00045 - Cultural Anthropology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will achieve the following competences and abilities:

• understanding the key concepts related to Cultural Anthropology (namely: culture, cultural and ethnical diversity, identity, ethnicity, representations, multiculturalism);
• understanding the current anthropological debate on culture;
• critically reflecting on key anthropological concepts such as ethnicity, culture, multiculturalism, specifically when these concepts refer to contemporary education settings;
• understanding and knowing the main fields and domains of contemporary cultural analysis;
• understanding the theoretical framework of Anthropology of Education;
• using and critically applying the ethnographic method to education settings analysis;
• critically applying the theoretical background to education settings and, specifically, to the school context;
• understanding the school and the professional context as data sources to be analysed following the ethnographic model;
• using the ethnographic approach to improve communication skills and to develop empathy;
• improving analytical tools in order to understand the transformation processes currently affecting the education settings;
• critically analysing multiculturalism underpinning education settings in order to avoid reified representations of cultural differences and, more broadly, of diversity.

Course contents

The course will be carried out in the first Semester (October-December 2017) and it aims at introducing the pivotal concepts related to Cultural Anthropology in order to allow students achieving those theoretical and methodological tools that will enable them to critically understand the practices and the implicit assumptions underpinning the education settings in which they are going to work as professionals.

Specifically, the teaching programme will address the following issues:

• Anthropology and contemporary processes;
• Migration processes, migrant families, second generations and education services/settings;
• Anthropology, gender and education;
• Ethnography in education settings.

Readings/Bibliography

For both attending and non attending students, the exam texts are two:

• Giacalone F. (a cura di), 2017. Il tempo e la complessità. Teorie e metodi dell’antropologia culturale, Milano Franco Angeli

Furthermore, students must choose one out the following texts:

• Biscaldi A., 2013. Etnografia della responsabilità educativa, Bologna, ArchetipoLibri
• Maher V. (a cura di), 2012. Genitori migranti, Torino, Rosenberg&Sellier

For International/Erasmus students, please contact the lecturer.

Teaching methods

Face-to-face classes, case-studies presentations and group-work on ethnographic materials.

Assessment methods

For both attending and non attending students, the exam consists of one hour-written examination based on two open questions aimed at assessing both students’ knowledge of the teaching programme contents, both students’ competences in critically applying the anthropological theoretical and methodological background to the analysis of education settings.

Evaluation is grounded on the following criteria:

• understanding Cultural Anthropology key concepts and the ability to properly use the anthropological language;
• understanding the key issues underpinning the contemporary debate and, specifically, the debate on cultural analysis applied to both education processes and to the school context;
• ability to use the anthropological knowledge (namely, the theoretical and methodological background) to critically  analyse the education settings and the teaching practices

The overall evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths (.../30). The minimum passing score is 18/30.

If rejected at the exam, students can register to the following  examination session.

For International/ERASMUS students only, it is possible to arrange an oral exam in Italian.

In order to do the written examination, students must sign up to the Alma Esami Portal by the deadline set. Those who fail to enroll by the due date for technical issues, are required to promptly report the problem to the Student Administration Office. The lecturer can decide to allow them accessing the exam.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentations, videos

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Crivellaro