Enhancing experienced experts’ contribution in higher education of socio-pedagogical educators

In the Italian context, socio-pedagogical educators are professionals who work in services to support people with different kinds of fragilities and to build significant experiences for children and adults inside and outside traditional institutions. Their higher education foresees a Bachelor Degree, structured on a pedagogical basis and an interdisciplinary preparation. The paper presents which are the main competencies provided by the academic path these professionals follow, highlighting the most important skills they need to develop. Starting from that, the actual state of the art of the research project “Structural embedding of knowledge by experience in higher education through processes of co-creation” will be introduced, enhancing the results presented in a previous article. This project, in fact, aims to understand the possible contribution of experienced experts in reinforcing socio-pedagogical educators' higher education. They are people who have overcome disease and now work in services, collaborating with professionals and helping people with similar backgrounds (homelessness; care leavers; people with mental health fragilities). The article explains why their contribution is important to see the intersection between experiential and theoretical learning in building effective professionalism and a significant road for people who have difficulties in facing the complexity of contemporaneity. Moreover, the paper wants to stress the importance for expert users of participating in a specific path of awareness to formalize the knowledge obtained from experience. These are the reference points to support the following research action: the preparation of the Pedagogy of Social Inclusion course, held during this spring semester, in the third year of the bachelor’s degree in education, at the University of Milano-Bicocca. It implies sets of lectures structured with the presence of experienced experts next to professors, in the perspective of co-teaching. The first effects on students' perspective and preparation will be presented.