Topic: We present here a “training-action-research” on a central issue in all European countries: the necessary training for incoming and in-service teachers as long-life learning.  Often vocational training courses are planned taking into consideration only some aspects, such as the area of values, of behaviour, of cognition and of discipline. On the other hand, teaching consists in a global experience, in which many aspects are involved: emotions, worldviews, individual needs connected to one’s life history, claims, aspirations of acknowledgement. Teaching interrogates then the existential dimension of every teacher. School is a global experience even for students and their families,  where an important part of  life is spent. The present European and world society is passing through a difficult  phase of transition breeding uncertainty, precariousness, social and individual hardship. School is a crucial  point where many citizens meet: kids, youths, teachers, parents, educators and social workers, local politicians. It is therefore necessary to take great care of every process that occurs inside the school. It is through these processes that  the wellbeing of the youths and of the practitioners who work inside is built, leading, consequently, to a greater wellbeing of the whole community.

Research issue : How to build a vocational training course able to allow teachers to understand both the explicit and hidden features of the different  meanings  in the global experience of their work-in-action? How can we approach the hidden and unconscious meanings? They condition  the way teachers work, with serious  consequences on the global teaching and learning process. The training-action-research was carried out during the past decade at the Qualifying School for teachers of secondary school of the University of Milan. 

Objectives:

*to help teachers to build a leading capacity in their own self-training  (active didactic)

*to plan a vocational training based on the concrete embodiment of the subjects to learn (embodiment)

*to build a greater consciousness  on the close relationship between the actor and the action in the production of knowledge, in their way of working and of being in relationship with other people (enaction)

*to build the capacity to acquire consciousness and then reflexivity on the relationship among experience, education and life history (consciousness and reflexivity)

*to help teachers to become more aware of their emotional responsibility as regards to the affective meanings present in their work (responsibility)

*to build a psychological wellbeing for the teachers so as to contribute to the students’ wellbeing (wellbeing)

Theoretical framework: An interdisciplinary approach is used here. The main theories of reference are the following: psychoanalysis  (Klein, Winnicott, Bion, Group Relations, Ferro; West; Salzberger, Wittenberg), phenomenology and neurophenomenology (Merleau-Ponty, Varela) cognitive neurosciences (Gallese, Rizzolati), the theories of the critical and clinical pedagogy (Cambi, Mariani, Massa, Riva, Freire, Giroux, Hooks), philosophy of education (Dewey, Mortari, Iori, Contini, Foucault, Mariani, Derrida), the feminist thought (Butler), hermeneutics (Gadamer, Ricoeur), the theory of complexity (Morin, Ceruti), the theories of reflexivity (Dewey, Schon, Mezirow). In addition the studies on the qualitative research methods in the field of social Sciences ( Mortari, Bove, Denzin, Lincoln)

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