Learning objectives
- Main objective of the Course is the development of a study path that will enhance the student’s critical attitude and ability to correlate, structure and compare purely cultural phenomena with their educational aspects. To reach this objective the acquisition of sociological competences will be crucial, to describe and interpretate the relationship between culture, society and education in different epistemological perpectives.- Knowledge of the main sociological theories corresponding to cultural, educational and training systems, in order to analyze their theoretical and conceptual frames.- Knowledge and ability to interpretate the transformations in cultural and educational system in the wider frame of general social changing.
- Acquire descriptive and analytical competences on the core role of educational processes in Western society, with the aid of the main theories and empirical researches on the relationship between culture and education.
- Ability to read in a sociological key the themes of differences, of equality and inequality, efficiency and quality of cultural and educational systems.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
Sociology of cultural and educational processes
The first section of the Course will have a general character. Following the thread of the relationship between education and culture, models and scenaries in education, developed and interwined in the past, will be examined in order to discuss notions and conditions of educability and sociability today. The Course will aim at understanding cultural and educational processes in their different aspects, around the complex of knowledges, beliefs, behaviors, cultural conventions and expectations acquired and operated by the individual and the society.
The second section of the Course will deal with subjects as socialization, identity, inequalities in educational opportunities.
At the end, the third section of the Course will deal with two fundamental cultural agencies, science and art.
Full programme
The term “culture” will be discussed and critically evaluated, to understand the dynamic of socio-cultural changing. In this direction, core themes and methodologies of cultural sociology will be afforded, posing as a problem the distinction between culture and society, from the starting point of classical sociology. The concept of “cultural diversity” will be introduced, in order to understand that cultures aren’t atemporal and fixed structures prone to self-reproduction. That concept will be analyzed in two different theoretical perspectives: a first one, of American tradition, focusing on inner diversity in a single culture, caused by the birth and growth of industrial metropolitan societies and of their various social classes, groups and movements; a second one, of German tradition, focusing on history, reinforcing the concept of inner cultural diversity in a single society. These reflection will be integrated with the concepts of innovation and changing, as studied by G, Simmel and G. H. Mead, in order to understand the creative and innovative potential of culture, influencing the gradual adaptation process of its transmission.
Bibliography
P.Burke, Dall'Encyclopedie a Wikipedia, il Mulino, Bologna, 2013.
L.Ribolzi, Società, Persona e processi formativi, Mondadori, Milano, 2016.
A.Margalit, Sul tradimento, Einaudi, Torino, 2016.
D.Bertasio, Disarmonie. Il caso del Kitsch, Liguori, Napoli, 2013.
Teaching methods
- The main teaching method will be frontal lesson. During the course, multimedia and interactive resources will be used to integrate contents and promote an active dialogue with students.
Assessment methods and criteria
- Final assessment will consist in oral examination on lesson’s contents and specific literature made available to the student.
- Ability to establish relationship between strictly cultural aspects, educational system and sociological problems of education, will be assessed, on themes both of frontal lessons and bibliography.
- Examination will be based on open questions. They will not be limited to content assessment, but will be formulated in order to understand if the candidate is able to establish relationships between the various theoretical and methodological frameworks, according to lessons content and reference bibliography.
- The assessment criteria are three:
1. Knowledge of the main topics of the lessons articulated in thematic paths, and of the reference bibiography.
2. Ability to understand theoretical and methodological problems.
3. Ability to establish relationships between the different contents and aspects of the subject matter.
If the student complies with all of these three criteria, he will be evaluated with 18/30 mark or more.
Other information
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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
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