Rosita Deluigi, PdD., associate professor of Education, Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism – University of Macerata – Italy. She teaches General, Community and Intercultural Education, and her research fields are: Dialogues between cultures – challenges and opportunities for social participation; creativity and intercultural approach; Aging, intergenerational dialogue and home care – intergenerational projects among kids and elderly; home care, frail elderly and migrants careworker; Interdisciplinary design of educational services for kids (0-6 years) – inclusive policies at interinstitutional level (politics, university, educational services, and families); Training of professional educators and teamwork –soft skills; development of cooperative dynamics and co-design experiences; experimentation of storytelling on social work. She is involved, as a member of the research group or as a regional coordinator, in several European projects (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016 and H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019) and she is the scientific supervisor of various national and local projects funded by the Ministry of Education, Labour, and Social Solidarity. Action-research and socio-cultural animation are the theoretical and methodological backgrounds in all her research fields. In recent years, she has started to cooperate with different European countries and various regions of Russia, China, Africa, and India.
Times and languages of qualitative educational research in the atelier: the Visual Ticass 2.0 experience
Internationally, the term ArtBased Research indicates the systematic use of an artistic process and the realization of artistic expression in all its different forms, as a primary way of understanding and analysing the experience of both the researcher and the people who are implicated in the studies (McNiff, 2000). Pedagogical research can use a participatory approach to analyse several aspects of the educational relations that occur in schools between the kids and the researchers. Furthermore, it is also important to use various languages, including visual techniques, in order to construct and share both individual and collective narratives. Based on these assumptions, we developed various artistic workshops in an Italian kindergarten and several Kenyan primary schools (s. y. 2018–2019), and designed a pedagogical research process to implement the reflection on the use of images and imagery with children. The research group focused on five items: exploration of materials (colours and tools); shared workspaces and materials; cooperative dynamics in the ateliers; encroachments experienced with the use of paint; and informal exhibitions held at the end of the workshops. To enhance the key points of the research, we have adapted and used photo-elicitation, a qualitative method developed in the field of anthropology and visual sociology (Harper, 2002; Hogan, 2012), to collect and produce a different kind of information, thanks to the use of meaningful images. We took pictures during the kids’ atelier and we gave voice and image to our reflections (also through the realization of the TI.M.E. exhibition held in Macerata in November 2019) sharing pedagogical thinking. This path has allowed the researchers to highlight some useful aspects for designing and managing educational experiences and, at the same time, to deal with multiple languages and to share different nuances and perspectives of the participative experience of art and education.