As leaders and educators, we should be committed to societal practices and improvements that are created to support inclusion through equity and diversity. Educational institutions often create goals that are appropriate to current political control or that support the trendy and latest terms promoted by supervisory offices. Many times this support is to substantiate grants and positive attention, in that if one claims to be inclusive in their leadership and pedagogies, that claim should open channels, attention, and funding. However, it is important to understand that those in power often reach out for the latest educational buzzword and practice but not authentic commitment. While a cynical view of leadership and new paradigms in education, it is important to engage with inclusion with sincerity and clarity. Integrating social theory and Gramsci within this engagement demands that we are clear in our intent and goals to create a more equitable and socially just environment for ourselves and our students. Included in this clarity is a declarative statement of our understanding of how we stand and understand inclusion, and by this understanding, also understand exclusion. Often leadership errs in lacking narrative research and observational, personal understanding of our engagement or non-engagement with inclusion. While it is simple to espouse a commitment to inclusion, we often create exclusion by categorization and lack of personal evidence by those we hope to be inclusive. Creating a safe and inclusive pedagogy and environment demands we understand the difference between declaring inclusion and being inclusive. To authentically teach and create inclusion should not be declared as a hegemonic fete accompli, but an effort that includes an input for those who need inclusion, an analysis of how power continues to replicate exclusion while claiming inclusion, and the personal commitment of each leader and educator in creating a safe, authentic inclusive environment, creating consent with those who deserve inclusion.

International organizations have long pursued the idea that schools should become an example of democratic and inclusive decision-making processes (Council of Europe, 2018a). To achieve this goal, the Whole School Approach (WSA) was proposed (UNESCO, n.d.). The WSA is a multidimensional model of school governance and management that aims at promoting education through inclusive and democratic participation by the school community to school life. This approach ensures that all aspects of school life (curricula, classroom activities, leadership and decision-making structures and processes, staff and staff-student relationships, extracurricular activities and link with the community etc.) reflect democratic principles. It promotes leadership and active participation of staff and students, involves transversal competences such as collaboration, critical and analytical thinking, communication, conflict resolution skills, and allows to experience democracy and democratic processes at school level. Experiencing school life in such a learning and working environment might positively influence among others the sense of belonging to the community, school connectedness, individual and social well being, and student achievement (Council of Europe, 2018b).

To promote active participation, well-being, inclusion, and democratic citizenship in educational contexts, the Ensemble project aims at identifying a methodology, supported by a digital tool, consisting of two components: i) LiveSmart-Campus, a proximity-based application (Papandrea et al., 2021), firstly released in 2021 at SUPSI and further developed with the aim of involving the university community in the campus life, and ii) Decidim, an open-source participatory democracy infrastructure (Decidim, n.d.), already used in many universities, companies and municipalities all over the world. The combination of the two will allow to increase the active community participation and contribution to the development of the campus and the adoption of a more inclusive and democratic approach in an academic context.

Besides presenting the Ensemble project as a whole, the contribution aims at presenting a participatory use-case tested in a tertiary education school for future teachers. The use-case, tested within a teaching module of a Bachelor's degree course (approximately 120 students), will be carried out between February and May 2024. It involves several phases and is used to test some of the platform's functionalities. The objective of the use-case is to foster a participative process for the creation and launch of thematic working groups for the final certification of the module, which consists in the elaboration and presentation of groups’ research project.

Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected regarding the use of Ensemble for the above-mentioned purposes and regarding Ensemble's potential to promote participation and collaboration within groups. The expected results should witness an improvement in student’s perception of learning quality as a result of the facilitated peer collaboration, and an increased transparency of the whole decision process.

The use case will also launch the platform, which is currently under experimentation, within the institution, giving not only students, but also lecturers and managers to launch initiatives and surveys on topics of interest to the community.

In recent years, various international studies (Berger et al. 2011; Borgonovi & Pál, 2016; Govorova et al., 2020; Mazzoni & Cicognani, 2009) have emphasized the importance of well-being, participation, and active citizenship in the pedagogical and educational discourse addressed to school. These studies have highlighted that these concepts are not only closely related to each other, but also significantly impact learning and academic proficiency. This shift in perspective is evidenced by the latest OECD-PISA tests (Borgonovi & Pál, 2016), which for the first time integrated the assessment of learning with the detection of the perception of well-being and the quality of the social climate at schools, believed to be central variables in influencing the motivation to learn and, consequently, also school performance. The circular relationship between participation, agency, well-being in school, and learning, which places school experience in a broader, more holistic, and multidimensional framework, has been recognized also by students involved in participatory research experiences (Pastori, 2022; Pastori, Pagani, 2021; Pastori Pagani, Sarcinelli, 2020). This contribution presents preliminary data obtained from a questionnaire completed by 1118 upper secondary school students from three schools in Milan participating in the project “La scuola siamo noi!” (i.e. We are the school).The data collected highlights critical issues noted by the young participants in their school experience. These issues include the limited space allowed for student involvement and active participation in school life and decision making, as well as the prevalence of a transmissive idea of education, which is focused solely on imparting notions and completing curricula, rather than promoting critical thinking and the active role of learners. The discussion will focus on possible strategies to support teachers in reinterpreting their role through the perspective of students and towards the transformation of the school into a community of research and democratic participation, thereby providing a more engaging and fulfilling learning experience for students, which in turn can lead to better academic outcomes and overall well-being.

In the actual context of persistent educational inequality challenges in Italy, this contribution explores the transformative potential inherent in enhancing student participation within school governance and practices. The objective is to ameliorate students' well-being and consequently address inequalities.

Numerous references underscore the significance of student engagement and leadership in co-design processes and decisions that impact them. Notably, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent was the pioneer in enshrining the right of underage individuals to be heard and to have their voices considered in matters concerning them. This commitment has recently been stressed by the European Child Guarantee[1]. This recognition extends to Italy, where schools are constitutionally mandated to play a pivotal role in fostering active and proactive participative citizenship. Furthermore, the Civic Education Teaching Act of 2019 recommends that educational institutions revise their curricula to enable them to act as responsible citizens and participate fully and consciously in the civic, cultural and social life of the community.

However, field evidence[1] and student testimonies highlight limited opportunities for leadership and agency, particularly in schools situated in more vulnerable contexts or serving students from low socio-economic backgrounds[2]. Analyses from notable sources (Liche 2010[3]; Unicef 2017[4]) indicate that approximately 20 percent of the responsibility for varying levels of engagement at school and school drop-out can be attributed to the characteristics of the school attended, including the possibility for students to participate in its decision-making processes. The potential transformative link between active participation and countering educational inequalities remains quite underexplored. This involves understanding how empowerment processes can influence policy or practice, thereby contributing to the mitigation of existing inequalities.

The contribution will present evidence and data collected over the past three years with the support of the student’s movement Unione degli Studenti, focusing on secondary school participation initiatives and student’s perspective on school participation. Subsequently, insights from in-depth reflections on the revitalization of participation tools and spaces in schools will be proposed. Finally, the exploration will extend to integrated processes involving high degrees of participatory scaling (Lundy[1]; Hart[2]) and transversal participatory approaches and methodologies (Project Ripartire, OP-ED, Educaction). These endeavors aim to foster empowerment processes and counteract inequalities[3].

What is the purpose of education?
The answer to this question can go in very different directions, and mostly depends on the context an educational effort is engrained into and the goals it pursues, explicitly and implicitly. Defining a context and the sets of goals pursued there is also not an easy task. For sure the context – whatever metaphysics characterises it – influences education greatly. The opposite is also true, just less seen: education influences the context, mostly in the effort – in some cases consciously, in some probably not – of reproducing or consolidating it. Authors like John Dewey, those of the so-called “Frankfurter Schule” and Martha Nussbaum centred many of their reflections on understanding and describing these peculiar dynamics.
My contribution to this panel aims to illustrate a practice developed on one assumption:
Democracies are not a given, and their constitutions are perishable products of history if the promises of equality of opportunities for every citizen and therefore of freedom – both positive and negative –made at their origins are not taken seriously.
There are many factors that play a significant role in whether the foundational promise of equality, freedom and justice are kept or not, and to what degree. Education is one of these factors, and it can and should do more to make democracies and their promises attainable and sustainable.
The practice I’ll be presenting was designed and implemented to help the classrooms where Teach For Italy fellows teach in being places that foster student leadership, well-being and inclusion, while centering on "Student Voice" as one of the elements that constitute a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system.
A Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system that has the peculiarity of being an instrument for collecting data (quantitative and qualitative evidence) generated by students, as well as their parents and teachers, which serves the principle of a collective hermeneutic circle. All involved stakeholders are actively participating not just in the process of generating data, but also – and equally essentially – in interpreting them, making sense of them for the purpose of enhancing dialogue, sense of belonging, reflection, wellbeing – advanced citizenry capabilities.