Conference Program

The metropolitan city of Catania holds the national primacy for school dispersion, with an abandonment rate that interests about 25% of the student population (Istat, 2024).Such percentage intertwines with the finding of insufficient levels of alphabetic and numerical competences, which exceed, for the Catanese student population of secondary schools of first grade, 50%. (Istat, 2024) This scenario inserts itself inside of a system that does not guarantee citizens essential levels of performance (LEP) regarding instruction. Marginalized by national policies, the South is characterized by strong educational disparities. The city of Catania presents itself as the urban version of this national scheme: only 5% of children has the possibility to attend a communal nest [nursery], only 9% can make use of full time at elementary schools, the schools are often dilapidated and deprived of suitable structures for curricular activities and the formative institutes are hardly reachable by families that do not dispose of a private vehicle because of the scarcity of public transports. (Istat, 2024)

To explore how democratic education can be enacted despite these territorial constraints, this study analyzes the experiences of two comprehensive institutes that have implemented innovative practices to contrast segregation and educational poverty.

The first institute is located in the neighborhood of Picanello which, influenced by the proximity to the residential zone of the seafront and by areas of elevated economic prestige, features a strong contrast.
In this area, the comprehensive institute “Agatino Malerba” has attempted to propose to all its users an accessible and competitive school, seeking to transform a “ghetto” institute, not attended by children of the “well-to-do” Catania, into an attractive one. The projects undertaken are numerous and have from the very start had the objective to involve and change the entire neighborhood, modifying its spaces and rendering it a possible center of aggregation. Furthermore, thanks to the rich, inclusive and free formative offer, the school has become attractive also for those who before refused to attend it, permitting to reduce the levels of school segregation.

The second institute is situated in the municipality of Adrano, which is part of the belt of Etnean towns, which, characterized by a heterogeneous socio-economic distribution, are part of the metropolitan area of Catania. The institute “Vincenzo Bascetta” of Adrano has sought in these years the goal to repopulate the empty desks that characterised its classes: to the names present in the list of the enrolled did not correspond, in fact, faces. The principal and the teachers have therefore tried, through a series of projects and laboratories, to attract the pupils providing them, other than a place of learning, a new space of listening and socialization.

Both case studies demonstrate that education in marginalized areas requires more than just standard instruction, it demands a structural reorganization of the school’s relationship with its territory. They seem to be of great interest since they aim to contrast the strong educational inequalities that afflict the Catanese metropolitan area