What are the key words of our contemporary era? Indifference, carelessness, negligence, shallowness, lack of concern, courtesy, and warmth and so on, to mention but a few. As adults today, we appear destined to experience loneliness, incomprehension, and – in general – a fragility that can easily become vulnerability in a global scenario characterized by insecurity, uncertainty, and indefiniteness across many areas of adult life and experience. We are faced with an existential condition which, when it generates marked distress or inner suffering, is subjected – in my view, too hastily – to the intervention of psychotherapists or psychiatrists, with the associated risk of delegating to others – the experts of the mind – the task of solving the problem, or that which has been summarily labelled as a problem. Perhaps because of a reluctance to contemplate, observe, and question it. And so, we lose sight of the fact that these are not isolated cases, or worse still, clinical cases, but examples of a relatively widespread human experience that demands to be accepted, thought and addressed with forms of knowledge, practices and instruments from within the sphere of pedagogical discourse and educational action, particularly the educational discourse and action that goes under the name of adult education. I therefore argue for a form of adult education which, at multiple and diverse levels, attributes key importance to the theme of educating to responsibility for others, which in turn is closely related to educating to care for others. Hence, in the current paper I explore what I call educating to care for responsibility or educating to responsibility for care, formulating the notion of a welfare that may be defined as relational or humanistic, is based on self-training, and is intended to supplement rather than substitute the – admittedly weak – political-institutional welfare system. This epistemological and methodological approach to adult education particularly challenges organizations and services whose role is to provide care, and which – paradoxically – increasingly tend to distance themselves from the core need for responsibility towards the other, driven as they are by economic and corporate logic. Thus, my focus in this paper is on educational perspectives that organize education around responsibility and caring towards others, which again, is strongly connected with responsibility and caring towards oneself

Quali le parole-chiave della nostra contemporaneità? Indifferenza, disattenzione, incuria, superficialità, mancanza di premura e di garbo, scarsa accoglienza, ecc., per citarne soltanto alcune. Per cui, il destino di noi adulti, di oggi, sembra essere la solitudine, l’incomprensione, una complessiva fragilità che lascia facilmente il posto alla vulnerabilità in uno scenario globale fatto di precarietà, incertezza, indeterminatezza in più ambiti della vita e dell’esperienza degli adulti. Abbiamo a che fare con una condizione esistenziale che, laddove generi un accentuato malessere o disagio interiore, viene affidata -a parer nostro, troppo frettolosamente - all’intervento di psicoterapeuti o psichiatri, con il rischio di rinviare ad altri - gli esperti della mente - il problema, o quello, che si connota subito come un problema. Forse, per non volerlo vedere, osservare, interrogare. E in questo modo, si perde di vista il fatto che non si tratta di casi isolati, o peggio ancora, di casi clinici, ma di un’esperienza umana piuttosto diffusa che chiede di essere accolta, pensata e affrontata con saperi, pratiche e strumenti che possono appartenere al discorso pedagogico e all’agire educativo, in particolare, quello riguardante gli adulti, che va sotto il nome di educazione degli adulti. Lungo questa direzione, facciamo nostra la proposta di un’educazione degli adulti che a più livelli, anche tra loro differenti, metta al proprio centro la questione dell’educazione alla responsabilità verso gli altri strettamente connessa all’educazione alla cura degli altri, per cui parliamo nel nostro contributo di un’educazione alla cura della responsabilità o alla responsabilità della cura. Di qui, la nozione di un welfare, che definiamo, relazionale o umanistico, che necessita appunto di un’auto-formazione e che non vuole sostituire il pur debole welfare politico-istituzionale. Tale opzione epistemologica e prassica dell’educazione degli adulti lancia una sfida alle organizzazioni e ai servizi predisposti in modo particolare alla cura che, paradossalmente, prendono sempre più le distanze dalla centralità della responsabilità verso l’altro, sottesi come sono da una logica economica ed aziendalistica. Di qui, il nostro interesse rivolto a quelle posture educative che strutturano l’educazione alla responsabilità e alla cura verso gli altri, profondamente legata alla responsabilità e alla cura verso se stessi

Castiglioni, M. (2016). L’educazione degli adulti e la responsabilità verso gli altri. METIS, supplemento 2016 [10.12897/01.00111].

L’educazione degli adulti e la responsabilità verso gli altri

Castiglioni, MD
2016

Abstract

What are the key words of our contemporary era? Indifference, carelessness, negligence, shallowness, lack of concern, courtesy, and warmth and so on, to mention but a few. As adults today, we appear destined to experience loneliness, incomprehension, and – in general – a fragility that can easily become vulnerability in a global scenario characterized by insecurity, uncertainty, and indefiniteness across many areas of adult life and experience. We are faced with an existential condition which, when it generates marked distress or inner suffering, is subjected – in my view, too hastily – to the intervention of psychotherapists or psychiatrists, with the associated risk of delegating to others – the experts of the mind – the task of solving the problem, or that which has been summarily labelled as a problem. Perhaps because of a reluctance to contemplate, observe, and question it. And so, we lose sight of the fact that these are not isolated cases, or worse still, clinical cases, but examples of a relatively widespread human experience that demands to be accepted, thought and addressed with forms of knowledge, practices and instruments from within the sphere of pedagogical discourse and educational action, particularly the educational discourse and action that goes under the name of adult education. I therefore argue for a form of adult education which, at multiple and diverse levels, attributes key importance to the theme of educating to responsibility for others, which in turn is closely related to educating to care for others. Hence, in the current paper I explore what I call educating to care for responsibility or educating to responsibility for care, formulating the notion of a welfare that may be defined as relational or humanistic, is based on self-training, and is intended to supplement rather than substitute the – admittedly weak – political-institutional welfare system. This epistemological and methodological approach to adult education particularly challenges organizations and services whose role is to provide care, and which – paradoxically – increasingly tend to distance themselves from the core need for responsibility towards the other, driven as they are by economic and corporate logic. Thus, my focus in this paper is on educational perspectives that organize education around responsibility and caring towards others, which again, is strongly connected with responsibility and caring towards oneself
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Adult education; critical thinking; self-care; care of others; responsibility;
Educazione degli adulti; formazione; pensiero critico; cura di sè; cura degli altri; responsabilità; derive della formazione
Italian
2016
supplemento 2016
open
Castiglioni, M. (2016). L’educazione degli adulti e la responsabilità verso gli altri. METIS, supplemento 2016 [10.12897/01.00111].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/133879
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