Page 17 - IO1-Report

KA201 - Strategic Partnerships for School Education
The Universal Language of Mathematics (2018-1-TR01-KA201-059704)

dangerous”) – that are often used to describe this population group - but which are by no means tenable
from an empirical and scientific point of view (Dossier Caritas 2009)

As we saw from the data, analysed in the previous segment, the number of pupils of foreign origins in
Italian schools has grown with every year. Their presence in Italian schools is a dynamic phenomenon
that is the result of globalization, enlargement of the European Union, decentralization and requires a
certain transformation of forms and means of communication, as well as a school reform. School is the
first important formal organization that children encounter on their own. It is the most important step
in their social integration, especially when we speak about immigrant children. The major part of
research on “second generations” conducted in the recent years in the EU and in Italy focuses the
sphere of school system, pedagogy, adaptation and education in general. Their number increased lately,
often drawing on analogous studies conducted in the US. (Thomson and Crul 2007) However, even
though the theoretical framework is similar, “second generations” are not a homogeneous group,
(Manchenko and Westerween 2019) and are ethnically and contextually very different. The studies of
children of the first-generation immigrants in Europe often show the importance of the host society and
context for integration pathways. (Crul and Vermeulen 2003; Doomernik 1998; Barban and White 2011).
In addition, out of all social institutions in Italy many of the immigrant children are visible and active
only in school, hence it is important to understand the conditions they are studying in and challenges
they might have to deal with. For the representatives of the Generation 1.5 (born in another country
and migrated between the age of 5-6 and 18-19 together with their parents or after them) arrival in
Italy is significant in the process of growing up – some of them are re-meeting their parents after years
of living in different countries and have to reconstruct a relationship with them. At the same time, they
have to start a new school, build new friendships and learn a new language: in other words, re-think
themselves and fit into a new context, where they discover that now they are children of immigrants
and foreigners. (Ricucci 2012)

In the report “La via italiana per la scuola interculturale e l'integrazione degli alunni stranieri” [The
Italian way for the intercultural school and the integration of foreign students], (MIUR 2007) the Italian
Ministry of Education has emphasized it’s orientation towards the development of intercultural and
inclusive school. Furthermore, ten lines of action have been described that characterise the model of
intercultural integration – these areas must be continuously reviewed and improved:
1. Practices for reception and insertion into the school that include cognitive, administrative,
relational, pedagogical-didactic and organisational factors;
2. Setting Italian as the second language that has two phases: organisation and language
learning;
3. Appreciation of the plurilingualism – individually and in school;
4. Relationship with foreign families and orientation that include the conscious choice of the
school, the involvement of parents into the reception of pupils and their active
participation in school activities.
5. Relationships in school and in extracurricular time
6. Interventions on discrimination and prejudice – racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and
prejudices against Roma and Sinti.
7. Intercultural perspectives for knowledge and skills
8. Autonomy and networks between school institutions, civil society and territory
14