Conference Program

This contribution examines the strategic value of university academic tutoring services as educational devices capable of promoting democratic participation and empowerment not only among students who seek academic support, but also among senior students who serve as tutors. Starting from the assumption, widely supported in the literature, that peer tutoring fosters deep learning, motivation, and a sense of self-efficacy in both tutees and tutors (Topping, 1996, 2005; Roscoe & Chi, 2007), and in line with perspectives from democratic education and emancipatory pedagogy, which conceive learning as a social, dialogic, and transformative process (Dewey, 1916; Freire, 2008), this study highlights how peer tutoring contributes to the construction of participatory learning communities. Within such communities, students assume an active role in educational processes, co-construct and share knowledge, and experience authentic forms of democratic participation, thereby developing a sense of belonging and shared responsibility. In this way, universities emerge as spaces for the practice of active citizenship, where democracy and equity are promoted through collaborative practices and mutual recognition. In this context, the involvement of senior students in tutoring less experienced peers, which is encouraged by universities and their academic tutoring services, represents a form of distributed and democratic leadership that fosters the empowerment of student tutors and supports the development or consolidation of key competencies for lifelong learning, including communicative, organizational, and metacognitive skills.
More specifically, the contribution presents the results of a study conducted within the academic tutoring service “S.Tu.Di.” of the Education Department of Roma Tre University. The research involved the analysis of tutor selection and training practices, the observation of tutoring activities, and a qualitative in-depth exploration through focus groups conducted with senior students engaged in the tutoring role. The objective is to assess the degree of democratic participation of student tutors promoted by the academic tutoring service under examination and to investigate their perceptions in terms of personal empowerment, agency, and the development of transferable skills. The findings provide useful indications for the design and consolidation of academic tutoring services oriented toward fostering active and democratic participation and promoting student empowerment, with the aim of enhancing the quality of the university learning experience.