Session Information
99 ERC SES 03 B, Didactics - Learning and Teaching
Paper Session
Contribution
The present paper is part of the PNRR PhD project “Teaching and learning heritage”, which responds to the need expressed in the PNRR plan to develop strategies for safeguarding cultural heritage (M1C3.1: cultural heritage for the next generation). The research project identifies heritage education with children as a possible safeguarding action, as also suggested by the 2003 UNESCO Convention.
Considering the reflections brought by Manal & Srour (2021) and Smith (2013), which underline how children are under-represented in heritage discourses and how necessary it is to rethink their relationship with heritage, the aim of the research is to get a deeper understanding of children’s perspectives of cultural heritage (in all its forms, natural, tangible and intangible), and its associated meanings, related to their everyday urban environment.
In this context, mapping urban spaces with children as a method to foster an identification and co-construction of knowledge (De Nicola et al., 2022) of cultural heritage is proposed. For considering children as social and cultural actors (Melton et al, 2014), implies involving them in safeguarding processes and bringing their voices into the – this way intergenerationally structured – heritage discourse.
To reflect on heritage education, the perspective of intangible cultural heritage is proposed. The “intangible cultural heritage” paradigm shift introduced by 2003 UNESCO Convention highlights a change from the hegemony of the cultural objects to the centrality of the subjects (Lapiccirella Zingari, 2017, p. 19). The 2005 Faro Convention also emphasises the relevance of the participation of communities, groups, and individuals in the processes of heritage making, safeguarding and education. Thus, heritage, considered as a cultural (Smith, 2006) and active process (Copeland, 2012, p. 22), is constituted by the meanings and the values that individuals attribute to it. Accordingly, heritage education “is about people” (Copeland, 2012, p.22), which means that it lies less in the acquisition of factual knowledge, but rather in the individuals’ involvement in the process of heritage making and meaning making. Furthermore, Del Gobbo et al. (2018) emphasise the importance of designing educational activities that foster the production of a plurality of narratives and interpretations by persons and communities, highlighting the dynamic and active component of cultural experiences (p.26).
Inspired by Children’s geography, the tool of mapping urban spaces, assuming the "more than representational" approach (Malatesta, 2015), allows to compose the experienced dimension (practices, meanings, values) of places with its translation into graphic form (Malatesta, 2015, p.62). In this sense, mapping no longer represents an objective physical space, but becomes the narrative of an experienced and lived place. As Barnes (2018) and Powell (2010) suggest, mapping, as a research method, allows the exploring of new narratives, not fixing meanings.
In heritage education, asking children to map their urban spaces means identifying all those elements (places, cultural practices, people) considered important. The children’s narratives of their maps will compose a collective narrative of the places, as well as of the community living in the neighborhood.
Observing cultural heritage from everyday places responds on one hand to the necessity to make this concept more accessible (Schofield, 2015), anchoring it in everyday experiences that are considered significant; on the other hand, it also allows to recognise all those 'unofficial' cultural expressions as heritage (Harrison, 2013, p. 15).
Method
The research project can be defined as a qualitative and exploratory research (Mortari & Ghirotto, 2019) based on a reconstructive approach (Bohnsack, 2010). The empirical study will be conducted in northern Italian urban area and will involve 30/40 children aged between 6 and 11 years old. The data collection will start in May 2024. To answer the research question, I will conduct creative mapping workshops in collaboration with cultural and social associations based in the selected area (90 minutes & 15 participants each). They will be structured in three main phases: 1. First group activation to introduce the topic of cultural heritage through different stimuli; 2. Workshop activity, in which children will be asked to represent through drawings, or maps, the places of the area/district that are most important for them, or the element that they consider cultural heritage; 3. Group discussion, where children will be asked to talk about their drawing and to share ideas on cultural heritage. In terms of methods of data collection, participant observations and field notes will be used to monitor/observe the process. Field notes, also often described as “memos”, will focus both on observative and methodological aspects; furthermore, reflexive field notes will work as a starting point for the elaboration of the research process (Bove, 2019) and for the interpretation of the data. The graphic representations of places are seen as the products of the children's lived experience, transforming the materiality of spaces into a “sense of place” (Malatesta, 2015, p. 64). As Barnes (2018) and Powell (2010) suggest mapping becomes a form of narrative of the places experienced and lived. Children's drawings will be accompanied by a description. Narratives will suggest a clearer, but also closer, understanding of children’s thought and ideas on their living places. Documentary method will be used for the analyses, combined with the ethnographically aligned approach. Both approaches refer to an abductive research process, through which theory is generated ex novo. In accordance with the documentary method, it is intended to triangulate the different data collection procedures (participant observation, children’s drawings, and group discussion) to develop a more accurate and deeper interpretation of them.
Expected Outcomes
The principal aim of the research is to understand more in detail how children perceive, understand and, most importantly, live cultural heritage in their ordinary urban environments. Through the experience of mapping, the expected outcome is to involve actively and practically children in the process of identify heritage elements and co-construct knowledge and awareness of heritage. The insights gained can be made fruitful for further discourse on heritage education in an innovative way. Moreover, the conduction of workshops in collaboration with cultural associations based in the selected area emphasise an approach to heritage education actions in the context of non-formal education, enriching the experiences proposed in the school and in the museum context. By this, it is encouraged a heritage education closer to children´s experiences. Lastly, through this paper, it is intended to open a deeper reflection on how to involve children, in heritage safeguarding and valorisation processes, taking seriously their way of acting and meaning-giving in their daily lives.
References
Barnes, A. (2018). Creative Representations of Place (1st ed.). Milton: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315162089 Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N., & Weller, W. (Eds.). (2010). Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method: In International Educational Research (1st ed.). Opladen & Farmington Hills, MI: Verlag Barbara Budrich. Bove, C. (2019). Il metodo etnografico. In L. Mortari & L. Ghirotto, Metodi per la ricerca educativa. Roma: Carocci editore. Copeland, T. (2012). Heritage Education in Europe. Mirando a Europa: Estado de La Cuestión y Perspectivas de Futuro. Ponencias, 21–29. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alfredo-Palacios Garrido/publication/280601520_El_Open_Museum_de_Glasgow_llevar_el_museo_a_las_personas/links/55bd708408ae092e96638786/El-Open-Museum-de-Glasgow-llevar-el-museo-a-las-personas.pdf#page=21 Del Gobbo, G., Galeotti, G., & Torlone, F. (2018). Le valenze educative del patrimonio culturale: Riflessioni teorico-metodologiche tra ricerca evidence based e azione educativa nei musei. Canterano: Aracne. De Nicola, A., Pepe, A., Zuccoli, F. (2022). Living Territories to the Full, Dialoguing with Citizens. In: Casonato, C., Bonfantini, B. (eds) Cultural Heritage Education in the Everyday Landscape. Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (113–127). Cham: Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10395-7_8 Harrison, R. (2013). Heritage: Critical Approaches. Routledge. Lapiccirella Zingari, V. (2017). Patrimoni vitali nel paesaggio. Note sull’immaterialità del patrimonio culturale alla luce delle convenzioni internazionali. In D. Parbuono & F. Sbardella (Eds.), Costruzione di Patrimoni. Le parole degli oggetti e delle convenzioni (17–51). Bologna: Pàtron Editore. Malatesta, S. (2015). Geografia dei bambini: Luoghi, pratiche e rappresentazioni (1a ed). Milano: Guerini e Associati. Manal Ginzarly & F. JORDAN Srour (2021) Unveiling children’s perceptions of World Heritage Sites: a visual and qualitative approach, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27:12, 1324-1342, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2021.1977374 Melton, G. B., Ben-Aryeh, A., Cashmore, J., Goodman, G. S., & Worley, N. K. (Eds.). (2014). The SAGE handbook of child research. Los Angeles: SAGE Mortari, L., & Ghirotto, L. (2019). Metodi per la ricerca educativa. Roma: Carocci. Powell, K. (2010). Making Sense of Place: Mapping as a Multisensory Research Method. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(7), 539-555. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410372600 Schofield, J. (2015). Forget About ‘Heritage’: Place, Ethics and the Faro Convention. In T. Ireland & J. Schofield (Eds.), The Ethics of Cultural Heritage (pp. 197–209). New York NY: Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1649-8_12 Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage (Repr). London: Routledge. Smith, L. (2013). Taking the children: children, childhood and heritage making. In K. Darian-Smith & C. Pascoe, Children, Childhood and Cultural Heritage (107–125). London and New York: Routledge. UNESCO. (2003). The basic text of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. https://ich.unesco.org/en/basic-texts-00503
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