Cultural Expression: ‘Artistic’ or ‘Social’ Competence? Image Creativity in Young Adults Aspiring to Become Primary Level Teachers in Italian-Speaking Switzerland

Abstract

Two different cohorts of young adults, as a function of their access to Teacher training program for pre-primary and primary teachers in the Canton of Ticino (CH), attended in 2021 and 2022 a weeklong art workshop at the Department of Education and Learning of SUPSI (DFA). Framed within an annual training course, these intensive ateliers involved graphic, pictorial and plastic artistic research focusing on the theme ‘Art and War’, mobilizing the potential of the artwork to arouse not only emotional reactions, but also generative on a cognitive level, in order to develop reflective-critical thinking and creative thinking. Technical-expressive and representational competences have been placed in the foreground, activating strategies of figurative-abstract expression on the two-dimensional surface or in three dimensions. The article approach can be traced to the perspective of the case study and it is based on the resources (knowledge, skills and attitudes) referred to in Key competence 8 for lifelong learning, Cultural awareness and expression competence (European Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018). The project is intended to verify the status of both the image and visual culture in the transition between upper secondary and university of teacher education for the school system of the Italian-speaking Canton of Switzerland.