Educazione interculturale

The impact of armed conflict on school education

Stephen J. McKinney — 2023-05-29

Armed conflict has a damaging effect on the lives of children and young people and affects their school education and future possibilities. This creates a serious challenge to the exercise of the human right for education and the achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – notably SDG 4, education for all, and SDG 5, gender equality. This paper examines the effects of armed conflict by discussing school closures, or partial closures, internal and external displacement, child soldiers, the six grave violations and the education of girls during armed conflict. The paper concludes with a discussion that argues that the policy of protection promoted by the United Nations is one that should be supported but there are other dimensions that also have to be considered: a more nuanced conceptualisation of childhood and a greater awareness and understanding of the child’s lived experience and agency, the protection of children to be ensured in ceasefire and peace agreements and implementation of strategies to protect children from the effects of war and the enforcement of legal measures and political sanctions that can be used to hold to account the perpetrators of the abuse of children in armed conflict.

Building peace through education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rita Locatelli — 2023-05-29

The education system of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing multiple challenges that are related to the situation of severe poverty affecting the population, the lack of public funding, the low quality of learning, class overcrowding and high illiteracy rates. The situation is worsened and at the same time caused by the situation of ongoing armed conflict and violence which have been affecting the country since its independence. While the connections between education and conflict are often difficult to disentangle, education can play a key role in creating a more equitable system where peace and inclusion are favoured, thus protecting the most vulnerable. According to latest available estimates, however, the promotion of peace and citizenship education programmes and manuals remains still a challenge in the DRC. The paper presents the Maison de paix experience - a project of international cooperation in the field of education promoted by an Italian association in Kikwit, in the western region of the DRC. It underlines the important role of participatory educational governance and teacher training, as a way to promote justice, solidarity and inclusion which are fundamental values in peace education.

«Once upon a wartime…», a pedagogical lesson of Angelo Patri (1876-1965)

Carmen Petruzzi — 2023-05-29

As a means to inform contemporary discourse on education in emergency contexts, it can be useful to consider the experiences of the past in times of crisis. Angelo Patri (1876-1965), an Italian-American teacher and school principal, was able to converge his pedagogical thinking and experience in the formulation of concrete answers to the families affected by World War II. Your Children in Wartime (1943) is a skillful work on the necessary roles of the school, family, community, and even the children themselves, in the growth path during times of conflict and confusion. As such, it still provides an excellent manual for teachers of our current days, as they attempt to cope with these extraordinary times in their own careers and in their public service. The current essay returns to the historical period of Patri’s writing, elaborating on the basic principles expressed in his volume Your Children in Wartime.

The school in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the wars in the Balkans. Processes of conflict and peace in education

Luca Bravi — 2023-05-29

The Dayton Accords (1995) officially marked the end of wars in the Balkans, but the situation of political fragmentation and ethnic hatred resulting from the conflict continued to be present in the social context. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, school policy is a result of hatred that flared up in the years of conflict. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a multicultural territory before the war, in which Muslim, Serbian and Croatian communities coexisted peacefully. Since 1995, Bosnia represents a case of pacification accomplished through the international diplomacy, but which has materialized in a division of internal borders. Two schools under one roof is the title of a project that was conceived in the post-war period, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This model provides the separation of students on an ethnic and religious basis: different programs are adopted in the various classes, depending on the enclave to which they belong to; in this context of growing conflict expressed in educational policies, attempts to meet and dialogue are built by students and civil population.

Restorative nostalgia, identity closures, conflicts and divisions

Federico Zannoni — 2023-05-29

Nostalgia is a complex emotion produced by the individual and collective processes of remembering. Svetlana Boym distinguishes between reflective nostalgia, regarding the personal reactions to the passing of time, and restorative nostalgia, which acts on the collective level in response to the need to look at the past, that is presented in rigid and immutable forms and is considered a constitutive value of the present. Restorative nostalgia feeds nationalistic revivals and processes of historical revisionism and proselytism around hate speeches, based on retrotopies that, in the face of the insecurities and the crisis movements of the present time, paint a more flourishing past, in which life was easier, sheltered from the problems brought by globalization and the greater permeability of national borders. The popularity and consensus obtained in Italy, Sweden, and other European countries by nationalist parties, as well as the rhetoric of patriotism expressed by Vladimir Putin in support of his war action in Ukraine, are the most striking manifestations of a culture of identity closure, of fear, suspicion and opposition that has recently found expression also in the no vax and conspiracy movements. Hence the need for pedagogical reflection and educational interventions that know how to act on the mechanisms of presentisation of the past and identity closure, to educate to openness and not to be afraid of fragility and weaknesses.

Dealing with polarization in schools: reflective and deliberative practices

Claudio Melacarne — 2023-05-29

Polarization and various extremist movements are on the rise and young people’s exposure to propaganda, disinformation, racism and hate speech has increased (Benjamin et al., 2021). Not only the society tends to be more polarized, but there is mounting concern that social media sites contribute to it by creating echo chambers that insulate people from opposing views about current events (Bail et al., 2018; Kubin and von Sikorski, 2021). Since teachers are at the forefront of these trends, they get to witness and address first-hand the effects and consequences that the various polarized ideologies may have on youth. Therefore, developing a global perspective that allows students to participate in an interconnected world, understand different viewpoints, learn to dialogue, value other cultures, and benefit from interculturality has become the objectives of world educational policy (Azqueta and Menino Arribas, 2020). The aim of this paper is to discuss the topic of polarization and then focus on two socio-pedagogical frameworks that are useful in this field: deliberative theory and reflexive practices.

Education for racism through adultcentrism: necropolitics and the Black children

Ellen de Lima Souza — 2023-05-29

In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, the effects of colonization reverberate in the insurgence of a necropolitics that directly affects Black youth and children. According to the Brazilian Forum of Public Safety, between the years of 2016 and 2020, 35 thousand people from 0 to 17 years old were killed in violent ways. In 2021, around 7 children or teenagers were victims of lethal violence per day. For such, the text updated the condition of contemporary necropolitics considering its colonizing genealogy, having as central axis the comprehension of «the complex of Miguel Otávio», (Souza and Carvalho, 2022, p. 7) as the capacity whether rational or not, conscious or unconscious, of adultcentrism to banalize the risks to which children are submitted, to the point of dying in gratuitous, stupid, violent, irresponsible and negligent forms. Considering examples such as Miguel Otávio Santana, who was 4 years old and was killed due to infant abandonment, and João Pedro Mattos, who was 14 years old and was shot by the police with a rifle, both cases taking place in the most rigid period of the COVID-19 quarantine, it is possible to understand that such processes educate the Brazilian society to treat differences as a synonym to inequalities and that adultcentrism is key in the composition of the Brazilian racism that sustains the death of Black children.

Between social reproduction and new inequalities: the role of school leaders in guaranteeing equity

Valerio Ferrero — 2023-05-29

Italian school is far from being that great equalizer enshrined in the Constitution. Social reproduction is still active, with the classic causes of inequality (socioeconomic and sociocultural status) regaining strength. Non-traditional factors of inequality produced by schools themselves are also emerging. School leaders have a key role in breaking these dynamics, also due to school autonomy. Thanks to issue-aware governance and distributed leadership, they can develop school policies with the entire school community that avoid distorting equity effects.

Including minorities in education: from access to the perspective of participation in decision-making processes. Reflections and challenges

Cristina Balloi — 2023-05-29

The inclusion of minorities in educational contexts requires further reflection on how to manage the processes that determine policies, investments, and best practices. The participation of minorities at all levels of the decision-making processes is crucial to achieving effective inclusion, in order to emancipate them from the reductive view of integration or mere access. In the present-day scenario, it is important and necessary to focus on who holds a key power role in transforming and changing the outcomes of participation in decision-making processes: policy-makers and decision-makers. They are the ones who have the power to decide at various levels. The aim of this paper is to reflect on some key aspects that can pave the way to the participation of minorities in decision-making processes. In the first part of the paper, the concept of participation and its applications in decision-making processes will be discussed to outline rigorous theoretical frameworks. In the second part, the focus will shift onto how scientific research can support policy-makers and decision-makers in meeting the challenge of building participatory decision-making processes.

Education in a world of conflict and division

Stephen J. McKinney — 2023-05-29

The introductory essay frames the monographic section of this volume, which investigates the theme of the challenges that face education in situations of conflict and division in the contemporary world. Armed conflict has caused devastation in the past year in Ukraine and, over a longer period of time, in other parts of the world, notably Afghanistan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The articles in this special edition encompass a number of important topics concerning the profound effect these armed conflicts have on the lives of children and young people and their school education.

Roma families and teachers: gaining visibility and recognition through the implementation of socio-educational policies

Silvia Carbone — 2023-05-29

One of the central issues of our age is early school leaving. In this paper it was decided to analyze to what extent early school leaving involves the Roma, one of the most marginalized social groups. The basic hypothesis, which has been advanced in close connection with the field research, is that the perception of the representations of Roma families and teachers can be mediated through an integrated planning, based on public-private partnership entrusted to the institutions and to the organizations present and active in the area, in order to guarantee the maintenance of individual and collective differences and by promoting mutual understanding. The aim of the research is to observe whether the effects of an integrated planning, where Roma are an active part, are useful for deconstructing that stereotype which feeds on cultural essentialities to justify marginalization and early school leaving. The EU in its 2019 report confirmed that more Roma children participate in early childhood and primary education (53% in 2016, compared to 47% in 2011). On the other hand, there are fewer premature abandonments (68% in 2016, and 87% in 2011). The research showed that integrated planning between Roma and the school community already represents an action of social integration, capable of enhancing and recognizing differences, while generating a decrease in dropouts and greater social inclusion.

Islamic youth associations in Italy. Dimensions and practices of citizenship

Martina Crescenti — 2023-05-29

The essay presents an analysis of the definition and enactment of citizenship by second-generation Muslim youth, active members of Islamic youth associations in Italy, whose path to recognition as citizens is hindered at the institutional and social levels. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2020 and 2021, we analyze 28 individual interviews with young activists on which, on the one hand, we investigate the experiences of racist and Islamophobic discrimination that drive young people to mobilize in associations, and on the other hand, how they define the concept of citizenship. This concept is also delineated through the analysis of two recreational and playful events open to the entire population and promoted by one national association in particular, Giovani Musulmani d’Italia. Through the two events, conceived as practices of citizenship, an idea of belonging to the Italian context based on dialogue and mutual knowledge is shown, in an already multicultural and multireligious country, in which the young Muslim born and schooled person acts as a citizen, although without formal recognition.

Interculturalism facing real problems. Educational research, otherness, conceptions and skin colour

Luca Agostinetto — 2023-05-29

This paper stands in line with educational research on children’s conception of otherness through skin colour. The first part focuses on the epistemological context: it can be referred to the complexity paradigm and to a pragmatic approach of investigation, both aimed at confronting real problems such as the connection between colourism and racism. After considering some of the main research directions in this field, the second part articulates the construct of conception as the basis of the research framework. Finally, the third part describes the research design, the steps that led to the text stimulus outline, and what is in progress, looking for a constructive dialogue with other active processes in the national scientific community.

What new welfare today? The consolidation of the pedagogical perspective of law 328/2000 through inclusive investment in the system of social and socio-educational services

Michele Corriero — 2023-05-29

Law 328 of 2000, Framework law for the creation of the integrated system of social interventions and services, together with regional welfare, is an important point of reference for all professionals of the social and socio-educational system for inclusion and interculturality. It has represented and still represents, albeit with various critical issues, a multicultural model of development for the construction of a supportive, sustainable and participatory system in the planning and planning of educational and pedagogical opportunities. It has created a socio-educational culture closer to the people and the territory with a horizontal subsidiarity with a social and pedagogical value. The drive towards innovation of 328/00, however, has not unhinged a certain welfare and maleducational culture, not residual in certain territories and social contexts. Welfare policies, therefore, revive a cultural ferment and important change to which pedagogy can and must make its contribution in terms of educational and participatory practices, socio-pedagogical reflexivity and education professionals.

Dialogo, cinema e letteratura, Riccardo Mazzeo e Nina Harriet Saarinen, Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2022

Federico Zannoni — 2023-05-29

L’intercultura in testa. Sguardo e rigore per l’agire educativo quotidiano, Luca Agostinetto, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2022

Lisa Bugno — 2023-05-29

Intrecciando linguaggi, tessendo cammini. Il plurilinguismo per la scuola inclusiva, Paola Dusi, Marinella Majorano e Paolo Nitti, Bergamo, Edizioni Junior, 2022

Annamaria Lona — 2023-05-29