Corso di Studio e «Community Learning»: prospettive di modello

Abstract

Degree Course and «Community Learning»: Modelling Perspectives

The recent use, in economic contexts, of the conceptual opposition between «mark-tomarket » and «mark-to-model» expressions would appear to be relevant also in the organizational analysis of university degree courses. To this end, the «case» of a specific Bachelor’s degree course was analysed within an adult education and lifelong learning perspective. From an epistemological standpoint, the analysis was based on the application of the «community of practice» paradigm by focusing on the following aspects: the historical location of the learning process (situated learning); the simultaneous presence of specific «reified objects» within different «communities» (separated and identified by defined organizational «boundaries»); «brokering» connections, that is, «connections provided by people who can introduce elements of one practice into another» (Wenger, 1998). The aforesaid conditions provide a basis in order to align educational design practices with an action strategy including: multi-membership experiences; the styles and discourses typical of different socio-cultural «constellations»; and the institutional participation of co-operating social actors. In view of all the above, this initial «case study» reveals the typical failings of the Italian university system that is widely geared to uncritical «mark-to-market» strategies.