FORMENTI LAURA

Role
Full Professor  
Academic disciplines
Pedagogia generale e sociale (M-PED/01)
Office phone
Room:
  • U06, Floor: 4, Room: 4162
Reception hours

Please write an email if you need to meet me.

Biography

Full Professor of General and Social Pedagogy, Laura teaches Family Pedagogy and Family Counselling at the Department of Human Sciences for Education, where she also coordinates the Research Workshop “Pe.Tra.Lab” (a Pedagogy for Transformations in Work). She is the President of the Italian Society of Universities for Lifelong Learning (RUIAP): a consortium of 33 universities that invest on new policies and practices for lifelong learning in HE.

Trained as a systemic family therapist and expert of complexity theories, especially in their epistemologic and operative dimensions, Laura developed her own model of intervention within human systems, that overcomes the dominant individualistic cumulative view of knowledge as “possession”, to explore its dialogic, interactional and transformative dimensions.

Since 1992, she has been active in the international arena of Adult Education and Learning; she is active in several groups, networks and societies, such as the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (of which she has been the Chairperson from 2014 to 2019), and Joint Convenor of the “Life History and Biography” research network, LHBN (together with Linden West and Alan Bainbridge, Canterbury Christ Church University). She started with others the European Conference for Qualitative Inquiry – ECQI and the Asiatic (South Korea) Biography, Lifelong Learning and Culture, IBLLC

In 2019, Laura was awarded the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE)’s Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education for the book “Transforming Perspectives in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education. A dialogue”, written with Linden West and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

Laura is presently working on several research projects on empowering professionals of education in Residential Child Care (Erasmus Plus KA2 ERRCI, Turku, FI, p.i. Eeva Timonen-Kallio); on using collaborative and arts-based methodologies in exploring themes of social justice in museums (Feminist Workshop, Victoria, BC, 2017-2020, p.i. Darlene Clover); on senso-biographic methods in searching migrants’ experience (ALSOS, 2018-2020) and the relationship with a territory (Sensotra, ERC 2017-2021).

Publications

  • Formenti, L., Cino, D. (2024). Senso comune e lavoro educativo con le famiglie. Intervento presentato a: Convegno Nazionale Educazione Professionale tra esperienza e teoria. Verso uno statuto epistemologico per l’educazione professionale italiana, Palazzo Piomarta, Rovereto, Italia. Detail

  • Luraschi, S., Formenti, L., Del Negro, G. (2023). Born in the first light of the morning: il mattino ha l'oro in bocca!. In Exploring belonging and meaning. (pp.61-62). Trondheim : NTNU. Detail

  • Formenti, L., Cino, D. (2023). Oltre il senso comune. Un viaggio di ricerca nella pedagogia della famiglia. Franco Angeli. Detail

  • Formenti, L., Luraschi, S. (2023). Embodied dialogues. A transformative pedagogy of spaec, time, and identity. In H. Järviluoma, L. Murray (a cura di), Sensory Transformations. Environments, tecnologies, sensobiographies (pp. 25-48). Oxon : Routledge [10.4324/9781003131342-3]. Detail

  • Palareti, L., Canali, C., Rigamonti, A., Formenti, L. (2023). Residential Child Care for Children and Youth in Italy: An Evolving System. In J.K. Whittaker, L. Holmes, J.F. Del Valle, S. James (a cura di), Revitalizing Residential Care for Children and Youth. Cross-national trends and challenges (pp. 239-255). Oxford University Press [10.1093/oso/9780197644300.003.0017]. Detail

Research projects

PNRR per la Missione 4, componente 2 Investimento 1.1- Avviso 104/2022 | Remploy, Reconsidering Graduate Employability: Educational Pathways for Transitions to Work
Year: 2022
Call: Bando PRIN 2022
Grantors: MINISTERO DELL'UNIVERSITA' E DELLA RICERCA (MUR)
Soggetti inaspettati: accoglienza, spazio e senso tra metafora e realtà nei percorsi di giovani adulti migranti
Year: 2018
Call: Research Fellowship
Grantors: FONDAZIONE ALSOS
MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. CREATE YOUR FUTURE!
Year: 2017
Call: AVVISO PUBBLICO PER LA SELEZIONE DI PROGETTI FINALIZZATI ALLA PREVENZIONE E ALLA LOTTA CONTRO LA DISPERSIONE SCOLASTICA - ANNO SCOLASTICO 2017/2018
Grantors: REGIONE LOMBARDIA
European Biographies. Biographical Approaches in Adult Education
Year: 2009
Call: Socrates

Awards

Awards

  • SCUTREA Ian Martin Award, SCUTREA is the Standing Conference for University Teaching and Research on the Education of Adults; it was established in 1971 as a network of adult educators involved in researching and teaching adults. Initially members were drawn from university adult education departments throughout the United Kingdom. Today the membership is diverse and global, mainly from Australia, Canada and the US. SCUTREA assigns 4 awards every year: to the best paper from a student, to the best papers in social justice, international and comparative research and art., 2017

Scientific fellowships

  • Presidente - RUIAP - Rete Universitaria Italiana per l'Apprendimento Permanente, 2018
  • Vice-Presidente - ASSIMSS Associazione Italiana di Medicina e Sanità Sistemica, 2017
  • Componente del Consiglio/Comitato Direttivo - RUIAP - Rete Universitaria Italiana per l'Apprendimento Permanente, 2015
  • Presidente - ESREA - European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, 2014
  • Componente dell'Advisory Board - International Research Network on "Culture, Biography & Lifelong Learning", c/o Department of Education, Pusan National University, 2014
  • Altra carica sociale - Life History and Biography Network of ESREA, 2009
  • Componente del Consiglio/Comitato Direttivo - ESREA - European Society for Research on the Education of Adults, 2008

Research and teaching assignments

  • Visiting Researcher - Expert of research: attività di ricerca, supervisione e insegnamento (livello dottorato), per studenti e staff. - University of Eastern Finland - Joensuu, 2018
  • Attivita' didattica - Experienced supervisor at the Graduate School, Christ Church University, Canterbury. Attività di supervisione dei dottorandi, seminari e workshop per dottorandi e staff, conferenze. - Canterbury Christ Church University, 2013 - 2019

Congresses/Conferences

  • Program committee - Urban-Related Sensoria: Environments, Technologies, Sensobiographies(Finlandia), 2020
  • Program chair - ACTIVISM IN A TROUBLED WORLD - AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL AND NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON STRUGGLES FOR THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL(Regno Unito), 2020
  • Program committee - Qualitative Inquiry as Activism(Regno Unito), 2019
  • Program chair - Artful Languages and Narratives of Adult Learning(Norvegia), 2019
  • Program chair - Quali conoscenze per quale società? Ricerca, alta formazione e apprendimento permanente: un dialogo tra università, pubblica amministrazione, imprese e terzo settore(Italia), 2018
  • Program chair - Togetherness and its discontents(Italia), 2018
  • Program chair - Contemporary Dilemmas and Learning for Transformation(Italia), 2018
  • Program chair - "Discourses we live by"(Danimarca), 2017
  • Program chair - "Imagining diverse futures for adult education: questions of power and resources of creativity" Maynooth University, Irlanda, ESREA VIII European Research Conference, 2016
  • Program chair - "Resources of hope. The role of hope in adult education research"(Regno Unito), 2016
  • Program chair - Stories that make a difference. Exploring the collective, social and political potential of narratives in adult education research(Italia), 2015
  • Program chair - "Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative"
    Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, ESREA, Life History and Biography Network:, 2014
  • Program chair - “Researching Learning Lives: on discipline, inter-disciplinarity and imaginative imperatives in auto/biographical and narrative research” Christ Church University, Canterbury (UK), ESREA Life History and Biography Network, 2013
  • Program chair - “Expanding connections: Learning, the body and the environment" University of Southern Denmark, Odense (DK), ESREA Life History and Biography Network, 2012
  • Program chair - “Committed reflexive researchers and the challenges of interdisciplinarity in researching human lives”, International Seminar in Qualitative Methodologies, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, 2012