The latest CNR Science Almanac, published on March 8, is dedicated to women and includes, among others, three contributions from IRPPS:
Maria Cristina Antonucci discusses the characteristics and objectives of the “Gender Equality Plan,” which was created to promote equity and inclusion in research institutions as well, and which was recently launched at CNR.
Antonio Tintori discusses the still widespread gender gap in school education and educational publishing.
Finally, Luciana Taddei recounts the story of Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia, the first woman to graduate in Italy, who earned her degree in Philosophy in Venice in 1678.
IRPPS, through the “H2020 MINDtheGEPs” project, is launching a competition for the CNR scientific network for three prizes of €1,500 (one thousand five hundred) each for the best products (articles, proceedings, protocols, etc.) that have significantly contributed to scientific innovation by integrating a gender perspective into research questions, design, and results.
The objective of the competition is to promote the so-called gendered innovations, an approach that uses methods of analysis of sex, gender, and intersectionality variables to create new scientific knowledge, making it rigorous, reproducible, socially relevant, and responsible. This approach can and should be applied to every field of scientific knowledge.
The Award is coordinated by the MINDtheGEPs project research group, which has already promoted several initiatives aimed at implementing gender equality within the CNR.
As part of the competition, three works will be awarded, one for each ERC sector (2021-2022 revision):
– Physical Sciences and Engineering – Life Sciences – Social Sciences and Humanities.
The competition is open to CNR researchers, technologists, technicians, and research fellows, both as individuals and as research groups, and concerns works published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2022.
The deadline is September 25, 2023. To submit your application, write via Certified Email (PEC) to protocollo.irpps@pec.cnr.it.
The evaluation committee was appointed on December 28, 2023. The document is available as an attachment.
The European project OLA – Open Learning for All, coordinated internationally by the research group “Social Studies on Science, Education, Communication” of IRPPS, was selected by the Erasmus+ National Agency INDIRE as a good practice and considered a Best Practice for the use of participatory action research methodology and for the systematization of scenario-based teaching.
The OLA-Include repository offers hundreds of scenarios produced by teachers from the European countries involved in the project, tested in classrooms, and evaluated. These scenarios provide educational staff with free and open teaching pathways that can be implemented in their own classrooms. The content follows the interdisciplinary STEAM approach (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Humanities, Mathematics) and is designed to pursue, among other objectives, the countering of stereotypes in teaching.
The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), the result of coordinated work by research and training institutions from Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Romania, offers a free and modular pathway on the topic of educational resources. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of this type of course, especially in the university context, but they are often not based on theoretical reflection on the subject.
The various modules are not only theoretical but also have practical objectives. They consist of various Learning Units, with slides, subtitled videos, bibliography, and tests. The material is available in open and reusable formats according to context. The content and the very methods by which the course is constructed and delivered follow the principles of the OLA project: particular attention is paid to the inclusiveness of teaching resources, with technical choices ranging from file size to the presence of subtitles, to respect different needs and different learning styles.
Attention is also focused on the critical analysis of texts and images, the promotion of digital skills aimed not only at technical ability but at developing the capacity to evaluate the reliability of different tools and platforms.
OLA is making a significant contribution to the dissemination of the “open” approach in education promoted by UNESCO, in line with the philosophy of open science in the scientific field, with the development of open educational resources to improve teaching in a more inclusive way and to promote an evolution of the concept of digital skills that considers, beyond purely technological abilities, the critical and responsible use of platforms and online information sources, as a prerequisite for the exercise of informed citizenship.
The Trame workshops are resuming, a method that uses theater for professional training, created by IRPPS researcher Tiziana Tesauro with director Francesco Campanile.
The meetings, which begin on November 10, 2023, at the council chamber of the Municipality of Fisciano, are part of the “Cose Mai Fatte” project funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU: a strategic alliance between institutions and the third sector to combat educational poverty. The 15 sessions, which will continue until the end of March, are aimed at teachers and social workers.
As examined in Theatre and professional training: The Trame method, published by Tesauro for the British Journal of Social Work, the Trame method is based on a reflection that intertwines theories on learning as a situated and collective activity (according to which knowledge is the result of the subject’s relationships with the context and its members) with pedagogical approaches that frame theater as an educational tool: individuals acting as if they were actually in a certain situation develop skills that they can then transfer into practice.
In this way, Trame is configured as a method that aims to train body awareness to develop self-awareness and reflexivity on one’s own actions in those professions centered on relationships and care, which over time has been addressed to doctors, nurses, and social workers initially, and now to teachers and social workers.
Find out more about the Trame project on the IRPPS website.
In September, the research group involved in the VIVA project (Evaluation and Analysis of interventions for the prevention and combating of violence against women) participated in important opportunities for discussion with the scientific community, sharing perspectives and results as a starting point for upcoming qualitative investigations on the empowerment of women victims of violence and on Centers for perpetrators of violence.
Two posters were presented at the European Conference on Domestic Violence (ECDV) in Reykjavik.
The first – Networking to prevent and combat male violence against women by Francesca Proia, Maria Dentale, Pietro Demurtas, Alice Mauri – presents data relating to the analysis of the Italian anti-violence system as a complex and diversified universe.
Fig. 1 The poster Networking to prevent and combat male violence against women
The second – Defining the effectiveness of perpetrator programs from a practice-based perspective by Pietro Demurtas and Caterina Peroni – shows some of the results of the recently completed survey on Centers for Male Perpetrators of Violence (CUAV).
Fig. 2 The poster Defining the effectiveness of perpetrator programs from a practice-based perspective
Within the framework of the XVI ESPAnet Italia Conference, Beatrice Busi and Angela Toffanin also presented a contribution on conditionality in economic, employment, and social empowerment measures in anti-violence policies.
The journal Welfare&Ergonomia (Class A, Anvur, published by Franco Angeli) has opened the call for papers No. 1, 2024, “Labor exploitation, rights and health in contemporary society,” edited by Marco Omizzolo.
This issue of W&E will investigate the organization, dissemination, and evolution of the labor exploitation system and its effects on psycho-physical health and the welfare system in Italy. Proposals may be either theoretical or empirical.
The preliminary results of the second survey on Centers for Men who Perpetrate Violence—conducted as part of the VIVA project—were presented to the Observatory on the Phenomenon of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.
Within the framework of the FOSSR project – Fostering Open Science in Social Science Research (PNRR-IR 0000008) and the DASSI/CESSDA Joint Research Unit, IRPPS contributes to:
2 (two) scholarships for attendance of the PhD program in “Social and Statistical Sciences” – XXXIX CYCLE – University of Naples Federico II for conducting research activities on the following research topic: “Improvement of open cloud services envisaged by the FOSSR project and DASSI databases, the Italian node of CESSDA”. Deadline August 2, 2023 Call for applications (pdf), how to apply.
1 scholarship for attendance of the PhD program in “Economic Sociology, Organization and Labor (ESOL)” – XXXIX CYCLE – University of Milan for conducting research activities: “computational social science methods for population-based research on relevant socio-economic phenomena”. Deadline July 26, 2023 Call for applications (pdf), how to apply.
Increasing amounts of pornography for increasingly younger users. This is what emerges from a study recently published in the journal Societies, by Loredana Cerbara, Giulia Ciancimino and Antonio Tintori, IRPPS, and Gianni Corsetti, ISTAT.
In addition to highlighting the increase in pornography use associated with a decrease in the age of its consumers, the research confirmed its impact on the development of social and sexual identity. These are negative impacts on primary emotions, self-esteem, and body satisfaction in male and female adolescents. However, the study particularly notes how early exposure to pornography also has positive effects, but only on girls.
In boys, it actually produces a reinforcement of gender stereotypes in the context of relationships, adherence to gender roles even within the sexual sphere, and an increase in tolerance towards discriminatory, violent, and deviant behaviors. Conversely, for girls, pornography represents an experience of sexual empowerment which, unlike for males, transcends the boundaries of stereotyped hierarchies of social spaces. According to the authors, this diversity is the result of the “binary” socialization that is still predominant today, which reproduces gender stereotypes from generation to generation, leading to a passive adherence to predefined male and female social roles.
The results of this research suggest the importance and urgency of sexual education to be offered, if possible, in a school environment and with the mediation of professionals. This is in order to promote a critical approach — and not just a passive one — capable of overcoming the taboo of sex and moving beyond mainstream, heterosexual, and masculinized pornography, which provides a standardized and unrealistic image of bodies, sexual performance, and social relations.
The study was conducted using a psychosocial research approach and is based on the results of the national survey The State of Adolescence 2023, which involved 4,288 young high school students across the country.
At an international level, many studies have investigated the negative effects of early exposure to pornography, but the results are often controversial due to the use of different research techniques and both methodological and theoretical shortcomings.
