The course aims at developing the main epistemological, theoretical and methodological constructs of Special Pedagogy stated as the science of inclusion of differences and diversities in accordance with the latest studies and research, not only for persons with disabilities but also on the wider horizon of those with “Special Educational Needs” or those who live on the fringe of society or have an insufficient level of social and cultural participation. The course aims at providing knowledge of the main concepts of diversity, deficit, handicap, integration, scholastic  and social inclusion, including the current debate on training and the necessary competences that professionals must acquire to provide educational care and help. From this particular angle, attention will  be focused on the categories of educational care and help, which are the fundamental elements of Special Pedagogy, essential above all to create an adequate and up-to-date theoretical and practical wealth of knowledge, skills and competences of a planning nature for socio-pedagogical educators, support specialized teachers and pedagogists. Moreover, the course will provide mastery of  strategies, methods and good inclusive practices using the main planning models of an integrated and net-work nature so that each person, whatever their state of disability, fragility and social vulnerability, is able to reach a satisfactory level of social inclusion, active citizenship, accessibility and belonging to the common and democratic social context. Educational care and help, therefore, will be further examined and developed in the complex, many-sided, possible declinations that implicate the overcoming of abstract philosophical theorizations in order to offer operative, organizational and managerial instruments capable of coping with particular situations, often in emergency, of persons in difficulty.

The course will examine topics in the following order:

- Special Pedagogy and epistemological questions: the logics of paths and borders

- Special Pedagogy and the dialogue with other sciences

- for a special Pedagogy of inclusion

- complexity and diversity

- educating to diversity: new educational professions

- educational care, help relationship and existential re-planning

- narration, care and resilience

- narration as an inclusive language and "gesture" of care

- care as a founding category of Special Pedagogy

- care, help and educational professions

- educational care as "competent accompaniment" towards inclusion

- distress, maladjustment, deficit, handicap, deviance, marginality beyond the logic of categorization

- vulnerability, fragility, distress and deviance: educational specifics

Analytically the course aims at providing knowledge, understanding and mastery of:

- quality indicators of social inclusion

- comparison of planning models that range from individual care to territorial care

- team-work, supervision, planning and coordination of inclusive after-school activities

- special and non-special pedagogical competences to plan the reduction of handicap, distress, situations of marginality and deviance

- educational care and phenomenological-hermeneutic approach

- educational care, help and ecological-systemic approach

- strategies and care and help methods  in the perspective of redefinitions of Life Projects

 - theories, methods and narrative practices and instruments of care and help

- planning models  and network logics

- strategies of help relationships in difficult contexts

- new educational professionals, inclusion and help relationships

1.   knowledge and understanding

By the end of the course the student will have acquired:

• The main  lines of  the Special Pedagogy epistemological debate with particular reference to its constituent elements (problems and methods) and its relationship to other education sciences
• The capacity to identify, define and compare the fundamental characteristics of theoretical and methodological approaches in Special Pedagogy with particular reference to scholastic and social inclusive processes
• knowledge and competences necessary to identify, define and compare the different characteristics of theoretical and methodological approaches in Special Pedagogy and in Pedagogy of marginality and deviance with a view to inclusion
• knowledge and special and non-special competences of care and help professionals
• knowledge and competences referring to the many-sided declinations of educational care and help categories 

2.   applying knowledge and understanding.

By the end of the course the student will have to show the capacity to:

• know and understand the concepts and theories taught on the course
• recognize the different theoretical formulations and operate conceptually with them
• analyze  the characteristics of several inclusive instruments referring to the elaboration of inclusive Life Projects
• analyze critically the different planning models of good care and help practices oriented towards social inclusion

3.   making judgements

By the end of the course the student will have to show an aptitude for:

• using knowledge and concepts that allow reasoning according to the various and open logics of the discipline
• identifying methodologies of intervention suited to different contexts
• knowing how to propose hypothesis for intervention and coping with pedagogical cases referring to social inclusion

4.   communication skills

By the end of the course the student will have to acquire the capacity to:

· use the specific terms of the discipline in its points of reflection and in its operative practices in the field

· know how to communicate with suitable instruments presented during the course

· communicate in the specific disciplinary language  with operators on the territory

5.   learning skills

By the end of the course the student will have acquired the capacity to:

·  analyze and evaluate critically, in their reflective and epistemological aspects, the constructs of the discipline relative to the principal educational contexts in society

· investigate autonomously the problems associated with different intervention contexts

· find the necessary sources for the development of critical reflection and for the accomplishing of projects aimed at integration and social inclusion

.  construct good practices of intervention and project routes for persons with disability and persons in a situation of marginality

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

Lectures; essays; seminars; debates on specific topics; group work.

Attendance

Students are not obliged to attend lessons

Course books

Text-books

P. Gaspari, Cura educativa, relazione d'aiuto come categorie fondative della Pedagogia speciale: inclusione e nuove professionalità educative, Anicia, Roma (in print)

P. Bertolini, L. Caronia, Ragazzi difficili. Pedagogia interpretativa e linee di intervento (nuova edizione), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2015 (pp. 243)

One text-book to choose from:

1. R. Medeghini, G. Vadalà, W. Fornasa, A. Nuzzo, Inclusione sociale e disabilità. Linee guida per l'autovalutazione della capacità inclusiva dei servizi, Erickson, Trento, 2013 (pp. 197)

2. A. Ferrante, M.B. Gambacorti-Passerini, C. Palmieri (ed.), L'educazione e i margini. Temi, esperienze e prospettive per una pedagogia dell'inclusione sociale, Guerini Scientifica, Milano (pp. 330)

3. P. Gaspari, Per una Pedagogia speciale oltre la medicalizzazione, Guerini Scientifica, Milano, 2017 (from p. 97 to p. 222)

Assessment

The students’ assessment will be carried out through a written open-answer examination  (brief essay on two topic areas to be administered at the end of the course) in that, in line with the Dublin Descriptors, the aim of the assessment is mainly to evaluate the capacity to:  

• Use the knowledge and concepts that allow reflection following the specific internal logic of the discipline

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Not attending students can take advantage of educational materials (articles, essays, diagrams, videos, etc.) registered by the teacher in the Moodle platform, blended.uniurb.it. 

You can contact the teacher by mail and appointment.

Attendance

Students are not obliged to attend lessons

Course books

Text-books

P. Gaspari, Cura educativa, relazione d'aiuto come categorie fondative della Pedagogia speciale: inclusione e nuove professionalità educative, Anicia, Roma (in print)

P. Bertolini, L. Caronia, Ragazzi difficili. Pedagogia interpretativa e linee di intervento (nuova edizione), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2015 (pp. 243)

One text-book to choose from:

1. R. Medeghini, G. Vadalà, W. Fornasa, A. Nuzzo, Inclusione sociale e disabilità. Linee guida per l'autovalutazione della capacità inclusiva dei servizi, Erickson, Trento, 2013 (pp. 197)

2. A. Ferrante, M.B. Gambacorti-Passerini, C. Palmieri (ed.), L'educazione e i margini. Temi, esperienze e prospettive per una pedagogia dell'inclusione sociale, Guerini Scientifica, Milano (pp. 330)

3. P. Gaspari, Per una Pedagogia speciale oltre la medicalizzazione, Guerini Scientifica, Milano, 2017 (from p. 97 to p. 222)

Assessment

The students’ assessment will be carried out through a written open-answer examination  (brief essay on two topic areas to be administered at the end of the course) in that, in line with the Dublin Descriptors, the aim of the assessment is mainly to evaluate the capacity to:  

• Use the knowledge and concepts that allow reflection following the specific internal logic of the discipline

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

During the course, there will be a tutorial teaching to small-medium groups of students about educational-didactic planning, developed for pupils with disabilities in order to acquire elements of formative assessment, concerning the level of pro?ciency attained by the students.