Assigned Curriculum: Research on Inclusion, Sustainability, Well-Being in Education

Brief personal and professional presentation and research interests:
- Master's degree in Clinical Psychology
- Master in Social innovation and Inclusion
- Second advance course in philosophy for children
- I worked as an educator in communities, schools and in supporting educational services in the provinces of Milan, Bergamo, Cremona.
- I taught elementary school students in Milan for two years.
- I'm undergoing a music terapy training and I voluntereed at a daytime community in the province of Bergamo in a music project.
- Post graduate Internship at CMTF in Milan.
- Pre-graduate internship in etnoclinics at a political refugee center in Bergamo.
- I'm working for the third year as a tutor at the specialization course CSAS at the University of Padua.
- Currently I'm a PhD student in Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Padua and I'm doing a research about Humor, Improvvisation and Well-Being in Education.

The complexity of human communication and the nature of languages and their forms both pique my curiosity. I would like to contribute to the world of Educational Studies with all the questions, curiosities and studies about these phenomena.

I’ll conclude with the following questions: what would humanity be without education? can we call it that?

Abstract PhD project:
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member"

Groucho Marx’s paradoxical statement can make peole smile or, at most, laugh, revealing a bizarre phenomenon of the linguistic agency present in all human societies (Hall 2015), that often appears suddendly and that can be improvised: Humor. Philosophers (Such as Aristotele, Plato, Kant, Hobbes, Bergson, etc..) have paid close attention to the phenomenon of humor in an effort to understand its foundamental structure and basic features.

Since ‘900 it has become a phenomena of interest also in the field of education (Louizou, Bergen), sociology (Zjiderveld), anthropology (Bateson, Mead), and cognitive sciences (Brône, Feyaerts, Veale, Ruskin).

Several research studies in the field of education have determined that it is crucial to examine the humoristic phenomenon in relation to the well-being dimension (Davidhizar &Shearer, 1997), the relationship between students and teachers (Rainsberg 1994, Attardo, 2017), the way in which the participants in educational environments interpret the phenomena (Mayo, 2010, Brown, 2010) and how humoristic mediators are employed in education (Brown, 2020, Loizou, 2016, Bergen, 2018). Among the many benefits of humor are increased social cohesiveness and stress relief (Banas, Dunbar, Rodriguez, & Liu, 2011), furthermore humor is also considered a phenomenon that allows to talk about subjects that are not easily dealt with (Fry, 2001) such as embarassment, shame, misunderstanding but also existential topics such as ideology and death (Mead, 1976).

The aim of this exploratory study is to gather student and teachers experiences about the use of humorous mediators to facilitate philosophical thinking. The method of philosophy for children (Lipman, Santi) will be used, along with interviews, focus groups and observations to investigate, together with the participants, humor as a tool for philosophical reflection.

3 key words identifying the PhD project:
Humor, Education, Philosophical inquiry

Supervisor: Marina Santi

Co-supervisor: Eleonora Zorzi

Last modified: Monday, 5 February 2024, 5:15 AM