Conference Program

The conceptualisation of schools as community hubs calls for a redefinition of schooling as a civic and spatial infrastructure embedded within broader social, cultural, and urban ecologies. In this perspective, democracy is not limited to governance structures but unfolds through the design of learning environments that ensure equitable participation and epistemic justice. This view resonates with Dewey’s conception of democracy as a mode of associated living, enacted through educative environments (Dewey, 1916). Issues of spatial justice—understood as the fair distribution of educational opportunities, voice, and symbolic recognition across interconnected learning spaces—become central to rethinking both school organisation and teacher preparation.

This contribution interprets Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a democratic infrastructure capable of supporting such ecosystemic transformation, focusing on initial teacher education as a generative site of change. Drawing on ecological learning theories and Whole School Approaches, UDL is framed not as a compensatory toolkit for inclusion but as a systemic design paradigm that restructures environments, interactions, and assessment practices to enable plural forms of participation.

The study presents an empirical case from a 60-CFU initial teacher education programme in Italy, developed within the national inclusive education framework (Legislative Decree 66/2017, amended by 96/2019), which emphasises shared responsibility, accessibility, and co-planning among educational actors. The programme was intentionally designed as a micro-ecosystem connecting university coursework, partner schools, and local professional communities.

Teacher candidates engaged in multilayered instructional design tasks, co-design laboratories, and reflective mentorship processes aimed at fostering collaborative agency and ecosystemic thinking. The programme was grounded in principles of pedagogical congruence, ensuring alignment between the methodologies presented and those enacted within the training environment, so that future teachers could experience inclusive and participatory design not only as content but as lived professional practice. Data sources included reflective portfolios, instructional artefacts, peer-feedback exchanges, and structured observation notes collected during laboratory activities. Qualitative analysis focused on three interconnected dimensions: the shift from transmissive lesson planning to ecosystemic design; the emergence of shared professional agency within learning communities; the redefinition of assessment as dialogic feedback supporting collective growth.

Findings indicate that when UDL operates at the structural level of teacher education, it functions as a democratic enabler: it redistributes epistemic authority, legitimises diverse modes of engagement, and supports future teachers in conceptualising classrooms as relational hubs embedded within civic territories. In doing so, teacher education becomes a prototype of spatially aware and socially responsive practice, where learning design actively addresses inequalities not only at the individual level but across interconnected educational spaces.

Generative AI tools were introduced as background amplifiers of access and differentiation; however, technological mediation remained subordinated to ethical, relational, and spatially conscious design principles.

By repositioning initial teacher education as a laboratory of democratic ecosystemic practice, this study foregrounds teacher preparation as a strategic lever for advancing equity, participation, and spatial justice within contemporary learning ecosystems.