Prof. Carlos Francisco de Sousa Reis

The BIP on “Forms of dialogue/discussion in education. Philosophical perspectives & approaches” resulted in such an intensive experience for me that — if I could grasp what it means — it might be likened to a pregnancy of meaning. The stimulation (literally) prompted an inner germination that is far from concluding.

From the outset, starting with the flashes of films that initiated the proceedings, we were endowed with the constitutive elements of what dialogue and discussion might mean, but also their antipodes, as well as their access corridors and means of corrosion, not forgetting the various dimensions. For my part, I attempted to address the primacies — in Buberian language — of the I-Thou commitment in authentic encounters versus the I-It, as instrumental as it is unavoidable.

Now, when possible I would like to explore to what extent my perspective relates to “Participatory sense-making in the context of flexible modes of engagement.” However, I do not doubt that authentic communication requires and is required in the “improvise through different languages,” demanding the current anomic form of teaching-learning to groove truly. This ineffable experience of freedoms found in a harmonious realization sensitive to differences, in this immersive, joyful “flow” encounter in which the differences, by hyper-focusing, intertwine without losing each other, but rather find each other by joyfully straying in harmony.

Not surprisingly, I effortlessly revealed in the myriad narrative possibilities that stories open up to philosophy with children. At times, I have recognized in some so-called children’s literature an intuitive power only glimpsed in the dense weave of myths. Philosophy, as an opening of paths for dialogue/discussion, is an insinuating vehicle for condensations to which human relationships and, ‘a fortiori’, education appeal, whether it be through a film, a tale, or the deterritorializing craftsmanship of a ‘kamishibai,’ where everything reinvents itself when people are present with wholeness, flowing, and each time the same story becomes another.

In the BIP that brought us together on the magical island of Rhodes –no less than the daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon–, we could live the dialogue and discussion intensely. Dialogue, deriving from the Greek “dia,” meaning across or between, and “legein”, to speak or to collect, possibly pointing towards finding and agreeing on a meaning. And the discussion, which refers to the Latin sense of “examination, investigation, judicial trial”, possibly involving a “shaking” and/or a “breakup”, meaning reasoned dissent. At Rhodes, we could see how both filter into the republican vocation demanded by education as a universal realization that is not only political but, above all, social. A “problematic” that cuts through the most decisive core of our present reality, which demands dialogue as much as discussion. Not forgetting, that today it is still from education that social harmonization is expected while being the only conveyer for achieving the peace of the community of free spirits. A peace that, without dialogue and discussion, cannot pass and, in any case, cannot help but open up to the aesthetic dimension if it wants to be formed in the feeling and experiencing of harmony.

On the last day in Rhodes, I had the happiness to visit the Archaeological Museum. The entire collection is marvellous, and the gardens… ah, the gardens… Well, the fact is that I came across three ceramic vases: two men conversing, a man and a woman conversing, and a man seemingly conversing with himself. In the first case, dialogue and/or discussion can be inferred from the expressiveness of the hands; in the second, the hands seem to be united; in the third, there is an armed warrior presenting himself, as if affirming his presence in the world, whatever that may mean in more Heideggerian terms. What seemed most surprising, as well as enigmatic — how could it not be — is that all figures are flanked by sphinxes. This mythological being possibly takes its name from the Greek verb sphingein, meaning “to bind” or “to squeeze.” In fact, according to the myth, the Sphinx had to “squeeze” all humanity with an unsolvable riddle about humanity that, if unanswered, resulted in being devoured. The monster harboured within

itself a monstrous enigma. How would it be resolved? And why do humans persist in discussing under the indelible auspice of the only vaguely sensed enigma?

Thank you for all the dialogues and discussions. I have learned a lot.

Sofia Boz

The BIP programme turned out to be an unexpected experience. It was an intensive week with a theme – that of discussion/dialogue in education – that was declined from different perspectives, with artistic, philosophical, pedagogical and socio-political approaches, through interactive modalities.

What I found interesting and stimulating weeks later were the different degrees of depth of exploration of the topic. Each contribution showed a nuance of the personal and/or social meaning of conception of discussion/dialogue. I do not believe that any of the views that emerged aimed at perfection, understood in its Latin meaning, i.e. per-ficere, hence ‘to bring to an end’, but rather aimed precisely at making people understand the importance of embracing the imperfect nature of topics of this kind. In this sense, the idea of imperfection refers to a posture of openness. On one hand an openness towards the non-reducibility of investigating such a central subject, and on the other towards the conceptual and emotional positions of the participants: that’s precisely what is fundamental to an authentic dialogue, I believe.

Therefore, I feel like we have slowly created a community in which, through discussions and exchanges of perspectives, we have developed a process of meta-dialogue/discussion: after all, it is only by putting something into practice that we can truly say that we have understood it (although, fortunately, never fully!)

Laura Invernici

How has the BIP programme impressed me?

If I intend the verb “to impress” with the meaning of “making a mark”, I would say that the BIP programme has left on my interior body an extended imprint of names, words, memories, images. A sort of repertoire of feelings that now coexists within me and my personal identity, and reminds me what can be the mutual experience of meeting to dialogue, dialogue to meet.

I have found very centered the choice of proposing an international programme following an intensive mood, because it helped people to easily build a common routine of co-working but, above all, co-sharing. Before it was a question of Community participation, it was a question of Community construction. The people involved in the program learned to know each other from the little things, from the small talk, from an early morning coffee drunk in the laboratory classroom. I think it was this predisposition to mutual knowledge that opened the way for active, participatory and generative discussion.

The idea of facing different and peculiar aspects of dialogue everyday, basing on the proposal of Professors and their formation, was a stimulating core of entanglements. Indeed, this helped each of us to not take for granted the main concept, but to get used to formulate and recreate it continuously. In reference to this organization, I feel that it would be interesting, for future BIP programmes, to give students the opportunity, during the week, to propose individual or collective presentations with possible topics concerning the dialogical process. Anyway, thank you very much BIP for having become a unique entity of our mixed life plots.

Sabrina Mazzoleni

The BIP programme was an intensive experience. I had the opportunity to have a confrontation with many people about many topics. The highlight of this experience was that everyone had different study paths, different nationalities and different cultures so everyone had different ways to see the main themes too. It was very interesting to see how many facets and meaning we can find starting from a single theme: dialogue/discussion in education.

Every single activity opened mental questions and it created an opportunity to open our minds, to feed our brain and to learn new things. I really saw the occasion to create a philosophical atmosphere where all of us had the possibility not only to listen but to do practical workshops too.

I think that, as a student, it was a really formative project for me, not only for my studies but for my job as a teacher in the future, because it was also an onboarding experience where I could take something from everyone of the participants of the BIP to understand who I want to be/became in my future.

Naomi Gherardi

I believe that the program allowed for a moment of shared narration among people who are strangers and have very different backgrounds and intentions.

By narration I mean an active thinking that allows us to make sense and meaning of the experiences and thoughts we perceive in ourselves and others.

more precisely, it was a week in which we had the time and opportunity to reflect on the topic of dialogue and discussion, both as a main focus and as a means to explore further topics.

In fact, the topic was treated from different and multiple perspectives that gave us the opportunity to enrich the meaning of the concept of dialogue from many different points of view.

From participating in this intensive program I will take with me an awareness of the importance of storytelling and dialogue as tools to reread, reflect on my own experiences and the thoughts and reflections of the people around me.

In this sense, dialogue becomes a tool for constructing thoughts, ways of thinking, and identities.

Elisa Pellicioli

Something that made me think about the uniqueness of the BIP was the sharing environment between both students and professors.

Even last year I had experienced an international week with other european students, it was a great experience but this time I truly felt myself involved in something more, in a safe environment where we were just humans, coming from different cultures and of course with different life experiences, who were sharing ideas. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk, to ask, to dialog with professors even at the end of a workshop, during the day and keep talking about the themes with other students on the way home.

I saw how much both professors and us students were experimenting ourselves in a new context, every single workshop gave us a little new topic to be curious about but at the same time every knowledge was not sure at all, every issue was put in the center of a discussion and challenged from different perspectives.

Perhaps spontaneously we put ourselves in a position of searching and questioning, in the view that no one can always have the situation under control, nor know where a new discussion would take us, so we had to deal with improvisation all the time.

So thank you all for being present and willing to question yourselves together.

Mayra Morlacchi

On the way home, while I was reflecting more detachedly about what happened in our intensive week, I found a Greek term, “Ατελοφοβία” that I thought could sum up my perception of this experience well, but only when combined with other expressions: during this BIP I felt the fear (φόβος, phóbos) of my imperfection and incompleteness (atelès), but also the power of sharing, empathy, support.

We are born as person to be, growing up through the construction of our unique identity, implemented through dialogue with the other. I think each of us is like a bubble with flexible and malleable borders, with its own living space, that flies continuously, conditioned by external currents. But what happens when the bubble collides with something external? With an I-you? We will never know what awaits us, but it’s precisely this unknown that moves us, that makes us want to find out what’s next. All the encounters we experience bring into play all our being, with our personal story, our values, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, knowledge and skills. Especially with our incompleteness.

This is exactly what happened in the BIP: each participant brought into the context their own worldview, their own research about the shared theme of dialogue/discussion, necessarily different from that of others. There were similarities between few contributions, points of contact, but each of them was naturally different, original, authentic. These contributions, in their innate incompleteness, generated a rich and elaborate network of meaning, interpreted and elaborated personally from each of those present.

It was incredible to find a multitude of bubbles that chose to be in the same environment, a safe one, to make contact, expose themselves, dialogue, weave relationships, while signing an implicit contract of mutual respect and attentive listening aimed at understanding the others’ perspective.

The professors guided us in the exploration of various dimensions of dialogue, proposing various and original activities that prompted us to build and live a community of sharing. Despite my fear of erring, the environment motivated me to participate, to share my thoughts, to encounter the other and his bubble, listen to him out of curiosity, interest, desire to hear a new story.

This BIP has left an imprint on my narrative, transforming my person in some way that I will never be able to define completely. The facts that will remain with me most are the richness of people, the existence of an inner will to communicate who we are and our point of view, but also the presence of walls limiting this willingness, either due to emotional blocks and coping strategies, or to customary social practices that promote monologues.

From this journey I realized how much importance I gave to what I lack, rather than to what I am, in my normal incompleteness. I realized how meaningful relations, external to our ordinary, can enrich and change our view of the world and, above all, of ourselves.

Aurora Zanchi

Lately I’m thinking of university as an opportunity to be seized, as something not obvious which I’ve chosen to attend and is part of my life. The BIP was one of these unexpected experiences which made my desire of “living” the university even stronger.

It was very intensive being in Rhodes, students and professors with different nationalities and backgrounds, staying together in an equal environment where it was possible to deeply discuss topics but also drinking coffee in the morning or sharing lunchtime on the stairs of the backyard (still discussing).

I looked inside myself during these dialogues, trying to dig through my thoughts from a perspective of continuous research.

The aspect which impressed me a lot was our ability to start reflecting from “just” a word and go everywhere with it. This made me aware of how powerful a word can be and how much it may arise in those minds whom are able to think deeply and look beyond together.

I could perceive so much passion from the professors in each workshop and this let all of us get naturally involved in an environment of constant confrontation and questioning.

And it was very inspiring to know that dialogue can start even from throwing to each other an imaginary ball or writing (apparently) no sense stories or listening to someone talking about love in a language we don’t know.

Thank you all for this week which has left me with a lot of stimuli to keep thinking about.

Kathleen Rodriguez

This BIP unfolded as a remarkable journey for me, brimming with exciting moments and personal development. Initially exciting about exploring Greece, the program presented more than just a university opportunity—it was a chance to discover an unexplored part of grec culture.

The diverse range of courses, delving into topics like literature, the philosophy of migrant children, education, citizenship, and interactive situations, provided me with rich perspectives and personal insights. Reflecting on the varied experiences within the BIP, I identified a seamless connection between the acquired insights and their potential impact on my future career as a school counselor.

Beyond specific course content, the overarching principles of dialogue, empathy, and shared reflections within the program perfectly align with the skills required for a role in school counseling. The emphasis on facilitating meaningful conversations, appreciating diverse viewpoints, and creating inclusive spaces for dialogue resonates with the ethos of a school counselor.

This experience also marked a significant personal evolution, teaching me to embrace exploration, value surprises, and appreciate diverse perspectives. The challenges faced during the program became integral parts of my personal journey, highlighting the importance of unexpected moments and shared learning experiences.

In summary, Rhodes was not merely an university program but a transformative journey where I explored, learned, and experienced substantial personal growth.

Laura Invernici

Horizon and Comfort, these are the two words that I have chosen to describe the BIP experience. But I would use the same to express what I think about dialogue.

These terms often depict an obstacle to someone; indeed, “horizon” can refer to the limit of a person’s knowledge, experience of interest, while “comfort” can be seen as something habitual, too usual to be relevant. But, by making them in dialogue, we can see a new and different version of their meaning.

Horizon becomes a line of meeting, effectively the line at which the earth’s surface and the sky appear to meet, precisely a vision of natural elements comfortably melting together.

Comfort becomes the easing of a person’s feeling, the horizontal way of living something by accepting it and flowing in it.

In this way of blending concepts to reach a wider view of thoughts, I find my idea of dialogue as well as I experience the beautiful marks left by the BIP programme.

To build a dialogue needs to be seen as a community aspiration, where various landscapes of feelings, beliefs and designs, can be aware of their reciprocal co-existence and, starting from that, be transformatively inspired.

Sabrina Mazzoleni

Before the BIP I saw discussion/dialogue in education only as a theoretical method to work. I learned new things, the atmosphere of the BIP teached me that philosophical discussion is much more than only a working method. I saw it everyday in the classroom at the University, I saw it during the workshops and I saw it also during dinner at the restaurant. Dialogue/discussion is in our body language, sometimes it’s through materials, sometimes through words or through experience.

We had different ways to talk about the same theme and it was really interesting to see that if we can find discussion/dialogue in every context it must mean that we should be confident in using, understanding, finding and exploiting it as a very useful tool. Not only in our professional lives but also in everyday lives. So I think that discussion/dialogue it’s a very big transversal theme that follows our lines of life in every single object, every single event during our stories.

Maëva Ibanez

My words were: pleasant experience.

First of all, coming to Rhodes to do this seminar was both an intellectual and a travel experience. I was able to experience a different way of working: exchanging ideas with international teachers and students on a subject that I haven’t necessarily had the opportunity to deal with. I didn’t expect to receive such a wide range of content on the theme of dialogue and discussion in philosophy of education. For me, that’s what makes this experience so rich.

It was a pleasure to be in Rhodes during this week, because we were able to work in very pleasant conditions: with kindness, listening and tolerance. But also, because we were able to discover a bit of the culture and landscapes of a very beautiful island.

Sofia Boz

To pull the strings of my reflections on the topic of this BIP, I can say that I truly understand how complex it is to implement dialogue and discussion. I believe, in fact, that expecting a dialogue to arise suddenly and spontaneously within a group, regardless of whether it is more or less cohesive, is unrealistic. Moreover, explicitly demanding that such a dynamic arise may generate a certain tension between the participants of that group due to the high expectations involved.

The idea I have gained of dialogue is of a dynamic unbalance, a relentless proceeding from thought to thought supported by a formal logic and headed for a depth of content. Dialogue, precisely due to its constant movement, requires an abandonment of one’s own positions and an attitude of openness to the Other. I believe that dialogue does not necessarily have to be peaceful in nature, or rather, I think that the metaphorically ‘violent’ nuance of discussion (which originates from discutere, meaning to break, to shatter) can benefit the dialogical process itself. A clash of ideas is still an encounter that can shake one’s granitic convictions.

At the same time, I argue that dialogue and discussion share a starting point, namely conversation. As Lipmann also claims, the logic of dialogue is rooted in the logic of conversation; convertere, from which we derive conversation, means to turn together towards something, it leads to undertake a common direction (if we intend cum – with – and versus – direction), a far cry from meaning that we all have the same viewpoint. Going towards something common means being open to the possibility of changing one’s mind and having one’s mind changed, of transforming and being transformed, of guiding and being guided towards something unspecified, not decided in advance, unexpected. Only by passing through this posture, this conception of a collective path, is it possible to arrive at something more specific and generative such as dialogue and discussion.

Coralie Lagrand

I am very grateful to have been able to live this BIP because it was my first school trip experience. It is a format that I have experienced and that I will value in my professional practice.

It allowed us to meet people who have various regional, cultural and historical backgrounds.

I realized that the theme of dialogue and discussion can be understood as different ways and It is this “open-mindedness” that I see as the key to this experience.

Thank you all for your kindness and your welcoming.

Naomi Gherardi

One of the words I chose to describe the experience was pedagogical dilemmas. By this term I refer to all those questions that do not have a definitive black or white answer.

Dialogue has a very similar underlying structure to the term.

It is a valuable moment and opportunity that allows you to step outside the logic of right and wrong, reason and platitude, and allows you to think deeply about a variety of issues.

The moment of dialogue and discussion becomes a way to interrogate one’s preconceptions, beliefs, and generally mental states in order to organize them and construct a thought that you want to communicate to others.

This process allows us to voice our thoughts and also question them, either by finding critical elements on our own or by listening to and comparing the opinions of those participating in the dialogue.

In this way two thoughts, yours and another person’s, come into contact and enrich each other. From this kind of fusion comes a richer and deeper awareness.

This allows you to know yourself better because you question yourself, allow your thoughts to be positively influenced by the other person, and you also learn to respect those around you.

Above all you mature the awareness that everything is a pedagogical dilemmas and you learn to be flexible and malleable to external influences and your own internal changes.

Dialogue I think can be understood as a skill and therefore you can find ways to teach it even to children as early as kindergarten or elementary school. It is a kind of lifestyle and thinking that can be trained from childhood.

Elisa Pellicioli

I’d like to share with you a consideration I recently read in a book written by the anthropologist Tim Ingold: “Our questions are never exhausted in the answers we get, but always leave space for other questions, which do not come close to real solutions, but give way for the unceasing progress of life”.

Exactly this kind of idea represents the meaning of dialogue I personally developed during the BIP in Rhodes.

During these Uni years, I’ve kept struggling with myself and my life project.

I never stop wondering what I am doing, what I am supposed to do, if I truly feel the educational environment my place in the world, if there is anything that scares me, if I’m ready to be a teacher, if I’ll ever feel ready to be a teacher or simply a person in this world.

And this kind of thoughts have made me feel insecure, unstable most of the time, not decisive enough as I should and as others are.

But during the BIP we talked about the fundamental rule of the dialogue and discussion (with him/herself and with the others) to create movement, to go on, to engage yourself in an inquiring process with the goal of always looking for something more.

And from this perspective, finally it sounded positive, finally my curiosity about the world around me and my questioning about a life project have started to make sense for me as well.

At the end of the week, we were asked to think about philosophical objects, here some ideas from my interpretation: dream, justice, happiness, sorrow, challenge, my place in the world.

These are all abstract objects, which in my opinion could make us thinkers not just learners, because everyone lets us think (and thinking is difficult), no one can tell you what to do or how to interpret similar concepts. You must build your own meaning.

But… Why do we need to think about “happiness” for example?

What does “happiness” mean for you? How do you know if you’re happy?

Where or who could we find/share happiness with? How could you keep happiness with you?

And so many questions and response attempts should come. And other people’s speeches make us think about something more that we didn’t know until that moment. And this is truly connected with my idea of “improvisation”.

Improvise through narration, through philosophy, through art and music, through theatre, through body movements or words. Improvisation is in all our lives: something happens, you have to think and ask yourself why, building indeed your own meaning; you try to give your feedback in the best way you can; than your interlocutor does something you didn’t expect, creating his/her own connections of meaning; And you are supposed to tune in to the new proposal, the new flow of the events.

This is what philosophy does – keep questioning, never final answers

how anthropology works – many points of view, tune in to the context

the way in which dialog and discussion became necessary – for a human being formation, and exactly the reason why the educational environment should involve pupils in the building of new meanings.

With this aim, I’ll end this personal reflection with Tim Ingold again: “Do you think you already know the answer? You don’t know it at all. Search again and again, keep questioning and inquiring”.

Aurora Zanchi

During the BIP all of us were part of dialogues, and with “all of us” I mean the interweaving of life experiences, backgrounds, nationalities, culture, way to looking at the world, … involved that make us specifically “us”.

This because a dialogue can start just only if there are human beings willing to let themselves in a listening, researching and participating mood. They need to have questions and eye opened to looking for answers, but being conscious that they may not find them, because there will always be other questions, other points of view to consider.

It can be very interesting to understand in which way a person makes a reflection and where he/she can arrive with his/her thought’s perspective through dialogue. I think this needs to be practiced since the childhood, because it let students build/experience a school context open to listening and confrontation, which enhances their point of view.

This is an essential aspect of education: through dialogue children can practice questioning about what surrounds them, about their life and purposes and they can also become conscious that sometimes it’s okay to not know the answers.

But wondering why and discussing together in a safe environment, which let them feel that positive feeling typical of the musicians playing together and expressing a common flow (grooving education) will let them create movement and be a community of inquiry.

Mayra Morlacchi

From this experience, I have formed an opinion about dialogue and the premises that enable it to take place. First of all, I believe that dialogue needs an I and a you who accept each other and decide they want to initiate contact, to open up to each other to share something of themselves, to listen and to be listened to. An I and a you enter into a dialogue by taking risks, by showing their identities without being able to predict where this relationship will take them, how it will transform them.

Despite the fact that we can rely on our own life story, or perhaps precisely because we can only rely on our own story, dialogue with someone necessarily different from us brings us face to face with another view of reality, other thoughts and other beliefs. What we hear mobilises our mind, which tries to make connections, to find response strategies so as to sustain the dialogue. However, because of the natural incompleteness of each person, we can never have a predefined answer to everything and this obliges us to invent in the moment, to create something new in a given situation, following the flow generated by the ongoing dialogical sharing.

In dialogue there are no truths or lies, there are no judgements or exclusions. Each person’s contribution is the result of a self-analysis provoked by a question, and thus the result of an attempt to organise one’s own history according to this question. As Socrates stated “at the end of the dialogue no satisfactory definition is given”. And this is because, from contribution to contribution, the attempt to organise one’s own thought implemented by one participant will always be influenced by what is shared by the other, and this will produce a new distortion of one’s own thought. Thus a virtuous circle is generated that, in effect, cannot find an end, a conclusion, a completeness.

Dialogue, therefore, leads everyone to ask themselves questions, to continually generate new answers within an ever-changing context, in a flowing time, in an ever-new reality in which, inevitably, our thoughts change, evolve, contradict themselves, reinterpret themselves. The continuous questioning and the constant search for new, other ways of coping with these questions is part of the pursue of education. Indeed, an educational aim is to accompany each individual in the search for the best version of himself or herself. And this search implies questioning, the desire to go beyond one’s own habits, to dig deeper to get to know oneself, to become more self-aware; to try to understand what I am and what I lack or what I’m not. If we want to support children in the construction of a lifestyle that implies continuous questioning, continuous dialogue with the other in order to get to know each other and be enriched, then we need a time in which everyone is willing to engage in dialogue and in which everyone has his or her time to think and act; a safe space in which one feels free to say and free not to say; we need to put ourselves no longer in the role of controller, but in the role of dialogiser, creating desired and built relationships together; we need people willing to put themselves on the line and share their identities, seeking connections. I believe that dialogue is necessary within the school. However, the vulnerability of the situation underlying such a relational exchange seems to be very high.

Kathleen Rodriguez

This BIP unfolded as a remarkable journey for me, brimming with exciting moments and personal development. Initially exciting about exploring Greece, the program presented more than just a university opportunity—it was a chance to discover an unexplored part of grec culture.

The diverse range of courses, delving into topics like literature, the philosophy of migrant children, education, citizenship, and interactive situations, provided me with rich perspectives and personal insights. Reflecting on the varied experiences within the BIP, I identified a seamless connection between the acquired insights and their potential impact on my future career as a school counselor.

Beyond specific course content, the overarching principles of dialogue, empathy, and shared reflections within the program perfectly align with the skills required for a role in school counseling. The emphasis on facilitating meaningful conversations, appreciating diverse viewpoints, and creating inclusive spaces for dialogue resonates with the ethos of a school counselor.

This experience also marked a significant personal evolution, teaching me to embrace exploration, value surprises, and appreciate diverse perspectives. The challenges faced during the program became integral parts of my personal journey, highlighting the importance of unexpected moments and shared learning experiences.

In summary, Rhodes was not merely an university program but a transformative journey where I explored, learned, and experienced substantial personal growth.