A circular to read (at least) twice ...
Loretta League, former Minister of Education of the City of Forlì
The worst way to read the Circular No 2 8-1-2010 (one on the ceiling of 30% ...) is to do it with eyes of emotion and anger, than what you see in the shelters, soccer fields, on the outskirts of the devastated our cities, in slum unworthy of our country. But it would be a mistake to oppose the risks creeping intolerance, of which B. Spinelli spoke on "La Stampa" 1, a sort of way of doing good, which refuses to confront the need for concrete projects, rules certain of operational commitments, to give effect to the principles of inclusive education and quality education for all.
It 'clear that behind the cm 2 / 2010 there are also tensions and political interests, sometimes short-lived, but the problems that the ministerial note places are real and require in-depth consideration by the school and its operators, as well as the entire society.
from data
Loretta League, former Minister of Education of the City of Forlì
The worst way to read the Circular No 2 8-1-2010 (one on the ceiling of 30% ...) is to do it with eyes of emotion and anger, than what you see in the shelters, soccer fields, on the outskirts of the devastated our cities, in slum unworthy of our country. But it would be a mistake to oppose the risks creeping intolerance, of which B. Spinelli spoke on "La Stampa" 1, a sort of way of doing good, which refuses to confront the need for concrete projects, rules certain of operational commitments, to give effect to the principles of inclusive education and quality education for all.
It 'clear that behind the cm 2 / 2010 there are also tensions and political interests, sometimes short-lived, but the problems that the ministerial note places are real and require in-depth consideration by the school and its operators, as well as the entire society.
from data
calm reasoning, searching for viable solutions, must begin with some facts:
in schools of our country, the presence of non Italian students has increased over the last decade exponentially, from 2.2% in 2001 to 6.4% in 2010, bringing Italy to the average of other European countries;
today the share of non Italian citizens born in Italy (in France, citizens would in effect! ) now fluctuates around 35%, and exceeds the majority of children in kindergarten (And 41.1% in primary schools), with an unprecedented problem of identity of second generation immigrants;
there is a band that is around on the 8% of boys, the first migration, which occurs at school, with very limited or nonexistent levels of knowledge of language and our culture;
the school is left alone in this new situation: in a few provinces have provided teachers state "added" for literacy and cultural mediation; funds for 'update scarce, recent changes reduce the time of the school, the simultaneous presence of several teachers, that many useful items to build a welcoming school;
experiences are valuable to local bodies, which gives an account in profit that the document presented the ANCI 02/12/2009 2 the House of Representatives, aimed at building literacy structures, protocols for acceptance, responses from mediators, but the restrictions make it difficult to expand public finance and disseminate these "best practices";
the dynamics of immigration (and adults) are poorly governed by causing the thickening in some areas of the country or territories or cities: Faced with the theme of this figure 30% interest in the school seems totally irrelevant, because it should call rather play in the public and private choices concerning access to employment, housing, urban planning, etc..
want to say that civil society seems to be indignant in the face of situations which arise in certain critical areas of the country, but it is very stingy to provide conditions for a peaceful and civilized coexistence. It 'easier to satisfy the emotion and fear, rather than invest in practical solutions that have costs, however. If the presence of foreigners is a wealth generator for a territory (think of Reggio Emilia, one of the provinces with the highest rate of income and, in parallel, the incidence of residents' non-Italian), a part of that wealth-public and private-should flow back to school and social services to ensure the tightness of the system and its social cohesion. So why has the President of the Chamber, the Hon. Fini, when he tries, unsuccessfully, to pose the question of citizenship (to be delivered to certain conditions) as an element of civic development of our country, beyond all temptation xenophobic.
The difficult task of the school
The school lives in this social context of strong emotions around the issue of immigration. We believe the controversial issue of the crime of illegal immigration, which seems to run up against the right of asylum and hospitality, the school certainly the right to education, as an inalienable right of the human condition, without restriction or subject. The Italian school maintain, even in difficult situations, calling its inclusive and welcoming. Just scroll through data that reveal the complexity of the phenomenon (191 nationalities present) 3, which shows widespread in certain areas of the country than in others, with significant accumulations in some contexts, with unexpected appearances in small towns and reality seems far from large flows.
The school is able to accept and do it according to its traditions and skills. This is done without any special emphasis and difficulty in kindergarten and elementary even if at the end of the cycle, already manifested a strong drop in educational achievement between Italian and Italian students. When learning requires the use of linguistic codes increasingly refined and structured emerging difficulties and irregularities in the results. For example, the tests commonly used in elementary, proof of national secondary school examination, the same OECD-Pisa witnessed a gradual increase in the differential results 4. Even the official data on the "dispersion" (failures, delays, dropouts) testify to this difficulty: 7 years already 12.3% of foreign children is late, at age 13 it is 63.7%.
Risk factors
Faced with this situation requires serious reflection. Not enough to condemn - as the cm 2/2010- classes disparate as risk factor for total or partial failure education for all "students in that class (an educational slide in a circular almost always built on the tip of the pen and with balance). Such a statement, taken literally, would lead to the overcoming of the principle of inclusive education for disabled people (and then, the beautiful "Guidelines" of disability signed by the Minister as soon as August 4, 2009?) 5, restoration of special classes and special, at best cases to the formation of homogeneous classes of level, contrary to an assumption not only Italian on the stream, as an effective strategy to stimulate learning in an educational environment at the same time, cooperative and competitive.
should instead be stigmatized the rigidity of our organizational models, in which the board of the weekly hours of disciplines, the organization of teaching and teachers' schedules, the monolithic unity of the class groups, leaves no room for flexibility , of options for individual, interests and needs analysis. We are far from the wishes of the principles of teaching and organization, established in Regulation autonomy 10 years ago (DPR 03/08/1999, n. 275) and also mentioned in the Circular.
Greater customization / individualising pathways could also remove the anxiety of entering class, for which it is confirmed in the ordinary way the criterion age of the person. The cm 2 / 2010, however, suggests to refer the student to input a language assessment test to determine the class of registration, as provided by law 6.
The crux of the school
The integration situation worsens in the transition from primary school to secondary school level, both in terms rigidity of the systems, but also build up in your choices and guidelines for students and families. It is even pathetic to recall the fact that only 2% of high school students are not Italian, but it is almost 9% of professionals. Can schools alone can reverse this trend? Pure wishful thinking, unless he puts a radical reform of our cultural secondary school (where not just a restyling of the new regulations). The only proposal to avoid ghettoes would be to build poles school (or campus), well characterized for the reference axis (scientific, humanistic, social, technological, linguistic, economic, etc..), But open to a plurality of users and routes (high school, nonprofit, but also professional skills, short, higher education, continuing education, etc..) weave in which social presence and origins: a problem of democracy and fairness to the Italians, even before and foreigners 7. The move is limited to assume "forms of learning and differentiated training courses."
Proposals operational circular
Certainly, an excessive thickening of students do not speak Italian in a single class may make it harder for an effective integration. On this aspect, but not only, it directs attention of CM 2 / 2010. The hypothesis suggested by the circular, according to some excessively intrusive in the autonomy of the schools (but delicate process must be "governed"), does not seem easy to apply, and the text of the note itself acknowledges, proposing a series of exceptions, exceptions, distinctions are not always easy to interpret and fall in operational contexts. The competence, exemptions and adjustments to the roofs, it is delegated to the Director General of the Regional School.
I "not" citizens
We start from the hight of 30% and its count (since that is a threshold that has its own meaning) 8. Who are the students with Italian citizenship? -You ask, ironic tones Italian Teachers Association, which has produced a rich literature on the subject 9. Of course there are the Italian laws on citizenship, which refer to the right of blood rather than soil, but there are bills under discussion, to rephrase this concept, to make it more open to the demands of a multicultural society, to accom- example, the acquisition of a degree of mastery of language and legal references that underpin our constitutional and civil society: a kind of patriotism "constitutional" (Habermas), where just being together is due to the sharing of the fundamental laws rather than ethnicity. The lack of a requirement of citizenship, a concept now changing and evolving, seems to be a condition of minority, which, among other things, would be subject to random conditions (whether or not the gathering in an area with high or low density of immigrants). Among other things, the statement could instead facilitate a path to citizenship, but the paradox is to set conditions for non-citizens for their education, making it dependent on local contexts (low or high density of immigrants). 10
Coercion in moving
admit that in a complex or in an institution is exceeding the threshold of 30%. How to identify "losers place? How to force a shift away from home maybe? On what grounds do so, to avoid giving the impression of a forced choice? We know that the United States to combat racial segregation in the '60s adopted the so-called "forced busing" to balance the ethnic composition of certain complexes, if desired, over a range of anti-segregationist. But we? Rightly cm 2 / 2010 sets the problem in terms of the obligation for parents to move, but as a duty of institutions to organize a educational service in which there is a balance of classroom attendance (once we defined the classes "equieterogenee). However, only 5% of schools exceeded the threshold of 30% of non-Italian speakers.
Consultation territorial
rightly insists on the involvement of the circular area (since the relevant local authorities: the City and County, but also the non-profit and voluntary) in promoting more broad-based programs (coordination Subscription territorial, literacy services in the network, intercultural mediation, etc..) able to avoid the worsening of critical only in some situations. We know well how often the autonomy of schools has at times turned into a sort of competitive self-sufficiency, where each school tends to close and manage themselves in their own problems and resources (and the presence of foreign students can be seen from time to time as a to avoid threat or as an unexpected resource for the survival of a school). In other seasons it was possible to turn the steering inter-institutional bodies, inside and outside the school, such as disability, need a similar effort to promote intercultural integration. The circular suggests a number of governance bodies to be established at different levels (in the school, in the territory, region, national)
The threshold of competence Language
One of the reasons for exemption from the ceiling of 30% is the mastery of language by immigrant students (more so if they were born in Italy and have already behind a path of education, in the nest in kindergarten, elementary school). But how do you ensure a level of proficiency? And what is an acceptable threshold, which is interpreted as an initial starting point to increase further due to the processes of education? There are international standards of competence related to the framework of the European languages, and also for the Italian as a second language. There are tools and assessment tests of these levels, such as those produced by the University for Foreigners in Perugia. However, the acquisition of a language other than their native language is not simply a technical problem, Cold acquisition of a new code, but is linked to cultural factors, psychological, emotional, social.
Interlingua Italian language or two?
Nell'apprendente a new language creates a space of connection between language already owned and new language (interlingua called by scholars), very dynamic and rich in terms of cognitive (if you work intelligently on it), that can not be measured only in terms of number of errors and correct the new code gradually learned. Speaking of Interlingua means enhancing the skills of the learners first 11. Furthermore, as stated in the cm 2 / 2010, is an account of the Italian language used for regular exchanges of social life-which can be increased through a tissue rich in educational opportunities for trade - an account is the Italian language to be used for study and also within specific disciplinary knowledge. The Italian L2 study requires special techniques and training (and a garrison stronger language in our schools). Back again, the general problem of the "state" of language teaching in our curriculum. A company multilingual as it is now ours, which is reflected in the presence of multilingual classes, requires a larger investment on the training of teachers and the renewal of methods and learning environments. The training organization
There are models for successful cultural integration in the school. Each country has developed its own cultural and organizational strategies on school integration of immigrants, consistent with the choices on the broader immigration policy: multiculturalism, typical of Britain to the French policy of assimilation. For our country has often spoken of an "Italian way integration " 12, indicating the propensity of our inclusive school, kind of basic and comfortable as around schools is possible to develop new forms of dialogue, encounter, confrontation between cultures, capable of involving adults. It would be detrimental to interrupt this process. Despite that, the "Italian way" requires projects, resources, concrete work, as well indicates the document issued in 2007 by the Ministry of Education. The problem is not just imagining circumvent bridge classes, which create a kind of literacy "forced" or decontamination of culture (think of the Italian immigrants are "quarantined" on the docks of Ellis Island, at the beginning of 900).
each school, schools in the network, the territory must be able to offer multiple opportunities and methods, which can range from intensive courses, first and next to the school, strengthening the supply of Italian in currricoli (which makes mentioned in the regulation of the first round, the DPR 89/2009), facilitation in the instruments and subsidies. The cm 2 / 2010 contains a comprehensive overview of these possibilities, if anything, the problem is translated into lines of practical work. For
impossible tenetur nemo (no one is obliged to do the impossible)
After the impact hard that the circular had his first appearance, now the climate seems more peaceful, even for the details that have come from the same Minister, with a more open interpretation of the measure. For example, pupils with special attention to non-Italian born in Italy but, with the view of the level of knowledge of Italian. Realistically, the Circular recognizes that in certain situations it will be impossible to implement the principle of maximum, as in the case of small municipalities, immigrant-intensive, with few schools, or districts of large cities in similar situations, to make " in continuity "(a grade with an average Opposite ...) etc.. In these and other cases, it becomes unlikely to promote radical movements of users, which should ensure, however, costly facilities and service quality education.
But then we return to the starting point and the complex choices that you want to do on
immigration policies on the future of the school and therefore of our society.
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a B. Spinelli, If these men are, in La Stampa, 10 January 2010.
2 ANCI The dossier is to be found on the website of "School News": http://www.notiziedellascuola.it/news/anci-alla-camera-rilanciare-un-piano-nazionale-di-integrazione -even-for-foreign-students-in-schools
3 The nationalities represented are, in order: Romania, Albania, Morocco, China, Ecuador, Tunisia, Philippines.
4 In tests of reading, the average figure of Italian olds is 473 points, that of foreigners to 415. For a detailed analysis, cf. D. Mantovani, foreign students at school in Emilia-Romagna, in Gasperoni G. (ed.), The skills of students in Emilia-Romagna. The results of PISA 2006, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2008.
5 L. Lega, Guidelines on the integration of students with disabilities , in "School News", No. 1, 1-15 September 2009, Tecnodid, Naples.
6 DPR 08.31.1999, n. 394 (Regulations implementing the rules on immigration).
7 D. Church, The unlikely high school reform, in "Journal of Education", n. 5, October-November 2009, Maggs, Rimini.
8 cited in the Presidential Decree 394/1999. it was suggested not to set up classes in which the presence of non-Italian students was predominant (majority?).
9 The case of ADI can be found at: http://www.adiscuola.it/adiw_brevi/?p=2486
10 do much to discuss the Bill No 103-A which introduces amendments to existing law (No. 91, February 5, 1992), because it connects the acquisition of citizenship of foreigners born in Italy continued to reside until they come of age and frequency at a profit to the school of compulsory education and training (in addition a course of history, culture and citizenship and the Constitution).
11 In Emilia-Romagna has been put in place a comprehensive program of teacher training on interlanguage. It speaks G. Cerini on Site Edscuola. See http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/riformeonline/intercultura.htm
12 The text of the document, drafted by the National Integration in 2007, are available at the Ministry of Education: cf. http://www.pubblica.istruzione.it/news/2007/allegati/pubblicazione_intercultura.pdf
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a B. Spinelli, If these men are, in La Stampa, 10 January 2010.
2 ANCI The dossier is to be found on the website of "School News": http://www.notiziedellascuola.it/news/anci-alla-camera-rilanciare-un-piano-nazionale-di-integrazione -even-for-foreign-students-in-schools
3 The nationalities represented are, in order: Romania, Albania, Morocco, China, Ecuador, Tunisia, Philippines.
4 In tests of reading, the average figure of Italian olds is 473 points, that of foreigners to 415. For a detailed analysis, cf. D. Mantovani, foreign students at school in Emilia-Romagna, in Gasperoni G. (ed.), The skills of students in Emilia-Romagna. The results of PISA 2006, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2008.
5 L. Lega, Guidelines on the integration of students with disabilities , in "School News", No. 1, 1-15 September 2009, Tecnodid, Naples.
6 DPR 08.31.1999, n. 394 (Regulations implementing the rules on immigration).
7 D. Church, The unlikely high school reform, in "Journal of Education", n. 5, October-November 2009, Maggs, Rimini.
8 cited in the Presidential Decree 394/1999. it was suggested not to set up classes in which the presence of non-Italian students was predominant (majority?).
9 The case of ADI can be found at: http://www.adiscuola.it/adiw_brevi/?p=2486
10 do much to discuss the Bill No 103-A which introduces amendments to existing law (No. 91, February 5, 1992), because it connects the acquisition of citizenship of foreigners born in Italy continued to reside until they come of age and frequency at a profit to the school of compulsory education and training (in addition a course of history, culture and citizenship and the Constitution).
11 In Emilia-Romagna has been put in place a comprehensive program of teacher training on interlanguage. It speaks G. Cerini on Site Edscuola. See http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/riformeonline/intercultura.htm
12 The text of the document, drafted by the National Integration in 2007, are available at the Ministry of Education: cf. http://www.pubblica.istruzione.it/news/2007/allegati/pubblicazione_intercultura.pdf
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