Spaces, Territory, Civil Society: The Role of Educational Community As a Tool of Social Innovation

Over the past decade, multiple educational community projects have taken root across Italy. Acknowledging that “the subject of education is a historical subject” (Del Gottardo, 2016) who lives and evolves in relation to the socio-cultural environment, these projects pursue a diffused model of education which seeks to expand and exceed the physical boundaries of the school, embedding it within the community. Here, drawing upon the emancipatory overtones of Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning, individuals can be said to achieve their fullest self-realisation by recognising their mutual responsibility as educational agents, engaging in both a subjective reshaping of previously-held assumptions about one’s world, and collective action for social change (Fleming, 2018). Since September 2023, the University of Siena’s Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences has monitored and facilitated transformative processes undergone by one such budding educational community: the “Viceversa” project. Located in the Tuscan town of Certaldo, “Viceversa” has brought together residents and non-profit associations in an effort to create new educational opportunities for young people, while tending to their relational and emotional needs and fostering active participation in the public sphere. The present research endeavours to surmise the first year of the educational community’s life, deriving insights on the efficacy of transformative methodology, as well as evaluating under what conditions individual perspective-changes do or could translate into a successful, collaborative stride toward a better, fairer future. It also aims to introduce and appraise some of the practical outcomes achieved by participants at the end of several months of co-planning sessions and workshop experiences.