Conference Program

The link between schools and their local territory, strengthened by school autonomy (DPR 275/99), transforms the school institution into a central node within the community, integrating educational activities with local resources, associations, and institutions. This strategic alliance promotes territorial educational agreements, pathways for transversal skills and career guidance (PCTO), and interventions in at-risk areas, with the school acting as a cultural and legal safeguard. Within this framework, the school institution is no longer an isolated entity but rather a center for the dissemination of civic values, capable of co-designing effective educational responses to social fragmentation, promoting active citizenship rooted in local realities while opening up to global perspectives.

This contribution aims to present an educational project based on the interaction between the school system and the world of civic associations, as an example of good practice. The intervention was carried out over the course of two academic years at the Istituto Comprensivo Puddu in Prato and developed within the framework of the Scuole in Marcia project (www.scuoleinmarcia.it), a platform of educational activities linked to the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence (https://theworldmarch.org/it/), aimed at promoting knowledge, dissemination, and the practical application of such values.

The activities put forward by Scuole in Marcia are characterized by a flexible model that, in this specific case, proved particularly suitable for fostering:

1. students’ protagonism. In this perspective, learners are not minds to be filled with notions, but become agents of change;
2. the co-design of activities by teachers, ensuring their continuity over time;
3. opportunities for students to engage in meaningful experiences “which they will live through fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences” (Dewey, 2014, p. 14).

Students’ sense of agency in addressing the complexity of situations that may arise in a constantly changing world was stimulated through an educational approach centered on nurturing futuring—the capacity to imagine the future in a critical and reflective way (Hoffman et al., 2021).

While the presence of an external voice —in this case non-profit volunteers—can be stimulating because of its novelty, as well as the content and methodologies employed, it is essential, for greater effectiveness, that such interventions activate teachers in continuing the activities and provide students with spaces not only for understanding but also for concrete action. The relationship established through this pedagogical partnership becomes an alliance among teachers, experts, and students.

Since nonviolence, from the perspective of Universalist Humanism as advanced by Mario Rodríguez Cobos, can only be understood through a dual framework—both social and personal (Silo, 1991)—another central aspect of the Scuole in Marcia project consisted in dedicating substantial space within workshop-based learning to recognizing the origins and dynamics of subtle forms of violence in interpersonal relationships, within the classroom group, and in the broader school environment, with the aim of overcoming them.

This need is widely perceived and strongly felt by teachers in contemporary schools. In this regard as well, positive outcomes could be observed in the creation of spaces that fostered reflection, expression, listening, and mutual respect.