Abstract:

Among the resources usable for skills education in the 21st century (National Research Council: Pellegrino, Hilton 2012), is cultural heritage. The foundations of the educational role of heritage lie in a long debate, but the year 2015 marks a turning point: heritage is no longer considered as a cost for the community, but understood as a factor for development and as a catalyst for social practices and innovation. Participation, sustainability, protection and innovation are the four objectives that the relationship with heritage inspires today so that it functions as an agent of internal cohesion and intercultural dialogue and so that it plays a central role in the economic and social development of the European Union.

To begin with, the contribution focuses on the debate concerning the educational role of cultural heritage to develop 21st century skills, soft skills and European key competences. Secondly, some Work-Based Learning experiences based on the use of cultural heritage carried out in the Italian upper secondary school are analyzed. To this end, the paper sets out some of the first findings from the Project “Modelli Innovativi di Alternanza Scuola Lavoro” – carried out by the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research (INDIRE), based in Florence (Italy) within the 2014-2020 National Operational Programme “Per la scuola competenze e ambienti per l’apprendimento”.

The narrative of re-use, re-signification and reinterpretation of the past through contemporary stories that makes it possible to build a bridge between past and future; the use of digital tools (including 4.0 enabling technologies) to activate connective forms of intellectual openness, imagination, reflexivity and planning to transform the cultural, working and social realities; the integration of supply chains (eg tourism system, food and wine, environment, urban planning, recovery of marginal economic and social areas) to meet the real needs of the local community; the collaborative, civic and social dimension; creativity for both the enhancement and the emergence of heritage constitute the levers of the “School-Work Alternation” paths examined.

References:
[1] F. Barca F., L’Anno Europeo del Patrimonio Culturale e la visione europea della cultura, “DigCult – Scientific Journal of Digital Cultures”, Vol. 2, Iss. 3, 75-94, 2017
[2] Council of the European Union, “Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning”, Official Journal of the European Union, 4.06.2018https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:C:2018:189:FULL&from=IT
[3] OECD, Skills for social progress. The power of social and emotional skills, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, 2015
[4] J.M., Pellegrino, M.L. Hilton (eds.),Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century, National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 2012

Keywords:

21st Century Skills, Work-Based Learning, Upper Secondary School, Italy, Cultural Heritage.