This article offers a methodological reflection on the use of the phenomenological vignette to analyse ambiguous and dilemmatic experiences in non-formal contexts. Drawing on a corpus of ten vignettes, the analysis focuses on participants’ postures towards the ambiguity of otherness and on the emergence of transformative learning processes in Global Citizenship Education (GCE) at the moment of responding to otherness. GCE is understood as a transformative, critical, and experiential approach aimed at broadening individuals’ worldviews through the expansion of cultural and personal horizons, made possible by meaningful encounters with the world and with otherness. The contribution seeks to offer insights for the development of qualitative tools capable of capturing the complexity and density of educational experiences in non-formal contexts, highlighting the importance of a phenomenological attention to the bodily, perceptual, and aesthetic dimensions of experience.
This paper offers a re-reading of Paulo Freire’s pedagogy in light of the cultural, social, and economic transformations that characterize the contemporary world. Starting from Freire’s concept of the “fear of freedom,” the essay examines the relationship between education, autonomy, and responsibility, placing critical pedagogy in dialogue with other traditions of thought—from Gramsci to Socratic maieutics, as well as twentieth-century and contemporary pedagogical reflections. The central hypothesis is that, even in formally democratic societies, education today risks being reduced to a form of training merely functional to market logics, thereby losing its emancipatory function. In this context, oppression no longer manifests primarily as the deprivation of rights, but rather as the internalization of homogenizing cultural models and as an inability to exercise genuine critical autonomy. Through an analysis of the concepts of dialogue, praxis, maieutics, and “opacity,” the paper argues for the necessity of a non-transmissive form of education oriented toward conscientization and the active participation of learners. Freire’s pedagogy is thus interpreted as a still fertile framework for rethinking the role of the school as a public space for the formation of the subject and the exercise of democratic citizenship.
This contribution investigates the centrality of corporeality in educational contexts, with an emphasis on the University, highlighting the need to overcome the historical fracture between res cogitans and res extensa that still characterizes educational settings. Through a phenomenological lens—which retrieves the concept of the living body (Leib) as opposed to the body-as-object—this essay explores the shift toward the paradigm of embodiment. A central part of the reflection is dedicated to analyzing the body as a site of biopolitics: the classroom is examined as a space of discipline where the body is often reduced to a passive support, silenced by logics of control and standardization. In this scenario, Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) is proposed as a methodological device of resistance, capable of restoring intentionality and dignity to students across all fields of study. The integration of DMT into academic curricula proves strategic for the development of “embodied wisdom,” which is particularly essential for care-oriented professions, such as future nursery school educators.In conclusion, the work proposes transforming the classroom into a laboratory of affective attunement, where learning is configured as an event of liberation and authentic human presence.
Il presente contributo indaga la centralità della corporeità nei contesti di formazione, con enfasi sull’Università, ponendo l’accento sulla necessità di superare la storica frattura tra res cogitans e res extensa che ancora caratterizza i setting educativi. Attraverso una lente fenomenologica, che recupera il concetto di corpo vivente (Leib) in opposizione al corpo-oggetto, il saggio esplora il passaggio verso il paradigma dell’embodiment. Una parte centrale della riflessione è dedicata all’analisi del corpo come terreno di biopolitica: l’aula viene esaminata come spazio di disciplinamento dove il corpo è spesso ridotto a supporto passivo, silenziato da logiche di controllo e standardizzazione. In questo scenario, la Danzamovimentoterapia (DMT) viene proposta come dispositivo metodologico di resistenza, capace di restituire intenzionalità e dignità agli studenti, di ogni corso di studio. L’integrazione della DMT nei percorsi accademici si rivela strategica per lo sviluppo di una “saggezza incarnata”, essenziale in particolare per le professioni rivolte alla cura, come i futuri educatori di nido. In conclusione, il lavoro propone una trasformazione dell’aula in laboratorio di sintonizzazione affettiva, dove l’apprendimento si configura come un evento di liberazione e di autentica presenza umana.
