Conference Program

Recent history has been characterized by a process of very rapid transformation: economic, political, social, and cultural factors have progressively intertwined, outlining a complex, precarious, and unstable global scenario (Tramma, 2024). Immersed in this same complexity, the field of education is called to critically reflect on its own purposes and, consequently, to critically rethink its pedagogical and didactic practices (Fadda, 2009).

From a policy perspective, numerous contributions highlight the importance and necessity of promoting learning experiences and educational contexts capable of supporting the development of life competences in new generations (Sala et al., 2020). In this perspective, the school - in dialogue with the community and local institutions - represents a privileged context in which to design educational experiences aimed at fostering citizenship skills (COM(2025) 88 final) within participatory and hands-on environments, capable to promote meaningful practices of reasoning, listening, dialogue, critical reflection, and self-expression (Massa, 2000).

Una costellazione luminosa is an educational project targeting third, fourth, and fifth grades of primary school, promoted by the Fondazione AIRC per la Ricerca sul Cancro ETS and implemented in collaboration with the participating schools, Librì Progetti Educativi, and Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi ETS. The project is structured around three workshop laboratories — Ricerca, Ascolto, and Trasformazione — designed as open learning contexts according to the values of the Reggio Emilia Approach (REA). The workshops, which last approximately two hours, are held in the facilities of the 18 participating schools and include an initial large-group sharing session, a central phase of small-group work, and a final phase of collective reflection and sharing. Through a methodology based on listening, cooperative learning, and a research-oriented stance, the classes explore a shared issue starting from open, generative questions. Artistic languages - in particular graphic, narrative, visual, and performative - mediate the experience, offering multiple expressive, critical-reflective, and learning opportunities. To complement the process, focus groups with the teachers of the participating classes allow for an in-depth examination of the processes that emerged during the activities, and reflection on the contribution that such methodologies may provide to the development of transversal and democratic citizenship skills.

This contribution presents the first findings of a qualitative and exploratory study carried out within this project, epistemologically framed within an integrated theoretical perspective in which socio-constructivism (Bruner, 1992) and complexity theories (Morin, 2000) intersect with the reflections proposed by the Philosophy for Children approach (Lipman, 2003). The qualitative analysis of data collected during the phases of the project - through participant observation, photographs, audio-video recordings of conversations, artifacts produced by the classes, and focus group transcripts - investigates the relationship between cooperative knowledge-building processes and the development of multidimensional thinking, articulated in its critical, creative, and caring dimensions.