“Bidirectional Storytelling: podcast as a medium of exchanging learning practices of Italian L+ between students of Italian at Utrecht University and immigrants in Italy learning Italian at the Centro Astalli in Trento and at Popoli Insieme in Padova”

To what extent can students be actively involved in the discussion on societal issues like, for instance, migration? What contribution can they give on the base of their competence and experience as (young) academics? With these questions in mind, we experimented with a new form of teaching and learning – Community Engaged Learning (CEL) – within the curriculum of the Bachelor Italian Language and Culture (Utrecht University).
The goal of CEL education is to connect academia with society, particularly with partners in the social field. Through a cross-disciplinary dialogue about societal issues, students, teachers and external partners can learn from each other and can exchange their expertise. This format is particularly suitable for “Migrazioni al plurale”, an interdisciplinary course in culture and linguistics offered in the second year of the Bachelor in Italian.
Our first practice with CEL in this course was a pilot project on storytelling by elderly Italian migrants in the Netherlands. At that time – spring 2021 – we were suffering the anxiety and the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Elderly people, particularly those with a migration background, were experiencing isolation and solitude. With the support of ACLI, the Italian community in Utrecht, our students got in touch with some first-generation Italian migrants and had long conversations with them about their migration stories and their lives in the Netherlands. These conversations were audio- and video-recorded and resulted in four short documentaries – the mini-series Heritage Storytelling – that were shared locally through ACLI, as well as spread on a national and international level through the course website Migrazioni al plurale.
Our second CEL-project was designed to foster bidirectional storytelling between students of Italian at Utrecht University and young immigrants in Italy learning Italian. The goal of this second CEL-project was to bring together two very different groups and, by going beyond their superficial labels as local or immigrant, have them meet each other on their common ground as learners of Italian L+. With the collaboration of Centro Astalli in Trento and Popoli Insieme in Padua, both groups had the unique opportunity to exchange not only language-learning practices, but also real-life experiences. The project resulted in Bi-directional Storytelling, a podcast series aimed to inform about the Other in an inclusive way. Bi-directional Storytelling can be found on this website and on the website of Centro Astalli Trento, in Italy. Soon, it will also be broadcasted in the Netherlands through Radio Pizza, the radio station for Italian migrants.

Associazione Centro Astalli Trento: centroastallistrento.it

Associazione Popoli Insieme Padova: popolinsieme.eu