Conference Program

This proposal explores how Outdoor Education and Service Learning can represent two effective pedagogical responses to educational poverty in school contexts marked by cultural and economic deprivation. Starting from the assumption that educational poverty does not simply coincide with low academic achievement, but also concerns limited access to meaningful learning opportunities, critical thinking, participation, and cultural resources, the paper presents two case studies of schools that have developed practices aimed at promoting the educational success of every student.

The cases analyzed show how the combination of Outdoor Education and Service Learning can foster more inclusive and participatory learning pathways, highlighting the potential of the school as a democratic space capable of broadening students’ horizons, strengthening their agency, and promoting more equitable access to rich and transformative learning experiences.

The first case study concerns the Benci-Borsi Comprehensive Institute in Livorno, which, through the integration of different methodologies and pedagogical approaches (including Outdoor Education, Service Learning, Slow Education, and Philosophy for Children), has overcome the fragmentation of isolated interventions, fostering instead a process of structural transformation of the school toward a caring, community-oriented identity, with a whole-school approach to well-being. In this perspective, the school can be understood as a genuine educational ecosystem, based on three main elements:

1. an extended interprofessional collaboration, with the school constantly engaged in co-design processes with local community partners;
2. the enhancement of cultural diversity within both the school community and the wider local context;
3. intergenerational practices aimed at creating spaces for encounter, exchange, and dialogue among different generations.

The second case study reports the experience of the Piazzale della Gioventù Comprehensive Institute in Santa Marinella, which has introduced a biophilic curriculum within its school. The biophilic curriculum is a vertical, competency-based framework (structured through activities, practices, and progressive objectives) that prioritizes the development of transversal skills, behaviors, and attitudes (such as managed risk, relationships, and community engagement) rather than focusing solely on disciplinary content. It emphasizes civic responsibility and the affective dimension of learning, with biophilia and Service Learning as shared guiding principles, and integrates Outdoor Education not simply as “teaching outside”, but as the construction of authentic experiences that connect body, emotion, cognition, and relationships with living beings. In this case, the educational response to deprivation is based on the idea that students should not be considered passive recipients of simplified knowledge, but active subjects capable of interpreting reality and contributing to its transformation.

Taken together, the two case studies suggest that Outdoor Education and Service Learning are valuable strategies not because they compensate for disadvantage through simplification, but because they enrich educational pathways through participation, experience, and social meaning. The paper argues that, in contexts of deprivation, addressing educational poverty requires schools to expand access to knowledge rather than reduce it, and to create conditions in which all students can develop critical reflection, responsibility, and agency. From this perspective, the two approaches offer relevant insights for rethinking the democratic mission of schooling and for promoting inclusive and equitable forms of educational success.