required to act as the «primary causal agent in one’s life and to make choices regarding one’s actions free from undue external influence or interference» (Wehmeyer, 1992: 305). In the context of disability, this concept has been generally translated as that necessary condition of enabling people to participate actively in goal setting, planning, selecting and purchasing support services that suit their individual preferences and situations. However, this question becomes more complicated when it is refered to people with severe disabilities (such as the intellectual) with low levels of personal autonomy – a situation that of...
ANNALI ONLINE DELLA DIDATTICA E DELLA FORMAZIONE DOCENTE , 2023
The paper presents the outcomes of a training program carried out by the UNIBG Special Education ... more The paper presents the outcomes of a training program carried out by the UNIBG Special Education researchers in compliance with the Law 'In-service training of teachers' staff for including students with disabilities' (Law no. 178 /2020; Ministerial Decree n. 188/2021) aimed at providing teachers of the Bergamo area with knowledge about disability and inclusion. Specifically, the article investigates and critically reflects on teachers' knowledge to detect any changes that occurred after attending the UNIBG training course, with respect to the disability construct (definition, terminology, typologies) and the teaching strategies useful for supporting school inclusion concerning different types of disabilities, as well as the perceived degree of competence in the direct application of these strategies in the classroom. Riassunto-Il contributo discute gli esiti di una formazione realizzata dalla Cattedra di Pedagogia Speciale di UNIBG in risposta alla legge 'Formazione in servizio del personale docente ai fini dell'inclusione degli alunni con disabilità' istitutiva dei cosiddetti corsi delle 25 ore (L. n. 178/2020; D.M. n. 188/2021) volta a fornire, ai docenti delle scuole bergamasche, conoscenze in merito ai costrutti di disabilità e di inclusione. Nello specifico, l'articolo indaga e riflette criticamente le conoscenze degli insegnanti al fine di rilevare eventuali cambiamenti, a seguito del percorso formativo fruito, rispetto al costrutto di disabilità (definizione, terminologia, tipologie) e alle strategie didattiche utili a supportare l'inclusione scolastica rispetto a differenti tipologie di disabilità, nonché la percezione del grado di competenza nell'applicazione diretta in classe di tali strategie.
Pedagogia e Vita online, 2022
In the last thirty years, the cultural, legal and epistemological evolution in terms of disabilit... more In the last thirty years, the cultural, legal and epistemological evolution in terms of disability has been radical and has also affected living services, leading to more flexible and integrated institutions. However, the value-related and planning push towards the realization of full participation of the person with disabilities (PwD) in civil life continues to clash with the persistence of solutions dictated by efficiency processes. Recalling community welfare model, the paper intends to show how responses to the specific needs of PwDs can become a social and cultural “resource” inviting stakeholders to create truly emancipatory and integrated housing services and urging society itself to reconfigure its being/becoming community. The suggestions offered will allow to orient (in knowledge and practices) renewed forms of participation aimed at the creation of an authentically inclusive community by designing new economies, social relations, institutions.
A partire dagli anni Novanta, il costrutto di autodeterminazione ha ricevuto maggiore visibilità ... more A partire dagli anni Novanta, il costrutto di autodeterminazione ha ricevuto maggiore visibilità e utilizzo nel campo della pedagogia speciale dando origine a un’ampia letteratura di settore. Tuttavia, questa ricca produzione scientifica ha portato a un’eterogeneità di prospettive teoriche e modelli operativi di valutazione e intervento per supportare le persone con disabilità nello sviluppo di condotte autodeterminate, tanto da trasformare il costrutto in una sorta di pass-partout concettuale. Al fine di rendere conto dello stato dell’arte delle principali ricerche che, nel campo della pedagogia speciale e delle scienze dell’educazione, hanno affrontato il concetto di autodeterminazione fornendone definizioni e approcci operativi, il volume, da un lato, restituisce una ricognizione generale del dibattito internazionale sviluppatosi e una analisi critica dei temi, dei problemi e delle prospettive in esso emersi e, dall’altra, intende offrire una inedita cornice epistemologica con la quale re-interpretare la complessità della rete di rapporti che caratterizza i contesti di vita e la condotta (anche autodeterminata) della persona adulta con disabilità intellettiva.
Il libro (p. 160), è il frutto dell'esperienza di tirocinio formativo curriculare (TdE – Tirocini... more Il libro (p. 160), è il frutto dell'esperienza di tirocinio formativo curriculare (TdE – Tirocini di Eccellenza) promosso dal Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali dell’Università degli Studi di Bergamo e dall’associazione bergamasca Domitilla Rota Hyams Onlus presso Little Eden Society for the Care of Persons with Mental Handicap, un’organizzazione no-profit, fondata da Domitilla Rota Hyams oltre 50 anni fa in Sudafrica, con sede a Johannesburg che accoglie, dal 1967, persone con disabilità intellettiva.
Il volume si apre con il racconto della storia di Little Eden dalla sua fondazione fino ai giorni nostri, con un’attenzione particolare alle travagliate vicende storiche del Sudafrica e alle relative evoluzioni del contesto sociale, culturale e politico.
Nella seconda parte, invece, sono indagate dal punto di vista della sostenibilità pedagogica le attività educative portate avanti nel corso degli anni da Little Eden. Si rintraccia nello sguardo alla singola persona e all’integralità delle sue esigenze il centro unificatore che ha contraddistinto gli interventi messi in campo dal centro sudafricano.
Infine, partendo da quello che Little Eden è oggi e ripercorrendone, anche grazie a numerose testimonianze dirette, la sua storia, nell’ultima parte del contributo ci si interroga sulle prospettive future di miglioramento.
Come ha scritto Giuseppe Bertagna nella prefazione del volume, tale progetto guarda non più alla «vecchia logica di un sapere accademico separato dall’esperienza e dalla vita. Anzi, lo sforzo di procedere al contrario: partire dalle esperienze educative che gli studenti compiono (…) e scoprire le dimensioni teoriche implicite ed esplicite che tali esperienze contengono».
Pedagogia speciale per la prima infanzia. Politiche, famiglie e servizi, 2021
Memorie ed Educazione. Identità, Narrazione, Diversità, 2020
La tecnica delle domande circolari viene utilizzata, nella psicoterapia sistemica integrata, per ... more La tecnica delle domande circolari viene utilizzata, nella psicoterapia sistemica integrata, per esplorare le interazioni che, all’interno del contesto famigliare, ciascun membro instaura con sé stesso, con gli altri, con l’ambiente circostante e i significati e i valori ad esse attribuiti. All’interno di questo processo, la circolarità dell’informazione induce ciascun partecipante ad impegnarsi in letture alternative e ad immaginare nuovi possibili percorsi e ipotesi sulla propria vita. Il presente contributo intende fornire un esempio di declinazione di questa metodologia, propria della clinica psicoterapeutica, nell’ambito della pedagogia speciale e, in particolare, nel progetto “Inclusione sociale ecologica”, condotto dall’Università di Bergamo in collaborazione del Coordinamento Bergamasco Integrazione (CBI). Allo scopo ultimo di favorire e sostenere l’inclusione sociale di 15 adulti con disabilità (tra i 20 e 54 anni) all’interno dei loro contesti di vita quotidiana, è stata condotta una ricerca qualitativa per far emergere, in modo riflessivo e circolare, bisogni, desideri, consuetudini, pregiudizi, credenze e orizzonti di senso intorno ad alcuni temi cruciali per l’adultità (tempo libero, processi e spazi decisionali, autodeterminazione, partecipazione sociale, ecc.). L’applicazione della tecnica delle domande circolari in sede di intervista e la successiva triangolazione e analisi semantica delle narrazioni raccolte hanno prodotto due principali risultati: 1. hanno permesso di aprire spazi di interpretazione molto ampi che, proprio in un’ottica sistemica, hanno portato tutti gli attori coinvolti a riconfigurare (in senso soggettivo e intersoggettivo) significati e prospettive della propria realtà e del proprio progetto di vita; 2. hanno consentito di integrare le sottese dimensioni (culturali, sociali, psicologiche e pedagogiche) che caratterizzano la persona adulta con disabilità e i suoi contesti di vita in una progettualità educativa condivisa. Infine, nel tentativo di informare la ricerca sulla disabilità, il contributo vuole offrire alcuni spunti di riflessione che l’allargamento di campo, inaugurato dall’approccio sistemico e dalle sue tecniche di indagine, ha consentito di rivelare su diversi livelli (epistemologico, pedagogico, metodologico, sociale, culturale e valoriale).
Bulgarelli D., PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH ON PLAY FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH ON PLAY FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES COLLECTED PAPERS, 2020
The scientific literature (mainly psycho-pedagogical) on the child’s play is immense and epistemo... more The scientific literature (mainly psycho-pedagogical) on the child’s play is immense and epistemologically recognized, but the same cannot be said about the use of play in emergency situations (natural, humanitarian, social, political). Few researches exist on this subject, especially focused on children with disabilities.
The paper analyses the situation of children (with and without disabilities) in natural and man-made disasters and of the attention given to this vulnerable population within academic researches and humanitarian programmes. Then, this article reflects on the pedagogical value of the role and the use of play in crisis situations for all the children. In particular, starting from a narrative review of the academic literature and research in area, it aims at proposing a preliminary overview of the different play-based interventions promoted worldwide in such emergencies.
Ebook integrale degli interventi dell’International Conference of SIPES, SIRD e SIREM “Le Società pedagogiche per la società. Ricerche, scenari ed emergenze”, 2020
Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (spe-cialized/mainstream) used by person... more Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (spe-cialized/mainstream) used by persons with disabilities to im-prove their quality of life by supporting cognitive and social skills and autonomy. Given the increase in mainstream tech-nologies in everyone’s life, is there still a specific AT develop-ment filed and a dedicated market? How are they characteri-zed? To explore the areas of development, a systematic review was conducted following a multiphase procedure in order to analyze the AT dedicated to children and young people, adults and the elderly. The research, in three databases, identified 951 articles. 77 duplicates removed, the AT identified in the remaining 874 articles (415 children/young people, 106 adults, 353 elderly) were classified according to definition and the classification of the Standard ISO 9999:2016. Despite the heterogeneity of the identified products, research lines emerge according to the age groups: technologies for practicing skills and communication for children and adolescents, for work and professional training for adults and for the care and pro-tection for the elderly. The results highlight the renewed atten-tion of the scientific community for AT, characterized by a high technological innovation. This makes the sector as a bor-der area, challenging for special education and for the life pro-ject of the person with disability.
in Galanti, Pavone (Eds.), Didattiche da scoprire, Milano: Mondadori, 2020
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2023
In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political... more In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political and socio-cultural level, urging to rethink the Life Project of persons with disabilities (PwD) from a lifelong and life wide perspective. From the Nineties, in Italy this change has been introduced by a policy agenda introducing the construct of individual Life Project as a crucial mean to guarantee rights and quality of life aimed at fully implementing the principle of social inclusion. However, this evolution continues to clash with standard and fragmented solutions that does not respond to the need of an individualized, emancipatory, rights-based planning. The paper presents a model of PwD' Life Project developed by the researchers in Special Education of University of Bergamo (UNIBG) as a result of the "Training Program on Life Project related to the Dopo di Noi" promoted in collaboration with Agenzia Tutela Salute (ATS) of Bergamo. Adopting a participatory design approach, UNIBG researchers follow a three steps model: 1) defining the conceptual framework (ontology) with respect to disability, the rights of the PwD and the load-bearing features and steps characterizing the individual Life Project planning; 2) organizing the overall architecture of the system; 3) designing a low-fidelity prototype. The current state of the art of the UNIBG research contributes to inform PwD's Life Project design process and preliminary results highlight the overall validity of the model ontology and the proposed architecture. As next research step, the prototype will be discussed with some selected stakeholders participating in ATS-UNIBG "Training Program" to collect their feedback and proceed with the redesign phase.
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion
Reinventing Education: Second International Conference of the journal "Scuola Democratica", 2-5 June 2021, 2021
In the 19th century, disability was turned into a spectacle through the freak shows, where deform... more In the 19th century, disability was turned into a spectacle through the freak shows, where deformities were enjoyed as something extraordinary to be observed. Today these shows are considered immoral and some disabled artists have retaken the power of exhibiting their bodies to challenge the idea of disabled as “other.” Such is the case of Sue Austin, the English artistic director of Freewheeling , a project that transforms her life experience in a wheelchair into a spectacle. She dives into the Red Sea with her underwater wheelchair in “Creating the Spectacle!,” or paints ith the chair's wheels in “Traces from a Wheelchair.” With her performances she dramatizes the vulnerability of the body, claims the power of the chair, and brings the audience into an authentic dimension of participation. Sue Austin, rewriting the meanings of the disabled body image, gives us the opportunity to think through, from a pedagogical point of view, the potential condition of being a disabled perfo...
The transition phase represented by the end of high school can be for persons with disabilities b... more The transition phase represented by the end of high school can be for persons with disabilities both a time laden with expectations and hopes (Wagner, 2005; Rush et al., 2009) and a moment of risk, a real puzzling dilemma (Rush et al., 2009) conducting to a crystallization in a image of an eternal child, the transition from student to a retired person (Giaconi, 2015). Such an outcome can be considered the result of an approach to disability suffering from a lack of utopia (Caldin, 2001) regarding the different dimensions of adulthood: a poor correspondence of the training received to the working reality (European Agency, 2002), an underestimation of actual potential (Alston et al., 2002) and mainly training orientation practices (Pavone, 2006). Some studies (Test et al., 2009; Cease-Cook et al., 2015) highlighted how paths aimed at getting to know various professions, to discover own interests, to give greater significance to school learnings, to meet personal limits and potentials ...
Self-determination is a complex notion with deep historical and philosophical roots. The Oxford E... more Self-determination is a complex notion with deep historical and philosophical roots. The Oxford English Dictionary identifies the earliest use of the word in 1683 as referring to “determination of one’s mind or will by itself towards an object” (Simpson, Weiner, 1989: 919). Similarly, Wehmeyer states that self-determination refers to the attitudes and abilities required to act as the «primary causal agent in one’s life and to make choices regarding one’s actions free from undue external influence or interference» (Wehmeyer, 1992: 305). In the context of disability, this concept has been generally translated as that necessary condition of enabling people to participate actively in goal setting, planning, selecting and purchasing support services that suit their individual preferences and situations. However, this question becomes more complicated when it is refered to people with severe disabilities (such as the intellectual) with low levels of personal autonomy – a situation that of...
ANNALI ONLINE DELLA DIDATTICA E DELLA FORMAZIONE DOCENTE , 2023
The paper presents the outcomes of a training program carried out by the UNIBG Special Education ... more The paper presents the outcomes of a training program carried out by the UNIBG Special Education researchers in compliance with the Law 'In-service training of teachers' staff for including students with disabilities' (Law no. 178 /2020; Ministerial Decree n. 188/2021) aimed at providing teachers of the Bergamo area with knowledge about disability and inclusion. Specifically, the article investigates and critically reflects on teachers' knowledge to detect any changes that occurred after attending the UNIBG training course, with respect to the disability construct (definition, terminology, typologies) and the teaching strategies useful for supporting school inclusion concerning different types of disabilities, as well as the perceived degree of competence in the direct application of these strategies in the classroom. Riassunto-Il contributo discute gli esiti di una formazione realizzata dalla Cattedra di Pedagogia Speciale di UNIBG in risposta alla legge 'Formazione in servizio del personale docente ai fini dell'inclusione degli alunni con disabilità' istitutiva dei cosiddetti corsi delle 25 ore (L. n. 178/2020; D.M. n. 188/2021) volta a fornire, ai docenti delle scuole bergamasche, conoscenze in merito ai costrutti di disabilità e di inclusione. Nello specifico, l'articolo indaga e riflette criticamente le conoscenze degli insegnanti al fine di rilevare eventuali cambiamenti, a seguito del percorso formativo fruito, rispetto al costrutto di disabilità (definizione, terminologia, tipologie) e alle strategie didattiche utili a supportare l'inclusione scolastica rispetto a differenti tipologie di disabilità, nonché la percezione del grado di competenza nell'applicazione diretta in classe di tali strategie.
Pedagogia e Vita online, 2022
In the last thirty years, the cultural, legal and epistemological evolution in terms of disabilit... more In the last thirty years, the cultural, legal and epistemological evolution in terms of disability has been radical and has also affected living services, leading to more flexible and integrated institutions. However, the value-related and planning push towards the realization of full participation of the person with disabilities (PwD) in civil life continues to clash with the persistence of solutions dictated by efficiency processes. Recalling community welfare model, the paper intends to show how responses to the specific needs of PwDs can become a social and cultural “resource” inviting stakeholders to create truly emancipatory and integrated housing services and urging society itself to reconfigure its being/becoming community. The suggestions offered will allow to orient (in knowledge and practices) renewed forms of participation aimed at the creation of an authentically inclusive community by designing new economies, social relations, institutions.
Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (specialized or mainstream) used by (or ... more Assistive Technology (AT) refers to products or services (specialized or mainstream) used by (or for) persons with disabilities (Sik-Lanyi 2015) to improve their quality of life by supporting cognitive and social skills and autonomy. Given the increase in mainstream technologies in everyone's life, is there still a specific AT development filed and a dedicated market? How are they characterized? To explore the debate and the areas of development, a systematic review was conducted following a multiphase procedure (Cochrane, 2011) in order to analyse the AT dedicated to children and young people, adults and the elderly. The research, in three databases (SCOPUS, IEEE, Web of Science) with keywords, identified 951 articles. 77 duplicates removed, the AT identified in the remaining 874 articles (415 children / young people, 106 adults, 353 elderly) were classified according to the ISO 9999 Standard and connected to the ICF domains. Despite the heterogeneity of the identified products...
ITALIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, 2018
The Law 107/2015 states the obligatoriness of Work-related learning (ASL) for Italian students at... more The Law 107/2015 states the obligatoriness of Work-related learning (ASL) for Italian students attending the last three years of high schools. The ASL proposals are projected according to the syllabus of the school addresses and to the cultural, social and economic characteristics of the area. The present work investigates semantic and linguistic aspects with which the ASL is presentedwithin the PTOF of high schools in the Bergamo province. With a qualitative data analysis, carried out using the Map of Kerr and the software IRaMuTeQ 0,7 Alpha2, the research highlighted some normative and conceptual references, objectives, resources and evaluation processes with which the teachers define, describe and represent the ASL, a useful tool for the inclusion, social and work, of the pupil with and without disabilities.
Starting from a preliminary analysis of the self-directed and self-determined learning constructs... more Starting from a preliminary analysis of the self-directed and self-determined learning constructs and their correlation, this paper intends to investigate their possible applications within special education studies. Two models of instructional design addressed to persons with disabilities will be presented which aim, within the construct of self-determination, is to promote the development of the personal and professional skills that are essential for their transition to adulthood.
The recent outbreak forced headteachers (HTs) to re-organize the school methods and coordinate al... more The recent outbreak forced headteachers (HTs) to re-organize the school methods and coordinate all operations to ensure their functioning in order to guarantee the right to education of all students including those with disabilities. In an attempt to explore the actions with which the HTs have responded to this challenge, this paper analyses the first results emerging from the research Tutti presenti oggi? aimed at investigating the inclusive processes activated by HTs in distance learning and addressed to students with disabilities by schools in Bergamo and province.
Italy boasts both specific laws protecting the work inclusion and a pedagogical history full of s... more Italy boasts both specific laws protecting the work inclusion and a pedagogical history full of scholars supporting the importance of work as an educational opportunity for persons with disabilities. However, this pioneering tradition is still struggling to be translated into practice and today it has to face with all the changes introduced by the Industry 4.0. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is slowly changing the world of work through a profound technological transformation making the concept of smart working concrete in terms of production process and modalities with which the technological/virtual interaction modifies the traditional work structures. These transformations question special pedagogy scholars and teachers working with students with disabilities.
ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR INCLUSION, 2018
Since the early Ninetiesthere has been a significantscientific acknowledgment of the importance o... more Since the early Ninetiesthere has been a significantscientific acknowledgment of the importance of self-determination in the education of persons with disabilities. This corpus of research concerns almost exclusively the theoretical aspects ofthe construct and only a few studies have empirically dealt with evaluating the actual level of self-determination of people with disabilities and/or the impact that psycho-educational interventions and supports have in promoting self-determined behaviours. In order to investigate the empirical researchesthat analyse how the construct isinterpreted by the insiders and which of its components are actually taken into consideration,the present contribution, using the research methodology of the systematic review, intends to address this gap carrying out a survey of the quantitative tools most used by psycho-pedagogical research for the assessment of self-determination in adults with intellectual disabilities. The paper confirmsthe lack in literatu...
L'integrazione scolastica e sociale, 21(1): 5-30, 2022
Formazione & Insegnamento, XX(1): 208-218, 2022
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) stresses the importance of ac... more The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) stresses the importance of accurate, reliable, comparable and disaggregated data by conditions and areas of life. There is national and international research, but the UN itself declares them unsatisfactory, denouncing the connection with unequal and ineffective policies on disability. In light of these considerations, this paper intends to present an overview on the nature and criticalities of the statistics on persons with disabilities reviewing the scientific literature. Starting from this framework, the project «More than just numbers» disability data matter, held by the University of Bergamo, will be introduced. It aims at developing a theoretical-methodological model to promote an in-depth, updated knowledge on disability, on the phenomena and the systems related to it, as well as tracing political actions for a truly inclusive society.
Italina Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics, 2021
Transition to adulthood represents the transition to specific adult roles and responsibilities in... more Transition to adulthood represents the transition to specific adult roles and responsibilities in close connection with life contexts. The literature in this area calls this phase emerging adulthood highlighting its complexity, uncertainty and problematic traits (Arnett, 2004). This process turns out to be more critical for persons with disabilities for whom, even today, the end of school is configured as a "leap into the void" urging for specific planning. The upper secondary school and the local services that act with it therefore play a crucial role in building this transition phase.
This contribution illustrates the outcomes of the exploratory phase of the STrADE project aimed at designing and experimenting a model of transition to adulthood that favors students with disabilities the acquisition of transversal and professional skills from a life plan perspective. For this purpose, the voices of young persons with disabilities and their families were collected through narrative-biographical interviews (Muylaert et al., 2014) and analyzed according to the criteria of thematic analysis (Green, Thorogood, 2004) in order to highlight the main personal/environmental factors characterizing the transition paths of students with disabilities as well as facilitators/barriers that have influenced the construction of their adulthood.
This article proposes an analysis of the data of the questionnaire administered in the middle sch... more This article proposes an analysis of the data of the questionnaire administered in the middle schools of Bergamo which was carried out as part of the research Alternanza formativa e alla valenza orientativa delle discipline. In particular, thanks to the intersection of the answers provided by the students and the teachers, the analytical reading of the data has allowed to formulate interpretative hypotheses about the perception (in some cases concordant, in other divergent) that the same students and teachers have about the teaching learning actions and their relative modalities of carrying out and the implications that these actions (and/or lack of actions) have in terms of educational alternation and educational guidance.
Proiezioni-incontri nell'ambito dell'iniziativa di public engagement dell'Università degli studi ... more Proiezioni-incontri nell'ambito dell'iniziativa di public engagement dell'Università degli studi di Bergamo "CINEMA DOCET. Proiezioni sull'attualità in UniBg"
Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, 2023
In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political... more In recent decades important changes in the disability area occurred, both at regulatory-political and socio-cultural level, urging to rethink the Life Project of persons with disabilities (PwD) from a lifelong and life wide perspective. From the Nineties, in Italy this change has been introduced by a policy agenda introducing the construct of individual Life Project as a crucial mean to guarantee rights and quality of life aimed at fully implementing the principle of social inclusion. However, this evolution continues to clash with standard and fragmented solutions that does not respond to the need of an individualized, emancipatory, rights-based planning. The paper presents a model of PwD' Life Project developed by the researchers in Special Education of University of Bergamo (UNIBG) as a result of the "Training Program on Life Project related to the Dopo di Noi" promoted in collaboration with Agenzia Tutela Salute (ATS) of Bergamo. Adopting a participatory design approach, UNIBG researchers follow a three steps model: 1) defining the conceptual framework (ontology) with respect to disability, the rights of the PwD and the load-bearing features and steps characterizing the individual Life Project planning; 2) organizing the overall architecture of the system; 3) designing a low-fidelity prototype. The current state of the art of the UNIBG research contributes to inform PwD's Life Project design process and preliminary results highlight the overall validity of the model ontology and the proposed architecture. As next research step, the prototype will be discussed with some selected stakeholders participating in ATS-UNIBG "Training Program" to collect their feedback and proceed with the redesign phase.