Supporting Transformative Processes. The Role of Microanalysis for the Professional Development

In recent years many studies and research in the field of adult-education and professional development resumed Dewey’s (1910) insights on reflexivity as an element of change and transformation (Knowles, 1973; Mezirow, 1991; Formenti, Gamelli, 1998) and much work has been carried out to investigate theoretically the advantages of a greater personal and professional awareness of how people act (Fabbri, 2003; Striano, 2001; Nuzzaci, 2011). However, it is not always easy to find clear methodological insights on how to “provoke”, document and analyze these processes of “consciousness” (Formenti, 2007) and of “critical revision” of the experience with the protagonists (Bove, 2009). And this is particularly relevant for early childhood educators, who are involved in contexts where relationships are complex, dynamic, unpredictable and ask them a flexible planning and the skill to know how to act in the immediate with children and adults together (Braga, 2010). On the bases of these considerations, in the presentation we will use some examples drawn from a recent study on the relationships between adults (parents and educators) and children in the infant-toddler center (Cescato, 2012) to illustrate and discuss, from a pedagogical perspective, the potentials of combining visual and narrative methods of micro-analysis to sustain educators in processes of critical thinking and reflection “in and on action” (Schön, 1987) and to foster the review of educational work. The study we will refer to is part of research on early childhood education and it was aimed at investigate the interactive dynamics between teachers, parents and children during transition from the family to the service, linking the micro-analytical study of the triadic interaction behaviors (Fivaz-Depeursinge, Corboz-Warnery , 1999) with the exploration of interpretation processes by the educators involved. From a methodological perspective, the study combined some tools drawn from the qualitative tradition in education (observations, focus groups) with suggestions developed in the clinical field, such as the interview on the "present moment" (Stern, 2004) and the use of video-microanalysis in educational context (Goldman et al., 2007; Bove, 2008). Following the voices and the stories of some educators involved in the study, we will illustrate the possibility to involve educators and sustain them in experiences of “unpacking” the details of their interactions, of recognizing and put into perspective their “interpretative punctuations” (Bateson, 1972) and of open themselves to new dimensions of meaning. Among the findings of our study, we will mainly focused on the impact of the “moment to moment” analysis of behaviors to help teachers in keeping track of their actions, in recognizing paradoxes and stereotypes in their behaviors, and in reducing their habitual and automatic patters of interactions.