Education in the Contemporary Society

In the course of the three-year doctoral programme, students are required to conduct a major education, psychology, philosophy, or interdisciplinary research project.

The doctorate has a strong international focus: PhD candidates are required to study and/or carry out research abroad and to present their work at international conferences; co-tutoring and exchanges are offered at locations around the world, thanks to UNIMIB’s partnerships with a range of leading universities. Grants are available for PhD students from other European and non-European universities, with a view to ensuring lively debate and cultural exchange within the various cycles of the programme.

The excellence of the course offering is reflected both in its theoretical-epistemological depth and in the high level of methodological expertise for which it is known, with faculty teaching a wide variety of research methodologies: qualitative (narrative, ethnographic, interpretative, phenomenological, art-based, participatory, etc.), quantitative, mixed-methods, experimental.

The University’s cooperation agreements with social services, schools, and educational services, as well as public and private institutions and businesses, facilitate applied research, thus enhancing the impact of candidates’ research outcomes at the societal level. Industry and executive internships are also offered, in partnership with companies, social institutions, services, and schools, in Italy and internationally.

The educational, psychological, philosophical, and interdisciplinary research projects carried out in fulfilment of the requirements of the PhD course concern the great educational challenges facing contemporary society, which arise from emergent phenomena including:

• interculturality and migration;
• the use of new digital technologies and new media;
• sustainability, environmental, and ecological education;
• new approaches of cultural heritage valorization;
• changes in the domains of education and teaching/learning;
• the fight against educational poverty and socio-cultural inequalities;
• the transformation of work and occupational settings;
• radicalization, violence, and fundamentalism;
• emergent and latent forms of exclusion, social injustice, educational poverty;
• lifelong, lifewide, and lifedeep learning;
• access to professional development and employment opportunities;
• recognition of informal competences and learning;
• communication as a source of individual and collective well-being;
• efforts to promote the holistic development of the person.

These form a set of dynamically evolving challenges that may only be effectively tackled in light of the most recent research findings.

In addition to pursuing traditional academic careers, the graduates of the PhD programme boast highly specialized training that makes them eligible for employment in public and private organizations (schools, health services, training and research institutions, social enterprises, international cooperation agencies, socio-educational services, etc.) where research is drawn on to enhance innovation, quality assessment, and professional development, educational, teaching-learning, guidance, social, and care processes.

The specific theoretical and methodological competences acquired during the programme – including the ability to collect, analyse, organize, and interpret complex data, and experience working in international and intersectoral settings – equip a Doctor in Education to work in applied research, consultancy services, or the management of educational processes, and to take responsibility for the design, writing up, monitoring, and evaluating of projects, especially with a view to winning research funding.

Expertise in these areas is required, for example, in:

• the design, evaluation, and supervision of educational processes in general;
• the orientation and job training in public and private companies, in public administration and in social services and enterprises implementing innovative projects at national and international level;
• the coordination of socio-educational services and projects, on behalf of public and private educational, professional development, and research institutions;
• the design of training and educational proposals for cultural and artistic organisations, services and enterprises to enhance the cultural heritage;
• the design of educational, professional development, and teaching/learning programmes in education services and schools for children, adolescents, adults, and elders;
• the design of online environments and digital learning programmes;
• the design of indoor and outdoor environments for the implementations of training and educational processes
• the design of serious games, interactive virtual simulations, and technological applications for communications, training, and learning.

The Doctorate Program in “Education in Contemporary Society” (ESC) involves the realisation and implementation, over a three-year period, of a research project of international relevance, under the guidance of a faculty member of the Doctoral Committee (tutor) and one or more supervisors (experts at national and international level) who guarantee the quality of the project and guide the doctoral student in the construction of his or her scientific profile, placing him or her in a research group and scientific community consistent with his or her interests. The research project is individual, but ESC encourages collaboration and participation in research groups.

To support the development of the multiple and complex skills required of researchers today, alongside the research activity that is central to the proposed training, the ESC Doctoral Program proposes an educational pathway structured as follows:

- curricular/disciplinary courses

- other educational activities/seminars

- interdisciplinary courses offered by the doctoral school

The ESC programme includes the monitoring meetings (3 per year), the mid-term and final evaluations for each year of the course, the State of the Art Research Week (once a year), the meetings with the tutor/supervisor and the opportunities to discuss with experts from the national and international scientific world, also through the participation of the doctoral students in the Internationalisation Days promoted by the Department: https://www.formazione.unimib.it/en/internationalization/internationalisation-days

The curricular/disciplinary courses offered by the ESC-Doctoral Program are divided into four modules (for a total of 13CFU):

• Pedagogical Issues in Educational Research;
• Methodological Issues in Educational Research;
• Psychological Issues in Educational Research;
• Philosophical Issues in Educational research.

These courses cover theoretical and methodological models and key issues in research in the humanities and social sciences, with reference to the scientific-sectors represented in the PhD (PED, PSI, FIL), with a focus on the educational challenges of contemporary society. Ethical and gender issues, both on a theoretical and methodological level, are included as cross-cutting themes in all teaching activities. The teaching activities are carried out by the teachers of the Doctoral Committee, representatives of the different scientific areas of the program, and may include the participation of distinguished Italian and foreign scholars/experts from academia, research organizations, and national and international cultural/social institutions. Attendances at curricular courses is compulsory and takes place in the first 12 months to enable doctoral students to engage in field research and mobility activities in the following months/years of the course.  Teaching is interactive and participatory. Lectures makes use of innovative teaching methodologies and always provide for the active involvement of students

Seminars/other training activities offered by the ESC - on cross-cutting topics such as “literature review”, “open science”, “scientific writing and publishing”, etc. -, the interdisciplinary courses offered by the Doctoral School (3CFU), which allow students to build specific pathways according to their research interests, and the RRI training days aimed at all doctoral students, complete the educational offer of the programme (https://www.unimib.it/didattica/offerta-formativa/dottorato-ricerca/carriera/corsi-interdisciplinari.)

In addition to attending courses and seminars, all doctoral students are required to actively participate in the cultural life of the department, in regular meetings with the tutor (faculty member) and supervisor(s), and with the Coordination Group. In order to ensure the quality and progress of the research project, doctoral students are also expected to participate in formative evaluation activities.

The ESC encourages and stimulates the development of a community of peers. It facilitates opportunities for exchanges between doctoral students in the different active cycles and with students in the different doctoral programmes of the Department, promoting the activation and empowerment of doctoral students as participants and protagonists of cultural initiatives.

The Doctoral Programme is constantly seeking to promote the autonomy of doctoral students, not only in conceiving, designing and implementing their research, but also in the dissemination of the results of their work through publications, conferences, scientific and cultural initiatives, both during and at the end of the three-year period. In order to support the integration of doctoral researchers into international networks, the ESC encourages the participation of doctoral researchers in summer/spring/winter schools. The participation of doctoral students as speakers at national and international conferences is also encouraged.

Teaching activities can be accessed on the e-learning platform. https://elearning.unimib.it/course/index.php?categoryid=6412