Abstract. This paper provides an initial report on research, still in progress, aimed at the creation and archiving of video testimonies on the memories of childhood and school among Italians born in the 1940s and 1950s. During this critical period, Italian schools were still based on pedagogical models as well as on teaching practices from previous decades; however, they were also making the first tentative experiments with innovation and launching significant processes of democratisation. Oral testimonies of the experiences of pupils are therefore an undoubtedly valuable source for researchers involved in the complex process of creating the collective memory of school. Archived collections contain a wealth of written and audio-visual documents in which these life stories can be found. Normally, however, at least in the Italian setting, these are ego-documents collected and organised according to other research categories, to which the scholastic experience only serves as background. Memories of the time spent at the school desk were not considered central to the account and often remain part of a much broader context, from which it normally emerges only incidentally. Thus, school years were not the focus of the research. This contribution is therefore an attempt to make an initial presentation of a project involving the creation and collection of numerous video interviews in which memories of school and childhood were the main topic right from the interview planning stage. The ultimate goal of the research is to create a digital video archive of memories about school and education. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECTThe project acquired its final form in September 2013, after a phase of development that began a few months earlier as part of the scientific activities coordinated by the «Childhood Studies» Research Unit of the Department of Education and Psychology at the University of Florence. The initial idea came from the need to dispense with the rigid approach normally found in academic circles, which tends to view teaching as a stage subsequent to a period spent conducting research. We saw the need to link the two processes in a more organic way and attempt to launch a proposal that could achieve a more meaningful coherence, rather than the mere formalisation and communication of research results through their presentation in a series of traditional lectures based exclusively on content. We were convinced at the time, and are even more so now, that innovative forms of workshop teaching are a path that should be pursued with greater emphasis in university education. In particular, workshops and interactive methods are extremely effective in encouraging participatory teaching, which can facilitate: knowledge creation, rather than the mere transmission of notions and content; the development of critical thinking and soft skills, through the use of reflective, interpersonal and cooperative skills; and the connection between university and the outside world of careers and work.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract