Conference Program

It becomes necessary to refocus attention on frequently overlooked perspectives within contemporary educational contexts, overshadowed by the increasing bureaucratisation of the school system. Bertrand Russell, addressing language perspectives and defending his social positions, proposed ways of critical intervention in the educational context. The entire work of the humanist and scientist Bertrand Russell was inspired by a magisterial vocation aimed at generating a new way of thinking and living. Whether it was his research in mathematical logic, philosophy, or scientific popularisation, his constant concern for the education of the being from a wisdom capable of assuming and facing the challenges that each era imposes on the individual can be seen in them. This learning begins in childhood, to which he attributed a decisive influence on the future destiny of the personality. After the First World War disaster, Russell saw education as the only force capable of reshaping and reforming Western society from the ground up. But to initiate such a reform, to raise 'different men', it was crucial to radically rethink the roles, functions and behaviour of the educational agencies on which the education of modern men is based: the state, parents and teachers. In this proposal, we retrace the excursus illustrated by the Welsh author on what education should be and its orientation towards peace. From thought to language, from words to environments, thus the analytical philosopher's path intersects with life experiences and social achievements. Therefore, starting from the paradox, a proposal for a pedagogical questioning of the same place of education is arrived at.

The school inclusion of all students, but in particular of pupils with disabilities, is presented today as a still evolving process. The main field of investigation of special pedagogy, refers to the analysis, also historical, of the existential trajectories of people with disabilities and the existing interconnections with the organization of the polis, cultures and practices both related to national contexts and in relation to the international dimension (Malaguti, 2020).Special pedagogy deals with inclusive practices at school and in society, then with the educational reception and organization of places of life to ensure the accessibility of all to social experience and education (Goussot, 2015). Inclusive Teaching was born from this perspective as a possible response to the new challenges that the school is facing today in terms of complexity, inclusion, new ways of learning, and new teaching styles involving both pupils and teachers; it lies in understanding, valuing and celebrating individual differences (Ianes, Canevaro, 2020). The school represents a privileged place of growth not only personal but also social, and wanting to promote the prospect of inclusion, invites a rethink of its own structure and organization. In this new perspective of educational inclusion, where diversity is seen as the uniqueness and originality of each subject, one of the international orientations that emphasizes individual variability is the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach (CAST, 2006; 2011;2018). This paper describes the results of a research-action course aimed at 198 children and 32 primary school teachers, in two school contexts in the city of Reggio Emilia and Bologna. According to a mixed methods, the research aims to design an inclusive curriculum according to the perspective of Universal Design for Learning and to investigate the effectiveness of the application of this educational approach.Through the application of this framework we will investigate four dimensions (retrivied from national and international review) in relation to student's perception: the increasing of well-being, participation, motivation and learning levels. A particular focus will be on the inclusion of pupils with disabilities in the classes participating in the research. It will be presented the results of the exploratory phase concerning the Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; 2022) of the focus groups with teachers; the results of the survey of the pupils' opinion; the implementation phase of the action concerning the design of UDL learning units and of the inclusive curriculum and the final post-intervention results.The following research, in the Italian context, is characterized as experimentation of educational interventions based on the application of UDL in the school curriculum and the expected results will concern students, about the effectiveness of this educational and educational model. Faced with the challenge of inclusive education, as the key to a quality education, the need arises to adopt and experiment with new approaches, such as this, that will act as an inspiration for the teaching process-learning, but also provide resources to put it into practice (Malaguti, Augenti, Alba Pastor, 2023).

In countries with inclusive-oriented school systems like the Italian one, Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) have been understood as one of the key-elements that grant everybody’s participation to a shared curriculum and the provision of additional support for students identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN) within general education settings (Alves, 2018; Mitchell et al., 2010). However, their conceptualisation and implementation still bear a large range of challenges or criticisms (Auer et al., 2023). In its attempt to ensure students with SEN’s participation in the general curriculum and in class learning activities, the IEP risks indeed to exert a “normalising” thrust by proposing a certain “ideal” learner. On the other hand, when it is used to respond to their specific needs by tracing personalised paths, it risks originating processes of delegation and isolation (Andreasson et al., 2013; Norwich, 2013). Such dilemmatic character of the IEP raises questions on its meaning for an inclusive school: is it a tool that contributes to the achievement of common objectives of the curriculum and allows everyone to develop their peculiarities or is it a tool that emphasises exclusionary mechanisms, instead? From this perspective, the relationship between class planning, that is expected to be for all in an inclusive school, and IEPs, expected to look at the specific peculiarities of some learners, is particularly interesting. In Italy, the IEP was established as an instrument of school integration policies to protect pupils with disabilities’ right and grant accessibility of the curriculum (Law 104/1992).

On this background, a multiple case study was conducted in 17 Italian primary school classes in the Provinces of Bolzano-Bozen, Torino and Rome with at least one student with an IEP, exploring the following research question: How is the relationship between the IEP and the class planning dealt with? To understand if and how class and individualised planning are connected, for each case, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with (1) a subject teacher, (2) the support teacher, and (3) one parent of the child with the IEP. Data analysis was conducted using Qualitative Content Analysis (Schreier, 2013). Further, to triangulate data, IEPs were analysed by means of document analysis (Bowen, 2009). The main findings show that a synthesis between IEPs and class planning seems to be subject to a "normalising" risk, where in most cases the class curriculum guides the definition of objectives in the IEP and only rarely specific objectives formalised in the IEP influence class planning. However, in these latter cases, the consideration of the IEP in the class planning turns out to be an opportunity for all: on one hand, the IEP is the bearer of methodologies and tools necessary for the students with disabilities, useful for all; on the other hand, it stimulates differentiation for all pupils. In conclusion, the research findings have several implications to reflect and create more plural and equitable learning environments for all in the educational process, identifying pedagogical strategies that can enhance participation and achievement for all by addressing everyone’s personal differences and individual characteristics.

Individualization is a strategy that aims to enable each pupil to learn and train under the best possible conditions. It enables optimum learning and training because it pays attention to the individual and social differences that each pupil manifests by attempting to overcome them. Indeed, each student comes to school with individual differences that may consist, for example, in the possession of different forms of cognitive 'skills' or different motivational attitudes towards the learning task.

It is almost paradoxical that in today's advanced and technological society, social differences are a major educational issue, perhaps even more so than in the past. These differences, whether they take the form of different family environments or different socio-cultural backgrounds, often fuel the difficulties that the student has to face to fit successfully into the educational system.

Allowing each pupil to benefit from the best possible conditions for learning, that is, organizing educational action taking into account the needs and peculiarities of the subject to be educated, meets a strong pedagogical need that cannot be renounced for a school that wishes to be inclusive. It is in the specificity of teaching practice that individualization makes its value appreciated insofar as, by defining itself as the strategy that adapts teaching to the characteristics of the pupil, through concrete and feasible ways of organizing the training proposal, it enables students to achieve mastery of the skills and competences essential to their school career. Thus individualization, in its concrete implementation, is embodied in the adaptation of the teaching proposal to the characteristics of the pupil.

The project hypothesis intends to make use of the more formalized model of individualized strategies, theorized by Bloom, known as Mastery learning.

The fundamental assumption of Mastery holds that the vast majority of learners can achieve full mastery of basic objectives in the presence of adequate teaching quality. This is possible irrespective of a learner's 'aptitude' for a certain subject, as this aptitude can only predict the time required to reach a certain level of learning. This model will be integrated and revisited in the light of studies relating to the psycho-pedagogical and motivational sphere to

ensure that pupils achieve the basic and essential objectives, presenting operational solutions that adapt teaching to the individual characteristics of the students.

The topic of educational strategies associated with the personalisation of learning needs to be addressed from a psycho-pedagogical and social perspective. These strategies are intended as learning tools and methods that:

1) foster an inclusive context (Patrick et. al, 2013) in upper secondary schools;

2) potentially limit school drop-out and exclusion of the most vulnerable students, in terms of intellectual abilities and social and economic instability.

Schools must guarantee the possibility of personal fulfilment for all students, through a systemic approach aimed at personalising learning, especially in regard to disabilities.

From the Academic year 2018/2019, the Agenzia Formativa of the province of Varese, has developed at its branch in Luino two professional courses for disabled students (PPD) aimed at nurturing individuals capable of contributing to society as active citizens, through the personalisation of learning that values everyone’s individualities and the engagement in social networking with other local institutions; integration occurs gradually, with the constant support of the school.

Students enrolled in personalised paths present different degrees of cognitive disabilities, mild to moderate. The majority of them come from problematic socio-cultural contexts and therefore have a greater need for inclusive spaces, which can offer equal opportunities, taking into account everyone's inclinations, difficulties, and strengths (Wehman et al., 2018). The school offers spaces and learning paths based on the principle of equality of rights, which guarantee personalisation as an enhancement of the uniqueness of each individual. The purpose of curriculum for disabled students is not meant to segregate and emphasise the differences, but to welcome fragile individuals in a safe and protected environment, allowing them to open up to the world as human beings progressively inserted in society (Beyer et al., 2010): being aware of their limits and rights, they can then play an active role in the social, economic, and political context of the Country (Honey et al., 2014) and fulfil personal achievement (Dewey, 2012).

The contribution aims to present and examine the experience and the pedagogical-educational approaches and experiential learning processes implemented at the upper secondary school in Luino, as an example of a vocational training path but primarily educational. The experience is outlined through qualitative research and the investigation of teaching strategies, tools, and methods with didactic, but above all, psycho-pedagogical purposes.

Particular focus is placed on internship experiences, which are initially carried out in a protected manner within the Agenzia Formativa, with activities aimed at the public, and only at a later stage students are assigned to a training placement: the aim is to encourage working experiences in autonomy and to develop cross-cutting competencies such as respect for rules, assigned tasks, and roles, empowerment, and improvement of relational and communication skills; such skill set has notable long-term potential for independence and employability (Southward and Kyzar, 2017).

Furthermore, the study acknowledges the importance of developing study paths that can promote the aforementioned competencies, corroborating the topic of school inclusion and students with disability can be conceived as an active part and not as recipients of the service.