PORCARELLI ANDREA

Associate Professor in General and Social Pedagogy, at the University of Padua, since 1 March 2015, currently holds the position of Coordinator of the doctoral school in Pedagogical Sciences, Education and Training of the University of Padua. He was Researcher in General and Social Pedagogy, from 1 October 2007 to 28 February 2015, at the University of Padua. He obtained on 21/03/2018 the qualification as full professor for the sector 11/D1 (Pedagogy and History of Pedagogy).
Born in Bologna on 23/08/1962, after graduating in Philosophy (University of Bologna), the Baccalaureate in Theology and Licentiate in Philosophy (Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome), he obtained a teaching qualification in high schools for the A037 competition classes (Philosophy and History) and A036 (Philosophy and Sciences of Education), in 1992. Professor in secondary schools (from 1989 to 2007), during this period he was placed in the position of teacher used (with ministerial command) at the UCIIM in Rome (from 1999 to 2004), to carry out research in the field of teaching professionalism, and train teachers and school leaders.
Scholar of General Pedagogy at the Universities of Bergamo and Bologna, he had carried out teaching and collaboration activities at several universities: at the the University of Bergamo (Laboratory of Education Technologies)in the academic years 2005/2006 and 2006/2007; at the SSIS of the University of Bologna (Educational Sciences with Laboratory), in the academic year 2006/2007; at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome (Adult Education), in the academic years 2005/2006 and 2006/2007; at the SSIS of the University of L'Aquila (General Teaching), in the academic year 2004/2005. He also taught "Teaching of Religion", at the Institutes of Religious Sciences of Bologna, Forlì and Padua, dependent on the Theological Faculties of Emilia-Romagna and Triveneto.
Courses given at the University of Padua: Social Pedagogy, Methodology of pedagogical research, Pedagogy of school services, to the person and in the communities, General and social pedagogy, Pedagogical foundations of patient education, Personal Services Pedagogy and Professional Ethics, Culture and Policies of Lifelong Learning, School Pedagogy.
He is member of the Scientific Board of the Doctoral Course in "Pedagogical Sciences of Education and Training" (from 2014) and of the International Joint PhD in "Religion, culture and public life" of the University of Padua (from 2024), with the related tasks of teaching activity, supervision of theses and research paths, participation in the examination committees. He is Coordinator of the PhD Course in "Pedagogical Sciences of Education and Training" since 2023.

Institutional positions and scientific societies
He has been a member of Ministerial Commissions for drafting programs and guidelines for school reform (established by the ministers Berlinguer, De Mauro, Moratti, Fioroni, Gelmini), reorganizing school cycles, and citizenship education (design of the teaching of "Cittadinanza e costituzione").
Member of the National Observatory on the Family, established at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies responsible for Family Policies (Decr. of 25/8/2016), the task is ongoing.
SIPED member and - since 2017 - National Coordinator of the SIPED Research Group on "Religiosity and religious formation"; Member of the National Board of CIRPED (Centro Italiano di Ricerca Pedagogica).
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Centro Studi Scuola Cattolica established at the Italian Episcopal Conference, since 2017, Governing council of UCIIM (Catholic Professional Association of teachers, managers and formators).
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation "Girolamo Bortignon" for education and school (Padua), for the five-year period 2021-2026, by Decree of the Bishop of Padua 26-11-2021.
Member of EFTRE (European Forum of Teachers of Religious Education), an international organization that connects institutions and individual scholars involved in research and training in religious education across all contexts (since 2023 to the present).

Awards and honors
Award Accademia As.pe.I. (Associazione Pedagogica Italiana) 2015, for the monograph: Educazione e politica. Paradigmi pedagogici a confronto, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2012, on 17-10-2015
Italian Pedagogy Award, 2016 issued by SIPED (Società Italiana di Pedagogia), for the Volume: Educazione e politica. Paradigmi pedagogici a confronto, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2012, on 01-04-2016.
Italian Pedagogy Award, 2022 issued by SIPED (Italian Society of Pedagogy), for the monograph: Istituzioni di pedagogia sociale e dei servizi alla persona, Studium, Rome 2021, on 14-02-2022.
Award Accademia As.pe.I. (Associazione Pedagogica Italiana) 2022, for the monograph: Istituzioni di pedagogia sociale e dei servizi alla persona, Studium, Roma 2021, on 29-09-2022.
As.Pe.I. (Italian Pedagogical Association) Academic Award 2024, for the monograph: Religione a scuola tra ponti e muri. Insegnare religione in un orizzonte multiculturale, FrancoAngeli, Milan 2022, awarded on 30 November 2024.

Institutional positions and research groups in the Department and the University
Member - as representative of FISPPA - of the University Support Commission for Teacher Training (SAFI), from 2021 to the present.
Member of the Board of Directors of CIRFIM "Carlo Giacon" (Interdepartmental Research Centre for Medieval Philosophy) since 2020 to the present.
Member of the Research Group ReSTI (Religions, Spiritualities, Traditions, Inquiries), which studies in an interdisciplinary perspective the multiform connections that in the contemporary world, pluralist and post-secular, are established with the sacred.
Member - as representative of FISPPA - of the Joint Commission of the School of Social Humanities and Cultural Heritage, from 15 January 2019 to 30 September 2022.
Responsible for the training of teachers of the University of Padua operating in the course of Tutoring, a task that falls within the scope of the activities provided for by the Regulation for the University Award Ceremony (art. 3, paragraph 2) and conferred with Decr. Rector of 2 February 2023.

Direction or participation in editorial committees of magazines, editorial series, encyclopedias and treaties of recognized prestige
Co-director of the Editorial Series "L'esperienza religiosa. Incontri multidisciplinari", for the publisher FrancoAngeli (Milan), together with the proff. Maria Teresa Moscato, Michele Caputo, Salvatore Abruzzese and Roberto Cipriani, from 01-02-2016 until today.
Co-director of the series "Orizzonti dell'Educazione" (new series), for the publisher Pensa multimedia (Lecce), together with the proff. Sandra Chistolini and Emilio Lastrucci, from 01-10-2017 to today.
Co-director of the magazine "La scuola e l'uomo - Ricerca", published by Anicia / UCIIM - Roma.
Member of the Scientific board of Edizioni Studium, section social sciences and education, from 31-10-2016 to today.
Member of the Scientific board of the journal “Dirigenti Scuola” (ISSN: 2280-8744, included among the scientific journals of ANVUR, in Band A for pedagogical SSDs 11/D1 and 11/D2) from 1-07-2020 to today.
Member of the Scientific board of the series SCUOLA, LAVORO E PROFESSIONI, directed by Carla Xodo, publisher Pensa multimedia, Lecce, from 01-01-2017 to today.
Member of the Referee Committee of the magazine “Formazione, lavoro, persona”; Cqia Rivista, (ISSN 2039-4039, included among the scientific journals of area 11 of ANVUR, in Fascia A), from 01-01-2013 to today.
Member of the Scientific Committee of the Interdisciplinary Dictionary of Science and Faith, 2 vols. , Urbaniana University Press - Città Nuova, Rome 2002, edited by G. Tanzella-Nitti and A. Strumia; and the Committee of Experts that has guided from 2005 to 2013 the activities of the bilingual web portal (Italian and English) connected to it (www.disf.org). From 01-01-2002 to 31-12-2013.

Direction or participation in the activities of a research group characterized by national or international collaborations:
Research group PRIN 2007, on the theme: "Demand and supply of competence in the teaching profession: teachers among realities, representations and institutional expectations", with the involvement of four Research Units (University of Padua, Bergamo, Roma Tre, Salerno). Professor Carla Xodo, University of Padua. From 22-09-2008 to 21-10-2010
Member of the Research Group of the University Research Project 2009 on the theme: "Romantic relationships and intimacy skills: for an affective-sexual education in adolescence today", Scientific Director Professor Carla Xodo, University of Padua. From 01-09-2009 to 31-10-2011
Participation in the research project, active at the Department of Education Sciences (Centre for Religious, Educational and Societal Studies) and then at the Department of Arts of the University of Bologna, on the themes: "Religious sense and religiosity" (2009-2012) and "Dynamisms of religious formation" (2013-2015), also financed by contributions from outside the University of Bologna. Scientific manager prof.ssa Maria Teresa Moscato. From 01-09-2009 to 01-12-2015
Participation in the University Research Project (PRAT) on the theme: "Humans and beyond. The category of 'Humanism' in European thought of the twentieth century", at the University of Padua, Scientific Director prof. Fabio Grigenti. From 01-09-2013 to 21-09-2016
Participation in the University Research Project (PRAT), on the theme: "Educational Tutoring: an integrated tutoring model for the empowerment of university students", Scientific Director Chiara Biasin. from 01-09-2015 to 05-12-2017
Scientific organization of Focus Groups at secondary schools in Padua and Bologna, in February 2015, for the Italian section of European research entitled Young Europeans' constructions of identity and citizenship 2014 - 2016/ The formation of identity and citizenship in young Europeans 2014-2016: La ricerca in Italia, prof. Alistair Ross, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, Jean Monnet ad personam Chair in European Citizenship Education, Erasmus, academic network CiCe, Children's Identity and Citizenship in Europe and CiCea Children's Identity & Citizenship European Association, Frascati (Roma), 04.02.2015. Linked to the project Jean Monnet Network - Children’s Identities and Citizenship: Best Practice Guides, Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network - 553177-EEP-1-2014-1-UK-EPPJMO-NETWORK, CiCe Children's Identity and Citizenship in Europe, IPSE Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University. The Italian work unit (coordinated by prof. Sandra Chistolini, Emilio Lastrucci, Andrea Porcarelli) has worked in the period 2014-2017.
Participation in the action of Research on the theme: "The idea of nature in medieval thought. An interdisciplinary approach", in the wider context of the PRIN project "Universality and its limits". Scientific Director prof. Giovanni Catapano. University of Padua. From 01-09-2016 to 27-05-2017
Participation in the University Research Project (PRAT) on the theme "Restorative Justice: potential and limits of a paradigm of justice", at the University of Padua, Scientific Director prof. Antonio Da Re. from 01-09-2016 to 8-11-2018.
Participation in the ERASMUS+ KA2 International Research Project on the theme "Decoding disciplines in European higher education institutions: intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning", Scientific Director prof. Hugo Verkest (Vives University College campus Torhout, Belgium), my participation as discussant to the Conference with workshops, lectures & round table, Vives campus, Torhout (Belgium) 1-2 july 2019.
Member of the PRIN 2022 Research Group, on the theme: "Urban governance of religious diversity - GovREL", with the involvement of four research units (University of Padova, Torino, Firenze, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milano). Scientific director prof. Giuseppe Giordan, project started in November 2023 and with expected conclusion November 2025.

Scientific responsibility for international and national research projects, funded through competitive calls for peer review
Scientific director of the Junior Research Grant, awarded to Melania Bortolotto as part of the project entitled: "The ethical dimension of human capital in school education", scientific area of the University n. 13 (Historical, philosophical and pedagogical sciences). From 01-05-2013 to 30-04-2015
Scientific contact person for the Senior research grant awarded to Melania Bortolotto as part of the project entitled: "The authentic educator: case studies on the epistemology of professional practice in residential communities for adolescents"University No. 13 (Historical, Philosophical and Pedagogical Sciences). From 01-11-2015 to 01-10-2017
Formal assignment of teaching assignments to qualified foreign or supranational universities and research institutes
Teaching of educational module on bioethics at school, as part of the second level University Master in Bioethics and Formation, active at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, at the Pontifical Lateran University. Assignment from 2009 to 2024.
Assignment for research and monitoring activities, awarded by the Department of Human Sciences of the University of the Republic of San Marino for the evaluation of the results of the experimentation of the teaching of "Ethics, culture and society", from 7/11/2022 to 31/05/2023.
Teaching philosophy and humanities at the Dominican Philosophical Study in Bologna. Below are the titles of the courses held in the various academic years, during these years: "Introduction to philosophy and methodology", "Profile and professionalism of the educating person. The relational dimension teachers-students", "History of ancient philosophy", "General ethics", "Institutions of philosophy", "Methodology". The Dominican Philosophical Study is affiliated to the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical University "Saint Thomas Aquinas" in Rome and is qualified to confer the academic degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. From 01-10-1988 to today.

Responsibility for scientific studies and research entrusted by qualified public or private institutions
Documentary research, pedagogical and in the field of "media education", for the structuring and implementation of a training space "online" for voluntary associations of Piedmont, which has resulted in the scientific direction of a Bioethics Portal. The research was entrusted to me by the Centro Servizi per il Volontariato V.S.S.P. of Turin. From 01-01-2000 to 31-05-2003
Research on the teaching of bioethics in schools in Emilia Romagna, entrusted by IRRE-Emilia Romagna, the results of which are published in a report published and distributed by the same Research Institute (Bologna, 2004). From 01-01-2004 to 01-12-2004
Pedagogical-didactic research entrusted by the Società Editrice Internazionale (SEI), for the structuring and implementation of an "online" training space in support of the Teaching of the Catholic Religion From 01-01-2011 to 31-12-2013
Research-training activities, in collaboration with CPIA (Provincial Centre for Adult Education) of Vicenza, aimed at the functional review of the certification tools resulting from the training courses provided by the CPIA itself and consequent teacher training in the field of teaching skills. From 01-09-2016 to today
Research-training activities, entrusted by Centoform S.r.l., as part of the project "Territorial Network for School-Work Alternation. Development of a model for the management and evaluation of pathways in School-Work Alternation", aimed at developing and validating a model of management of Alternance S.L. and tools for evaluating skills in situation. From 01-09-2016 to 30-11-2017
Pedagogical and formative research activity, entrusted by the Consulta del Volontariato Associato del Piemonte (in collaboration with the Centro Servizi Volontariato VOL.To, of Turin), on the pedagogical and constitutional foundations of volunteer activity and aimed at enabling the OO.VV. to certify the social and civic skills, but also cultural and professional, to the students who complete the pathways of School-Work Alternance. From 2017 to 2022.

Organisation or participation as a speaker in scientific conferences and relevant professional experience
He has participated, as invited speaker or as presenter of a contribution, in over one hundred scientific conferences, at national and international level.
It usually carries out training activities for teachers and school managers, also with the aim to preparing for competitions for access to the relevant roles. Carries out training activities for teachers and educators in Catholic schools through funded projects FONDER and FONTER, has coordinated "Biennial School of formation to the managerial function of Coordinator in the infant private schools", on behalf of FISM of Vicenza, carries out activity of trainer for the coordinators of the schools FISM of Padua.

Principali linee di ricerca:
1) Identity of Social Pedagogy and foundations of citizenship education, also in a European perspective
The common thread that connects all the various research interests must be sought in the field of Social Pedagogy, as science and discipline, to which was dedicated the first volume published after access to university roles (Lineamenti di pedagogia sociale, Armando, 2009) and to which is dedicated a more recent volume published by me: Istituzioni di pedagogia sociale e dei servizi alla persona (Studium, 2021) it is the synthesis point of a path of reflection more than ten years, set in the space of intersection between research interests and institutional educational activity (the teaching of General and Social Pedagogy and that of Pedagogy of personal services and professional ethics). The focus of the research interest lies in the relationship between reading the social demand for education (in the light of international recommendations) and how to take care of the social and civil education of young people, with particular attention to what is possible in the world of school. This theme is developed with particular attention to the international debate (The debate on the epistemological identity of social pedagogy: a personalist proposal, Nuova Secondaria Ricerca 2021) and research into the epistemological foundations of the discipline (In search of pedagogical-social paradigms to build awareness in educational networks, Pensa MultiMedia 2018).
The reflections on the foundations of education to civil coexistence, also in connection with the teaching of Civic Education (which was Citizenship and Constitution), have been translated into articles and essays, which take up this theme from various angles, starting from the reflection on some authors who have been particularly involved in this field. In this perspective we can see the connection with this line of research - linked to the teaching of Social Pedagogy - of the essays that reconstruct the evolution of education to citizenship in schools, which has been carefully followed over time, as attested by the wise L'educazione alla cittadinanza nella scuola italiana: impianto politico-normativo e concezione pedagogica (FrancoAngeli 2011) and the recent: L’educazione civica alla ricerca di un’anima. Una disciplina trasversale con una Paideia costituzionale? (Nuova Secondaria Ricerca 2021). In this perspective, the essay on Il viaggio come passaggio alla vita adulta in Rousseau: la prospettiva di Emilio e quella di Sofia (La Scuola, 2014), because the classic work (Rousseau) considers the entry into social life as a feature of the transition to adult life and to it connects the experience of the "grand tour" that can be read as a journey of initiation that precedes marriage. The most significant text along this line of research is that of which the writer is co-author with S. Chistolini ed E. Lastrucci (Pensa MultiMedia 2018), which is part of the European network called Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe (CiCe) Erasmus Jean Monnet Academic Network Project, as a contribution of Italy to the analytical and narrative study on the construction of identity and citizenship by young Europeans, the research work was carried out in collaboration with prof. Alistair Ross (Professor emeritus of London Metropolitan University). This text explores the representations related to the national and European citizenship of young Italians and compares with similar explorations carried out by Prof. Ross in all EU countries. The same theme was developed, in an international perspective, in a paper published with the same co-authors (Chistolini and Lastrucci) in the magazine "Societies" in 2023.

2) Theoretical foundations of general pedagogy, with attention to its historical development and in connection with some possible application areas, socially relevant.
The theoretical foundations of pedagogical reflection, its anthropological and epistemological presuppositions, the great heuristic categories that can be found especially in the classics (ancient and modern), represent the fundamental perspectives of this second line of research, consolidated also through the many years of teaching experience of General Pedagogy. This interest has inspired the volume Cammini del conoscere (Giunti, 2008), in which it presents with narrative style an itinerary of formation of deep cultural structures through the encounter with the classics of thought, and more specifically the volume Educazione e politica. Paradigmi pedagogici a confronto (FrancoAngeli, 2012), in which the interests of social pedagogy that emerge in the relationship between education and politics are linked, with the theoretical foundations of general pedagogy, of which some of the most significant epistemic paradigms are examined. I got interested to themes more specifically related to the theoretical foundations of pedagogy and the heuristic value of the classics (read in a theoretical-foundational perspective), as well as various writings on the roots of pedagogical thought of Rousseau, Nosengo, Corallo, Corradini, as is attested by the essay on Tommaso nella formazione della pedagogia di Gino Corallo (LAS, 2012). The reflections on the pedagogy of Dante Alighieri can be placed along the same path: Dante educatore: la Commedia come itinerario di formazione spirituale, (2022), Ipotesi pedagogiche sul ruolo di Virgilio come guida di Dante (2024).
On the theoretical research side there are also some topics what today are called educational "challenges" and that I prefer to frame as spaces of theoretical study that open in the relationship between the great anthropological issues posed by scientific progress and the way in which they are located in the "horizons of meaning" of people. In this direction I have deepened the educational aspects of bioethical issues, as a "cultural place" for a hermeneutic of contemporaneity and a further space for meeting the foundations of pedagogy and the great questions of education that develop at the social level. There are numerous publications to this effect, including Dimensioni etiche di una paideia della vita affettiva. Suggestioni colte dall’immaginario culturale postmoderno (Nuova Secondaria, 2014).

3) Pedagogy of school and personal services and adult education, with particular attention to professional skills and strategies for the training of teachers and school managers.
The long professional experience as a teacher in upper secondary schools, and as a trainer of teachers and school managers, met with the teaching tasks performed in the master’s degree of the University of Padua, with particular reference to the Pedagogy of the school. These didactic experiences constitute the implicit cultural basis of my research work in the professional and ethical competences of teachers and school managers, developed also through various research projects, linked to the interest in the training strategies of those who carry out educational professions and the study of some pedagogical-didactic concepts, such as that of design for skills (Diogene Multimedia, 2016) or school-work alternation. The premise of this research interest is the conviction of the need to deepen the culture of education of those who carry out educational professions, especially teachers and school managers. To this theme I have dedicated two essays in volume (in the text edited by C. Xodo, FrancoAngeli 2010), and a reflection on the pedagogical identity of the teacher (Il maestro tra intenzionalità educativa e pratica didattica, 2015); on the same line you can also read the communication dedicated to The reflective dimension in the formation of ethical-deontological skills of the educational professions (Pensa MultiMedia, 2010). See the volume Professione docente. Fondamenti pedagogico-didattici ed elementi di psicologia generale e cognitiva, (con M. Trombino) Diogene Multimedia 2020 and also the text in preparation for the competition idr, of which we will say later.
On the level of empirical research in this field, in addition to the already mentioned text on the figure of the Head of the School, I point out the surveys carried out on the basis of the qualitative analysis of the training diaries of newly hired teachers, with C. Biasin (FrancoAngeli, 2012 e 2013), but also a research on the professional biography of teachers carried out several years ago (Tecnodid 2005) with the involvement of professional associations of teachers and a national survey coordinated by prof. Luciano Corradini (Insegnare perché? …, Armando 2004).
I opened two research paths in the field of adult education and higher education, dedicated respectively to the Universities of the Third Age (to which are dedicated an article and an essay published in 2019, in an international context, together with Rute Cristòvão Ricardo) and the reflection on the figure of the teaching tutor in the university (Pensa MultiMedia 2018).

4) Education of religiosity and religious dimension of the education of the person in relation to his social context and to the educational institutions that deal with it, starting from school.
The many years of experience as formator of the formators of teachers of Religion has progressively been linked with a further line of research, aimed at exploring the education of religiosity and the religious dimension of the education of the person, with particular attention to the educational institutions involved, with particular attention to the school. This is where we can put the essay about Religious experience and religious sense in Romano Guardini: pedagogical implications (Armando, 2012), which explores some categories of analysis. This interest has focused on the role that the Teaching of the Catholic Religion can play in this educational process and has been incorporated in the volume La religione e la sfida delle competenze (SEI, 2014), but also in the essay on the training models of teachers of Religion (Nuova Secondaria Ricerca, 2017) and a volume on the identity of the IRC in a dialogical perspective: Religione e scuola fra ponti e muri. Insegnare religione in un orizzonte multiculturale, (FrancoAngeli, 2022). Along the same lines, from an international perspective, the volume dedicated to the teaching of Ethics, Culture and Society as an alternative to Religious Education (IRC) in the Republic of San Marino (FrancoAngeli, 2024).
An articulated empirical survey is in the volume of which I am co-author (with Moscato, Caputo, Gabbiadini e Pinelli) L’esperienza religiosa. Linguaggi, educazione, vissuti (FrancoAngeli 2017) which explores the religious experience in an educational perspective, starting from the representations and images of God, the most significant persons in the religious education of each, the relationship with the biblical texts, the perception of the face of the Church between the sense of belonging and distance (the object of my specific contribution). This line of research is linked to that on Catholic associations as a "non-formal" educational place (in Dal Toso and Loro, 2017), but also an essay on: La pedagogia tra le scienze delle religioni, (in Caputo, FrancoAngeli 2018), an essay about Religions in dialogue for a Paideia of "knowing how to live together" (in: Pagano and Schiedi 2020) and L’arte educativa di Gesù Maestro: alcune suggestioni pedagogiche, (in: Balduzzi, Studium 2020).
I joined the SIPED working group on "Religiosity and religious formation", of which I have been national coordinator since 2017 (together with my proff colleagues. Dal Toso and Caputo) and I have hired, together with the proff. Cipriani and Moscato, co-direction of the editorial series "The religious experience. Multidisciplinary meetings", for the publisher FrancoAngeli (Milan).