Teacher education and community pedagogy: research lines

Abstract

The profound historical, social and cultural changes that still characterise the Italian school system today require teachers to adapt rapidly to these changes (Strollo, Capobianco, 2022). Recently, the pedagogical debate has been stimulated by the need to rethink teacher training in order to define new professional profiles (Perla, 2017). For this reason, reflection on teacher education has focused on the need to acquire new skills useful for defining a new teaching professionalism. In initial and in-service training, the issue of competence has become the focus of interest (Le Boterf, 2011). However, such pathways are often not very effective as they are far removed from the real day-to-day experiences of teachers. Moreover, such pathways often lead to the acquisition of knowledge and skills rather than competences, increasing the risk of “learnification” (Biesta, 2017). This Anglophone term refers to the process whereby everything is measured in terms of learning objectives. Training courses that follow this logic aim for the acquisition of knowledge rather than the formation of the individual’s real competences. On the basis of these premises, this article aims to stimulate a reflection on teacher education and the need for it to follow a community pedagogical approach (Tramma, 2009). Teacher training courses are often based on individualistic approaches that are ineffective for the real needs of today's schools. The scientific contributions offered by ecological and systemic-relational theories (Bateson, 1972; Bronfenbrenner, 1979) are more adequate to grasp the training and educational needs of teachers because they pay more attention to relational, contextual and organisational factors (Rossati, Magro, 1999). The idea that a good school is a community is not new (Dewey, 1916), but the application of this model still seems very complex today. The aim of the paper is to initiate theoretical research, using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach (Zahavi, 2025), on integrated, systemic and community-based teacher training that supports professional practice and reduces the psychosocial risks of the profession (Zamengo, Valenzano, 2018). Training that takes the form of an educational process aimed at the human flourishing of the individual and the whole community (Nussbaum, 2010). In order to achieve this, it is necessary first of all to recognise the centrality of the interpersonal relationship and the community dimension, which clearly characterise the teacher's action. In fact, the teacher is called upon not only to manage the relationship with the pupils, but also to manage the relationship with the parents, with the colleagues, with the manager, with the whole community. For this reason, teacher training courses should promote, in a pedagogical key, the acquisition not only of technical and methodological skills, but also of the so-called soft skills (Schön, 1993). In particular, reference is made to relational skills such as: the ability to empathise, to cooperate, to communicate, to negotiate (D’Addelfio, 2023). The article intends to reflect on the concept of community, understood both as a direction of meaning and as an operational itinerary in the pedagogical education of teachers (Strike, 2004).