Abstract:

Introduction:
The paper presents results that emerged from an ongoing study about the topic “knowledge by experience and discomfort: which process to translate personal fragilities into an opportunity of learning for students in higher education?”. The essay refers especially to the literature review and interviews' first outcomes.

The research questions are the following:
- What do knowledge and experience mean? How can a lived experience become an experience of knowledge?
- What does discomfort mean? What is the connection between knowledge and discomfort?
- To what extent and how can a lived experience of discomfort – turned into an experience of knowledge – become a learning resource a) for others who are going through similar experiences? b) for higher education students in pedagogical courses?

Methodology:
Methodology refers to a qualitative approach of research [1].
Literature review characterises the exploratory phase of study. It implies a pedagogical definition of experience and knowledge [3][2] and a specific meaning for the concept of “discomfort” [4].
Main data collection instruments are semi-structured interviews [5], analysed by a phenomenological-hermeneutic process [6]. Participants are academic professors who engage experienced experts in their courses and third-sector professionals.

First findings:
An investigation on experiences of embedding experienced experts in different contexts enlightens two main evidence:
- Their involvement as training resources is widespread in the mental health and social services sector.
- There are steady contexts of involvement of experienced experts in higher education, especially for students of the social-service sector.

Interviews stress topics, that are a mirror of the specific context sensitivity and of the participant’s background:
- The definition of experiential learning and experts by experience.
- The specific role of experts by experience into the services and into the higher education system.
- The training of experts by experience.
- The added value of experts by experience into the learning process of future professionals.

Future perspectives:
In the future, this research aims to understand how it could be meaningful to promote a structural embedding of experiential knowledge of experts by experience into the higher education of students, who are attending academic courses in the pedagogical field.

References:
[1] N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage, 2011.
[2] J. Dewey, Esperienza e educazione. Milano: Cortina, 2014.
[3] D. Kolb, Experiential learning. Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-Hall, 1984.
[4] C. Palmieri and M.B. Gambacorti Passerini (eds.), Disagio e lavoro educativo. Prospettive pedagogiche nell’esperienza della contemporaneità. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2021.
[5] A. Peräkylä and J. Ruusuvuori, “Analysing talk and text” in The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (Denzin and Lincoln eds.), pp. 529 - pp. 539, Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage, 2011.
[6] M. Van Manen, “Phenomenology of practice”, Phenomenology & Practice, 1(1), pp. 11 - pp. 30, 2007.

Keywords:

Experiential knowledge, discomfort, higher education.