Adolescence represents a critical phase for young people who have experienced adoption, particularly for those who have spent part of their childhood outside their birth families. Between the ages of 11 and 17, the intersection of complex biographical trajectories, the search for belonging, and the demands of school systems often generates multidimensional forms of educational poverty—cognitive, relational, and institutional. Building on pedagogical studies concerning adopted children in school, special needs in adoption, and recent contributions that advocate for authentic human educational diagnoses (Muschitiello, 2025), this paper proposes an innovative framework conceptualising adopted adolescents as subjects positioned at the crossroads of vulnerability and democratic potential.
Moving past risk-centred interpretations that associate adoption with permanent risk, the paper introduces the concept of democratic identity literacy. This construct refers to adolescents’ capacity to interpret and narrate their life story, including ruptures and transitions across families and institutions; negotiate meanings of belonging and difference within school and peer communities; exercise voice, participation, and agency in educational settings; and transform experiences of discontinuity into resources for solidarity, critical thought, and commitment to others. Democratic identity literacy thus emerges as a protective factor against educational poverty for young people growing up outside their birth families, aligning with research on protective trajectories in out-of-home care (Ferritti & Guerrieri, 2020).
The theoretical framework draws on Vygotskian concepts of creative compensation and defectology, which emphasise the role of symbolic and imaginative processes in overcoming developmental disharmonies (Vygotskij, 1945). It also integrates contemporary approaches to educational distress and human inclusion. From this perspective, adoption is understood as a lifelong process in which early adverse experiences—such as neglect, institutionalisation, multiple placements, or separations—can be re-signified through new networks of care and recognition. As highlighted by Lorenzini (2004), experiences of estrangement and familiarity shape the identity work of adopted young people, particularly in adolescence, when questions of origin, continuity, and legitimacy become central.
Empirically, the paper draws on an exploratory qualitative study involving adopted adolescents aged 11–17, adoptive parents, and teachers in Italian lower and upper secondary schools. Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, the research examines how adolescents narrate their educational trajectories, how they perceive expectations and evaluations within school contexts, and which relationships and practices they identify as supportive or exclusionary. Particular attention is devoted to everyday educational micro-practices—classroom discussions, group work, narrative activities, and informal interactions—that may either reinforce educational poverty (through stigma or stereotyping) or function as protective factors (through recognition, trust, and shared responsibility).
Preliminary findings suggest that democratic identity literacy is fostered when schools acknowledge adoption and out-of-home care experiences as legitimate, non-pathologised biographies; involve adolescents in co-constructing rules, curricula, and projects; create spaces for narrative and imaginative work enabling the integration of past and present; and build alliances with families and services grounded in mutual respect and pedagogical care. The paper concludes that focusing on adopted adolescents living outside their birth families can support educational systems in reframing educational poverty, shifting from diagnostic categorisation to the intentional promotion of protective and intrinsically democratic factors.
