Participatory And Hermeneutic Evaluation For The Professional Development Of Educators: A Psychoanalytical And Socio-Educational Perspective

This abstract aims to present a specific part of the results obtained by the Grundtvig Project called ''EDUEVAL'', Evaluation for adult education staff'', funded with the support of the EU1. This project started in early January 2014 and addressed exploring the complexity of Evaluating Adult Education staff, in order to define a curriculum for professionals during their initial and in-service training. Many activities, from research to workshops and a pilot Training Course, were developed using different methods, both qualitative and quantitative. Indeed, the aim of the whole Project was to build a curriculum able to include all the cognitive and emotional aspects of the evaluation, both explicit and implicit. The curriculum was made up of a Triangulation Method of Evaluation(2), established for the Edueval project, according to which three typologies of evaluation are needed to completely understand a situation: evaluation of the context, self-evaluation and external evaluation. The self-evaluation can be conducted with different methods and approaches. The aim of this paper is that one of describing the theoretical approach and the methodology of a workshop proposed to a group of practitioners - involved in the Edueval Project - as self-evaluation, in order to explore the complexity of the evaluation process and to make the hidden and emotional dynamics emerged. The methodology used was the participatory and hermeneutic evaluation of the work of the educators, based on the psychoanalytical and socio-educational approach. Research below the surface for the deep and unconscious meanings can lead to genuine professional development. The paper will briefly describe the theoretical and methodological foundations of the approach used, with a description of the psychoanalytical and socio-educational dynamics and the reflections that emerged in the course of the evaluation experience. The conclusion shows the importance of a deep reflectivity on the educational work, in order to highlight the hidden emotional difficulties and, therefore, to support the professional development of the educators in those areas.