Teacher Training on Inclusive Education in Italy

In: Dovigo , F 2017 , ' Teacher Training on Inclusive Education in Italy ' , Scuola democratica , vol. 1 , no. 2017 , pp. 193-203 .

Abstract

In order to reflect precisely on the role of inclusive education in Italy, first and foremost, the fundamental theme of values must be examined. In the context of Italy, referral to educational values is always doubly risky. On the one hand, a sort of disenchantment (even cynicism at times) exists towards referring to values such as collaboration, respect, democracy and honesty. Each similar re- ferral tends to be regularly silenced as naïve, rhetoric or politically correct. On the other hand, in a more damaging way, there is a systematic tendency to pay tribute emphatically to these and other values during official speeches or when writing program documents, then only to be quickly forgotten when it is time to take action. The two attitudes – disenchantment and double standards – ap- pear closely linked and complementary. Similarly, schools are not immune to this mechanism. This explains why legitimate questions on the sense of educa- tion are systematically avoided through extensive recourse to bureaucratic or, at most, technical responses. Reducing values to a mere shell ends up hiding the active role that these can perform in building that sense of community which is the essential condition for a school that aims to be truly inclusive and open to differences. In fact, values constitute a primary element of recognition that allows a consensus to be found on the various educational intentionalities, and to transform them into congruent and shared practices