Twinning schools, universities and communities to reach new audiences in education.

Abstract (English)

This paper aims to explore the benefits derived from numerous twinning experiences, both real and virtual, in the field of anthropological education.
I have coordinated several teams in designing, experimenting, monitoring, and documenting these partnerships, over a wide time span, in the public sector: we crossed various disciplines, involved different countries of the world, and promoted peer-to-peer dialogue between cultures.
All these experiences document not only the complex interdisciplinary activities of young people in hundreds of schools, often connected with universities, but also their virtual and real exchanges with other cultures and countries and their capability to do "field research". Together with their partners and the community they live in or they would like to explore, students learn how to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches. They also show creative ways of dealing with anthropological issues, guided by adults in research-actions, and building socio-cultural competences in Education.
Through twinnings, students (together with their teachers and local and international communities) learn for example how to listen to others, how to collaborate, how to compare, how to approach global and local issues, how to improve intergenerational and intercultural dialogue, how to be interactive in learning and teaching, and how finally translate their knowledge into creative productions.
The role of new technologies is crucial in shortening the distance between partners, in building local collaborations and international exchange: anthropology then becomes a very useful discipline for building bridges between young people, various experts, institutions, countries and cultures, promoting a wise pedagogical use of technologies.