Bambini, genitori, educatori al nido d'infanzia. Un'esplorazione "micropedagogica" dei momenti di transizione.

SUMMARY This work is part of research on early childhood education and it takes up and develops studies that have investigated the relationships between adults (parents and educators) and between children and adults in ECEC settings in particular. The aim was to investigate the interactive dynamics that develop between parents, educators and children during transitions from the family to the school context (morning arrival and early afternoon leaving), linking microanalytical interaction analysis with the exploration of interpretation processes by the educators involved. The assumption is that moments of "ecological transition" (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), when parents and educators share and negotiate the transfer of educational responsibilities regarding the child, are atypical moments in the daily routines at school, creating the opportunity for focusing on the interactions between parents and educators in the presence of children, thus creating privileged educational opportunities that make the ideas and meanings attributed to these interactions by the protagonists themselves emerge in a more "natural" way. Numerous studies have focused on teaching the specificity of these transition events (Barbieri et al., 1983, Angelini et al., 1983, Maltempi, 1986, Comotti, Varin, 1988, Varin, Crugnola Riva, 1996) and their central role in building good relationships between services and families (Milani, 2009), drawing attention to the role of observing interaction in teacher training. Research in the ECEC, in particular, has highlighted the need to support educators so that they are builders of rituals and routines which support the separation between parent and child, consistent with the relationship style (Mantovani, Saitta, Bove, 2000, Carli, 2002). However, in theory, almost all studies that have investigated this dimension refer to dyadic relational types (i.e. focused on the parent-child or teacher-child pair), often based on studies which refer to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973, Ainsworth et al.,1978) and rarely have they included observing behavior to reveal the subjective ideas of the adults involved. The challenge is to go back and study these moments, guided by the theoretical and methodological indications that emerge from the most recent psychological research on how to analyze the micro-processes involved in interaction dynamics in educational settings, adopting a triadic, process-oriented perspective (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Corboz-Warnery, 1999, Tremblay- Leveau, 1999; Simonelli et al., 2012). The authors suggest reinterpreting micro-analytic observation in a pedagogical perspective, since it can help expand educational research regarding these issues in a situated, rigorous yet relevant way for training the teachers involved. Through observing interactions in a triadic perspective, this thesis considers the educationally relevant possibility of focusing not so much, or not only, on the (temporary) separation of the parent-child pair. The micro-processes of transition and confidence in the teacher-parent-child triad, their mutual positions, alliances, or dis-alliances are considered educational. Attention is also placed on the factors that make transition dynamics more or less smooth. At the same time, the study adopts a phenomenological, micro-pedagogical perspective (Bertolini, 1997, Mortari, 2007, Caronia, 2011) (Demetrio, 1992) and describes the interactive dynamics in light of the micro-analytical meanings assigned to them by the protagonists (Stern, 1995, 2004) in an attempt to put the observed behavior in relation to the more "hidden" ideas and educational models. From a methodological point of view, the study follows the field research tradition in education (Lumbelli, 1980, Mantovani, 1998) and combines qualitative research tools (focus groups, interviews, observations) with some recent methodological innovations, developed in the field of video research, using video in educational contexts (Goldman et al., 2007, Bove, 2008, 2009). In this sense, the study can be understood as a "pilot study on the method", since it explores the "training latencies" (Bove, 2009) of the tools and methods used, examining the importance of pedagogical training microanalysis and video, and in particular the microanalysis of interaction. These tools seem to offer interesting implications for extended reflection and research in educational services. Perhaps they can focus attention on micro-interactive processes, thereby bringing out the ideas of educators, facilitating the detailed study of reflexivity process practices which can link knowing-observing with the cognitive-interpretive-reflective sphere. This idiographic study was conducted at an ECEC in Parma with the following objectives: to observe, describe and analyze the interactive and relational dynamics patterns that developed between adults (parents, teachers) and children during transition to school from a microanalytical perspective; to gather the ideas of educators on some specific transition episodes, stimulating microanalytical reconstruction processes; to explore the educational potential of a mixed methodological approach (visual and narrative) based on behavior observation descriptions and reflection regarding the meanings ascribed to them by educators, who were the protagonists. In general, we aimed at pedagogically focusing on moments of "home-school transition" to help reduce the distance that often separates the discourses of educators regarding the relationship with the family from the daily practices put into effect in contexts, re-centering the attention of educators on their roles and their responsibilities and to observe the interactive competence of children and parents. Empirically, the research was divided into three phases, each involving the teachers in the ECEC, which was the research context, during different moments of observation and reflection on their individual and intersubjective behaviors. In the first stage, we explored the ideas and conceptions of the teachers about education by conducting informal interviews, group discussions and participant observations. During the second phase, we explored the teachers' ideas regarding interaction with children and parents in greater depth through microanalytic interviews - echoing the method originally developed by Stern (1995) - aimed at fostering the narration of transition episodes deemed more or less "positive" by the teachers themselves. At the same time, were observed and videotaped 100 episodes of the "input and output" of the children and their parents, 40 hours of which were subsequently selected as a representative sample for the microanalysis of the interactions observed, in an effort to identify patterns or recurring patterns of interaction. Finally, during the third phase of research, the teachers involved in the video recordings were invited to participate in an exercise in order to reconstruct their critical-reflexive behaviors mediated by images, to make them more aware by observing and analyzing the dynamic interaction processes and reflecting on their behavior and their assumptions. The data analysis (visual and narrative) made it possible to highlight the following aspects: - First, the microanalysis of the observed situations focused on the complexity of these transition moments, highlighting the role of teachers and the often non-verbal interactive skills of very young children; - Analysis of discourses, and therefore the meanings, collected during the interviews and the subsequent discussion with the teachers about the videos showed the changes in how the protagonist-teachers commented on and interpreted their roles in welcoming the children to school, including their reconsideration of the competences of children and parents. Overall, the results of this study allow us to confirm the educational value of the videomicroanalysis of interactions, which could also be further developed with respect to its impact on the behavior of educators.