Conference Program

Contemporary schooling is increasingly shaped by global crises, including health emergencies, social instability, economic inequalities, and humanitarian challenges. These dynamics profoundly affect educational systems, redefining the role of schools not only as spaces that ensure learning continuity but also as environments that foster social cohesion, resilience, and democratic participation. Within this framework, educational emergencies should not be interpreted merely as disruptive events but rather as structural conditions capable of generating transformative pedagogical responses and stimulating creative educational communities. The present study aims to explore the educational meaning and transformative potential of emergency situations in primary education, focusing on teachers’ perceptions, practices, and professional identities. In particular, the research seeks to reinterpret emergency conditions beyond an alarmist perspective, highlighting their potential to stimulate reflective practice, collective responsibility, and pedagogical innovation within school communities. The study adopts an intercultural ethnographic research design and is grounded in qualitative methodology. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 40 primary school teachers working in eight public schools located in two distinct geographical and cultural contexts: Rome (Italy) and Freetown (Sierra Leone). The comparison between these two educational environments allows for a broader understanding of how emergency situations are experienced, interpreted, and addressed by teachers in different socio-cultural settings. Data analysis was conducted through an interpretative phenomenological approach, enabling an in-depth exploration of meanings, emotions, and professional practices related to emergency experiences. The findings reveal that teachers in both contexts tend to perceive emergency not as an exceptional event but as a permanent and structural condition affecting everyday educational practices. Despite contextual differences, educators demonstrate strong adaptive capacities, activating relational, emotional, and creative resources to cope with crisis situations. In both contexts, emergency conditions encourage the development of flexible teaching strategies, stronger community engagement, and a redefinition of teachers’ professional roles. Teachers emerge as key agents of resilience, capable of transforming critical situations into opportunities for educational reflection and innovation. While in the Italian context emergency is often associated with relational, emotional, and institutional challenges, in Sierra Leone it is more strongly linked to material and structural difficulties. Nevertheless, teachers in both contexts mobilize similar pedagogical resources centered on care, responsibility, and collaboration. The study highlights the need to move from an alarmist interpretation of emergencies toward a transformative educational perspective. Strengthening teacher education, promoting intercultural dialogue, and encouraging collective action appear essential for developing resilient school communities capable of turning vulnerability into learning opportunities. In this sense, the research contributes to a broader reflection on the civic and democratic mission of education in times of global uncertainty.