Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Contents -- 1: Ontological Reasons for Care -- The Primacy of Care: Some Points for Reflection -- Being-There While Lacking Being -- The Directionality of Care -- Preserving Vital Strength -- Care that Makes Being Flourish -- Care that Heals the Injuries of Being-There -- The Thoughtfulness of Being-There -- Relationality as Primary Ontological Data -- Being Alone with the Other/the Solitude of Being-With -- The Neediness of the Other -- The Conditionsnees of Being-There -- Vulnerability -- Fragility -- Ontological Weakness -- The Paradigmatic Horizon -- Bibliography -- 2: The Essence of Good Care -- Questions of Method -- In Search of the General Essence -- The Essence of Concreteness -- Seeds of Method -- The General-Formal Essence of Care -- Epistemological Boundaries -- The Essential Quality -- Where Care Takes Place -- Temporal Duration -- The Generative Matrix -- The Object of Care -- The Intention Guiding Life -- The Ethical Core of the Work of Care -- The Primary Issue -- Sticking to the Question -- Where the Issue Is the Good -- Aside -- Bibliography -- 3: The Ethical Core of Care -- In the Heart of Care -- Feeling Responsibility for the Other -- At the Origin of the Sense of Responsibility -- Understanding the Quality of Being-There of Another -- Feeling Touched by the Other -- Obeying Reality -- Being Obligated -- A Simple and Essential Thought -- Feeling Reality -- Acting with Generosity -- The Act of Giving -- Without Expectations -- An Extraordinary Ordinary Life -- The Vital Necessity of Giving -- Approaching the Other with Respect -- A Kindergarten Teacher's Account: -- The Essence of Respect -- In Word and in Deed -- The Roots of Respect -- Being Brave -- Bibliography -- 4: The Concrete Aspects of the Essence of Care -- Paying Attention -- Keeping One's Eyes on Reality -- Loyalty -- Listening -- Being-There with Words.

In Italy, family fostering is in most cases a voluntary service where foster parents are non-professional helpers. About half of the foster parents are couples with children of their own, which makes fostering a "family enterprise." Within growing attention to children's voices in research, the paper focuses on children living foster care (as children in care and as foster parents' children) and the ways they engage in constructing their family landscape. So far, the point of view of the two groups has been considered separately. Although their life trajectories are highly specific, a cross-cutting perspective on family involving the two groups of children can offer new insights on their experiences of family construction and belonging. Starting from a conceptual framework that sees kinship and family as emerging from practices where family actors—including children—are actively engaged, the article presents the main results of interview research involving 69 children and youth who currently live in foster families in Italy, as children in care and as biological children of the foster parents. The results highlight the intense work children do in constructing and naming family ties, in displaying their family in social contexts, and in learning about themselves, the family, and their multiple belongings throughout foster care.

In order to answer the call of Agenda 2030 (UN, 2015), higher education must assist in giving form to a new society in which democracy is cultivated in both the minds and practices of our society. A democratic education is the answer to the challenges of contemporary society, which is characterized by indifference and an unwillingness to engage for the common good. Educational practices are often aligned to this trend so that they are planned with the aim of developing competences useful for individual success and the economic improvement of society. It is necessary to envision a new design for higher education that promotes in people the disposition to engage in the construction of a society where everyone has an equal opportunity to live a good and fulfilling life. Useful for this purpose can be a rediscovery of the classical position of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle that present virtue and ethics as a theoretical framework for education. This framework can be used as a foundation upon which to renew academic practices by planning and designing experiences able to translate theory into actions. Service learning is an interesting model that would allow for this and would guide practices that support a democratic education informed by virtue and ethics. If useful for redirecting higher education, service learning is particularly suitable for educating teachers, the practitioners who have a great responsibility for transforming society through education. In this paper, after developing the appropriate theoretical framework, we present, as an example of service learning, the Community Research Service Learning experience carried out at the University of Verona in the Primary Teacher Education master's degree program.