Conference Program

This study explores a crossmedial workshop with migrants and refugees through the lens of lifelong learning. Learning is conceptualized as an adaptive (Iavarone, 2025) and transformative process (Mezirow 2003) that emerges through care, embodiment, creativity, and collective meaning-making. Within this framework, narrative practices (Hoggan, 2009) are understood not merely as pedagogical tools, but as epistemological devices capable of questioning dominant knowledge regimes, fostering agency, voice, and democratic participation.

The contribution presents a laboratory conducted within the cooperative for reception and integration LESS Cooperativa Sociale (Naples, Italy) in a non-formal educational context during Italian L2 courses for Unaccompanied Minors. The experience is situated within a doctoral research project in experimental pedagogy and is framed as a participatory action research process (Orefice, 2006). Educational intervention and qualitative inquiry are therefore conceived as intertwined dimensions of a single transformative practice. The methodological design integrates participant observation, autoethnographic field notes (Biffi, 2025) focus group and the collection of narrative and audio materials co-produced with participants, in order to account for both learning processes and relational dynamics unfolding in everyday educational settings. Podcasting (Sottocorno, 2025) was introduced as a multimodal practice combining oral language development, storytelling (Menéndez, 2025) sound exploration, and collaborative scripting. Participants were involved in all phases of the process, from the definition of themes to recording and editing, thus occupying active roles as authors and cultural producers rather than as passive learners or research subjects. The narratives (Marmié, 2024) addressed experiences of migration, daily life in reception facilities, aspirations, and encounters with Italian society, generating a shared narrative space where individual trajectories could be recognized and negotiated collectively. The researcher assumed a dual position as educator and participant-observer, explicitly reflecting on positionality (Holmes, 2020) power relations, and ethical responsibility. Autoethnographic observation functioned as a tool for tracing moments of rupture, resistance, emotional intensity, and learning transformation, as well as for interrogating the implicit pedagogical assumptions embedded in institutional language education practices. Attention was paid to how linguistic vulnerability, silence, humor, and embodied forms of expression contributed to the construction of meaning beyond standardized notions of communicative competence. The present findings suggest that podcasting could operate simultaneously as a linguistic resource, a pedagogical device, and a research method, enabling forms of counter-narration that challenge homogenizing representations of these jeunesses en movement (Marmié, 2025). More broadly, the study highlights the potential of personal biographies (Erel, 2007) to reconfigure educational and research spaces as sites of care, relational ethics, and political subjectivation. By integrating transformative learning theory, participatory action research, and creative-based methodologies, this paper argues that it is possible to enhance the quality of wellbeing and integration, particularly within complex and vulnerable educational systems. However, as often occurs in pedagogical research conducted in targeted settings, the findings are not generalizable. Further investigation is needed to refine these methods, strengthen their transferability, and develop specific impact indicators capable of assessing their effectiveness across diverse educational contexts.

In response to the need to connect learning processes to ongoing transitions, and considering how the growing digitalisation of today's society requires a profound reconfiguration of education and welfare systems, this paper discusses the possibility that Innovation Studies (Fanizza, 2019; Fagerberg et al. 2013) provide an indispensable infrastructure for enhancing the practices of constructing new knowledge. Therefore, this paper proposes Innovation Studies as a methodological paradigm capable of making a structural contribution to the debate on interdisciplinarity and lifelong learning processes (OECD, 2024).

The central hypothesis is that the three constituent dimensions of Innovation Studies – methodology, interdisciplinarity and communication – can function as a connecting architecture between schools, universities, the labour market and local communities, promoting coordinated actions geared towards the needs of a heterogeneous plurality of social actors. It is not just a question of “studying” innovation, but of practising it as an educational tool: an approach that integrates empirical analysis, territorial experimentation and critical reflection, promoting learning environments capable of connecting formal, non-formal and informal education.

From a methodological point of view, Innovation Studies enhance the informative value of research and co-design processes between educational institutions and socio-economic actors (Ramella, 2015). In this perspective, lifelong learning becomes a space for reactivation for young people and adults, but also an area for the development of research skills for senior and junior researchers. The focus is particularly on building the transversal skills – analytical, collaborative and communicative – necessary to interpret the complexity of the knowledge society (Bauman, 2018).

The contribution highlights a crucial theoretical point: in the knowledge society, the problem is not the quantitative accumulation of knowledge, but rather the ability to learn new knowledge through the conscious use of plural scientific languages. Interdisciplinarity is not a simple juxtaposition of disciplines, but a cognitive and relational skill that allows different perspectives to be translated, integrated and communicated. In this sense, “learning to learn” takes on a political value: it becomes the condition for citizenship capable of navigating the processes of digitalisation, actively participating in the public sphere and addressing emerging inequalities.

Finally, communication plays a decisive role in countering the new forms of exclusion produced by the mediatisation of social life. Knowing how to communicate knowledge and transform it into social and professional competence means making innovation accessible, inclusive and transferable. In this way, Innovation Studies are a relevant methodological proposal not only for student training but also for the continuous qualification of researchers and professionals, from an intergenerational and interdisciplinary perspective.

In conclusion, the paper argues that Innovation Studies can contribute to the empowerment of societies, enabling them to connect learning processes, knowledge and skills in a permanent educational ecosystem.

In line with the European Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning (2012) and the latest Cedefop Guidelines (2023), Italian Decree No. 115/2024 pursues two closely interconnected objectives: strengthening the usability and portability of competences and expanding individuals’ learning opportunities. The Decree is embedded within the broader European policy framework on lifelong learning and skills development and reflects the strategic orientations of the European Skills Agenda (2020) and the Osnabrück Declaration (2020).

The regulatory framework focuses on three core pillars: the recognition of competences acquired outside formal education and training pathways; continuing vocational training as a driver of updating, employability, and social inclusion; and dual learning systems based on strengthened cooperation between education providers and enterprises. Central to this approach is the validation of competences acquired in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts, understood as a key mechanism for ensuring transparency, transferability, and coherence across individual learning trajectories.

Drawing on a holistic and integrated perspective, the Decree promotes new forms of institutional cooperation between regional vocational education and training systems and economic and social partners, with a particular emphasis on the role of Interprofessional Funds for Continuing Training and Bilateral Funds for Training and Income Support. It also introduces complementary services for competence recognition aimed at enhancing individuals’ existing skills, supporting personalized pathways through skills gap analysis, and improving competence-based programme design in close interaction with enterprises.

The Decree was presented at the European level during the Peer Learning Activity “Inclusion of qualifications from outside formal education and training in National Qualifications Frameworks” (Warsaw, April 2025). Contributions from Member States confirmed that, when supported by appropriate policy frameworks, lifelong learning can represent a crucial resource for active and informed citizenship. At the same time, participants highlighted persistent challenges at both national and European levels, including integration with qualification frameworks and quality assurance systems, balancing standardization and personalization, reducing territorial inequalities, strengthening links with active labour market policies, enhancing guidance and coaching services, raising awareness, monitoring outcomes, reducing administrative burdens, integrating micro-credentials, and ensuring data interoperability.

The article argues that the effectiveness of the Italian validation system ultimately depends on its capacity to operate as part of an integrated governance framework and to ensure inclusive access to recognition and learning opportunities. Particular attention must be paid to overcoming structural and institutional barriers that disproportionately affect vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. In this perspective, Decree No. 115/2024 represents a significant step towards a more inclusive, transparent, and sustainable lifelong learning system, while also highlighting the need for continued policy innovation and multilevel coordination.

In the contemporary context, characterized by biographical transitions, job losses, and growing social inequalities, adult education and lifelong learning assume a strategic role in promoting inclusion, active citizenship, and social justice. Lifelong learning is no longer simply an educational opportunity, but a fundamental educational right, capable of supporting adults in the processes of educational, professional, and existential reorientation throughout their lives (Delors, 1996; European Commission, 2019). This paper offers a theoretical and conceptual reflection on career guidance as a transformative pedagogical practice in adult education contexts, interpreting it as a generative device grounded in the dimensions of freedom, responsibility, and desire (Riva, 2017; Mannese, 2023). Drawing on the paradigm of generative pedagogy and the educational empowerment approach (Freire, 1976; Zimmerman, 2000), the analysis developed here challenges a static and individualistic conception of talent, proposing instead a dynamic, relational, and processual interpretation. Talent is understood as the outcome of journeys of awareness, reflexivity, and planning that develop over time through the interaction between subjectivity, training contexts, and educational opportunities, within a capability-oriented perspective that values ​​individuals' real possibilities for choice and action (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2012). Within this framework, lifelong guidance takes on an emancipatory and inclusive function, capable of accompanying adults through moments of transition and vulnerability, supporting their autonomy, capacity for choice, and the construction of meaningful life projects (Guichard, 2021; Riva, 2020). Particular attention is paid to enhancing individual biographies and non-formal and informal learning experiences, recognized as key resources for building lifelong learning paths geared towards equity and the recognition of differences (Formenti et al., 2017; Mortari, 2003). Adult education is thus interpreted as a generative and democratic space, in which reflexivity, nurturing educational relationships, and the intentional design of learning contexts foster processes of social inclusion and active participation. The proposed reflection highlights how orientational educational practices, grounded in reflective, autobiographical, and dialogic approaches, can contribute to countering exclusion, precariousness, and marginalization, promoting the exercise of responsible and sustainable freedom. In conclusion, the adopted perspective proposes a vision of adult education and lifelong learning as key practices for building a culture of inclusion, capable of valorizing subjectivities, recognizing life paths, and supporting individual and collective transformation within a framework of educational and social justice.

Adult education is often framed within the policy discourse of upskilling and employability. Yet, when observed through the lens of life-course trajectories, it reveals a more complex dynamic: learning frequently emerges at moments of rupture — job loss, migration, interrupted schooling, downward mobility, or delayed certification. Building on previous research on personality as a cognitive “filter” in adult learning and on the notion of learning as resistance within evening schools and CPIA contexts, this paper advances a further step: cognitive friction is not merely instructional, but biographical.

The life-course perspective allows us to reinterpret adult learning as a transitional space where identity, work and migration trajectories intersect. In such contexts, learners do not encounter new knowledge in a neutral cognitive vacuum; they confront it through sedimented beliefs, self-concepts and work-related identities. Personality traits — including openness to experience, conscientiousness, tolerance of ambiguity and perceived self-efficacy — shape how individuals interpret and metabolize educational demands during periods of instability. Cognitive friction thus arises when new epistemic frameworks challenge previously stabilized biographical narratives.

This friction becomes particularly visible among migrant learners and adults returning to education after prolonged exclusion. For migrant students, educational participation is entangled with linguistic adaptation, recognition of prior learning and renegotiation of professional status. For adults in work transitions, learning may threaten established self-definitions while simultaneously offering re-legitimation. In both cases, resistance to learning should not be read as deficit but as a signal of biographical realignment in progress.

Drawing on empirical reflections from Italian adult education settings (CPIA and evening courses) and integrating personality theory with transformative learning perspectives, the paper proposes the concept of biographical friction. This notion designates the tension generated when institutional learning structures encounter life histories marked by discontinuity. Unlike traditional models that focus on learning styles or purely motivational variables, biographical friction situates cognitive resistance within broader socio-economic and migratory trajectories.

The argument has two implications. First, adult education policies centered exclusively on human capital and employability risk overlooking the identity work required in transitional phases of life. Second, personalization in adult learning should move beyond adaptive didactics toward recognition of biographical density — including work histories, migratory experiences and prior educational failures.

Within the panel’s focus on life courses, youth, migration and work, this contribution suggests that adult education functions less as a linear continuation of schooling and more as a critical hinge in life trajectories. Where friction appears, transformation becomes possible — but only if educational institutions recognize that learning, at certain stages of life, is never purely cognitive: it is existential, social and biographical.

Abstract: This study is a theoretical reflection on the inclusive use of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED). The literature review by Wang et al. (2024) on AIED highlights that most existing papers focus on its applications and characteristics, without providing a comprehensive overview of research topics and methodologies. As pointed out by Wang et al. (2024), there is a lack of in-depth analysis of the fundamental theories commonly used to guide research on AIED. The theoretical nature of this contribution seeks to restore AIED to the socio-political context of its use and to the profound epistemological changes resulting from the hybridization of the real with the digital, the Onlife (Floridi, 2014).
This work analyses the theme of inclusion along two lines. The first frames inclusion within competence-based teaching (European Commission, 1995; John 1997; Murphy 1997; Angelucci 2018; Caputo, 2019; Cosgrove & Cachia, 2025), highlighting its implicit assumptions regarding the educational goals underlying the constructivist pedagogical model and the consequent “learnification” of educational discourse (Biesta, 2006; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2022). In a context where measurable learning outcomes take precedence over reflection on the pedagogical principles that guide educational action (Wang et al., 2024), education finds itself completely reduced to learning (Bulger, 2016). The need to clarify educational goals is even more urgent when placed within the broader discourse of the digital age. As Floridi pointed out, in the digital age « the re-ontologization of agency has not yet been accompanied by an adequate re-epistemologization of its interpretation » (Floridi, 2022, p.32). We therefore put forward the hypothesis that the same re-epistemologization is necessary in AIED. The new agency of artificial intelligence (AI) and, consequently, AIED requires a complex and new interpretative effort that takes into consideration educational goals, beyond the mere acquisition of skills for work. This calls for an idea of inclusion accounting for the ethical and epistemological issues at stake, which are still largely not made explicit, in the new learning scenarios.
The second line of this study addresses the issue of inclusion from a more political side, starting from European Commission (2018) to continue with Cesaroni’s (2024) review of key UNESCO documents, which highlights the prevalence of a techno-solutionist approach that reduces inclusion to integration. The profound epistemological changes resulting from the Onlife (Floridi 2020; 2025) make the link between technology and power (Winner, 2017; Adam, 2019; Knox 2019; Cotterell et al., 2020; Naismith & Juffs, 2021; Nemorin et. al 2022; Bisconti, 2024) a fundamental aspect in relation to the ethical and inclusive use of digital technologies and AI.
After recognizing the danger posed by AIED colonialism (Benjamin, 2019; Costanza-Chock, 2020; Earl, 2021; Zembylas, 2021; Holmes & Tuomi, 2022) and the risk that economic interests prevail over educational goals (Holmes et al., 2022), we advocate for the application of the principle of explicability (Floridi, 2022) to AIED and the creation of an adequate literacy for teachers and learners, based on the topics addressed.