Abstract:

Our values define who we are, they shape us and guide our actions on a daily basis, our behaviour and relationships depend on them. This is important for each of us, even if most of the time we are not aware of it. The aim of this paper is to narrate the educational experience of students at the University of Naples 'Federico II' who, through autobiographical narrative practices, had the opportunity to critically reflect on their own values. In particular, the proposed experience focused on autobiographical objects: these students were asked to choose objects that were meaningful to them and to narrate them. Thirty micro-interviews were collected on which a qualitative analysis was carried out. The process of analysing the narrative material was conducted in two phases. The first phase according to the phenomenological method, with a panel of three independent judges viewing and analysing all the material collected, while the second phase involved a textual content analysis supported by the use of the T-Lab software. From this analysis work, the 'value' of self-narrative practices in promoting more authentic relationships with oneself and others through reflexivity emerged in a preponderant manner, such as to favour rational resolutions that require a philosophical awareness that, not guaranteeing absolute truths per se, even if complex, always implies the assumption of choices, promoting a theoretical and practical attitude harbinger of ethical-rational commitment (Bertin, 1968). Especially if such practices are included in an educational path oriented in this sense and characterised by an ongoing process, where moments of solitary writing alternate with moments of discussion in sub-groups and sharing in groups.The conclusions of this work therefore aim to emphasise the importance of values, their transmission, but above all their critical re-appropriation through the promotion of awareness processes such as those described. Values represent the possibility to increase the fullness and meaning of life and to achieve sufficient psychological well-being. The identification of one's own values represents a passage rich in meaning precisely because it allows one to discover what motivates one's actions, what guides one's gestures and choices, aspects that are absolutely relevant. Working educationally in this sense therefore represents an opportunity to contribute to the construction, now more fundamental than ever, of educational systems consistent with an increasingly democratic social vision and in opposition to forms of inequality and alienating individualism.

Keywords:

Narrative practices, critical education, awareness processes, autobiographical objects, implicit values.