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 cultural phenomena with other 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 socio-cultural system, in order to analyze their theoretical and conceptual frames.
- Knowledge and ability to interpretate the transformation in representation form in the wider frame of general social changing.
- Acquire descriptive and analytical competences on main theories about the relationship beetween culture and its representation.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
The course aims at studying how individuals acquire information in order to act in their life contexts. On this subject, the concept of social representations is crucial. Social representations are socially shared beliefs, able to give a meaning to phenomena apparently remote from common sense and therefore difficult to explain and interpret. To understand the sociological component of social representations, the Latin origin of the word (repraesentatio) makes clear that we deal with the concept of image, portrait or description, i.e., a thing that can be seen, reproduced, repeated and renewed, imitated and created. Therefore, representation is also a reconstruction, a reinterpretation (such as a painting or a portrait), the result of an elaboration to which the subject participates. Representations make familiar what is unfamiliar to us. Each representation puts together language, culture and perception, building a network of linguistic styles, perceptions, use of objects, contextual features, cultural perspectives. A central role is performed by symbols as synthetic and overall references.
Full programme
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Bibliography
S.Moscovici, Rappresentazioni sociali, il Mulino, Bologna, 2016
M.Bettini, Il ritratto dell’amante, Einaudi, Torino. P.Berger T. Luckmann, La realtà come costruzione sociale, il Mulino,1997.
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 phenomena, educational system and sociological educational problems will be assessed. This ability is the main focus 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 a 18/30 mark or more.
Other information
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