Educare alla cura tra le generazioni. Una riflessione pedagogica sul concetto di generatività

Abstract

The paper aims to present, through an educational approach, a reflection about generativity, defined as the desire to leave a positive legacy and related activities that raise outcomes for future generations. However, today some studies suggest that generativity as a targeted midlife task may no longer be sufficient for explaining a life course pattern of generative concerns, commitment, and actions, and it refers to a generative concern during adolescence, to a generative commitment in adulthood, and to a sense of integrity, the result of a generative life, in old age. Some scholars of symbolic-relational area interpret the generativity as an essentially relational construct: it is the value of the relationship between the generations. In agreement with these studies, generativity derives from the relationship with the other and it expresses itself in the relationship with the other. We can consider generativity as a product of the relationship between different generations, not only of the individual him/herself. The analysis underlines how the intergenerational dimension is at the origin of the family generativity as it develops and grows thanks to the donative sources within the family systems. Today there is a priority to educate the adults to take and rewrite their generative role in an intergenerational exchange that cannot and must not be interrupted, but that has to turn into the social, cultural and economic current scenario. The idea proposed in this paper is precisely to deepen the educational potential of parenting education that is based on the ability to intercept new resources in a creative way, bringing out implicit potentials. This means extending parental generativity to social contexts, and therefore really investing in new forms of social generativity. In this perspective, the concept of generativity becomes the framework of meaning for educating communities capable of creating the best conditions for growth and development for the new generations.