Conference Program

Within the framework of implementating the integrated 0–6 system (Legislative Decree 65/2017), this research addresses the problem of constructing and experimenting with an operational model for assessing quality in family childcare services and innovative early childhood education services. The study is situated within a pedagogical domain that remains poorly systematized from theoretical and evaluative standpoints, due to the absence of unified national regulations and the heterogeneity of regional normative frameworks (Oldini, 2004; Fortunati, 2006). Considering this context, the study adopts the paradigm of evaluation as a formative, participatory, and contextualized practice. Quality is conceptualized as a processual configuration empirically observable in the ways spaces, temporal organization, educational practices, and interactions are constructed by stakeholders within educational contexts (Restiglian, 2020). This approach integrates perspectives from educational evaluation and customer satisfaction (Capparucci, 2011), conceiving quality as a continuous monitoring process aimed at improvement. Moreover, it is oriented according to the structuring principles of Early Childhood Education and Care (EC, 2018; 2021), such as: educational continuity 0–6, centrality of the educational relationship, children's agency, and co-responsibility with families. This study aims to develop and validate an operational model for quality assessment in family childcare services, and identify scientifically grounded indicators and procedures for analyzing their educational, organizational, and inclusive dimensions. The methodological framework is based on a mixed-methods design, articulated in a preliminary exploratory phase followed by an idiographic phase based on integrated single-case studies (Yin, 2005). The reference population includes home-based educational services affiliated with the APS Network "Scarabocchiando a casa di…," which is the research funder, encompassing over 200 non-profit services distributed across 14 Italian regions. The exploratory phase – already completed – involved the administration of questionnaires to 195 operators and 1,810 families. The questionnaire results highlight quality dimensions specific to family childcare services, including educational personalization, relational continuity, trust-building, and management of special educational needs. In agreement with the Network coordinators, the idiographic phase focuses on 6 services distributed across 3 regions (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio), selected for their theoretical relevance and capacity to support, extend, or refute a reference theory (Yin, 2005). During the ongoing phase, data collection involves systematic observations through specifically designed structured instruments: focused interviews and documentary analysis. Expected outcomes include: the theoretical-methodological systematization developed regarding the specificity of family childcare services; the theorization of quality assessment in home-based educational services through the integration of perceived quality data from operators and families, systematic observation of empirical evidence; and the reconstruction of processual complexity.

Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings, services and systems is key for preparing adequate learning environments where children may be involved in meaningful activities supporting their holistic growth (EU Commission, 2014; 2022; 2023; Heckman, 2008; OECD, 2015). However, the identification and definition of quality features vary remarkably among scholars from different epistemological stances (Anders, 2015; Eadie et al, 2024; McLean et al, 2022; Melhuish et al, 2015; Pascal & Bertram, 1999; Pianta et al, 2009). In addition, society at large may coalesce distinctive aspects of the quality concept, according to the unique point of observation of its stakeholders: policy makers, child advocates, school leaders, parents or inspectors.

Being quality a concept indebted to new public management’s theories (Gunter, Grimaldi, Hall & Serpieri, 2016), some even reject it altogether, in favour of a more concrete “good work” (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence,1999). Notwithstanding, quality matters in ECEC (Melhuish, 2011) for children’s lives, therefore it merits careful consideration.

The scientific literature identified quality factors, yet very few ECEC systems evaluate their settings’ quality on a national basis, through internal or external evaluations or a mix of both (Eurydice, 2025; Stringher et al, submitted).

Policy decisions and curricular choices impact the organisation of quality evaluation systems: within accountability systems, incentives and sanctions are deployed to sustain service quality, while service/setting quality appraisal might yield continuous improvement, and system quality evaluation serves a more general governing purpose (EU Commission, 2018; OECD, 2013).

With this theoretical contribution, I provide a conceptual map on ECEC quality definitions and concentrate on the operationalization of preschool quality within the Italian national system for educational evaluation. The methodological choices behind preschool evaluation and the pathway to its scaling up to national level are described, based upon a complex research design involving: the draft of a preschool self-evaluation format (P-SEF); a public consultation on this draft (INVALSI, 2016); an experimentation (Freddano & Stringher, 2021); an ex-ante evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses prior to its national diffusion (Freddano & Stringher, 2026).

In synthesis, this major research-administrative endeavour enables the operationalization of preschool quality in Italy, serving a dual purpose: improvement of individual preschools and of the preschool sector overall. The application of the preschool evaluation format opens new avenues, and three aspects need to be further explored in the future: tools for the observation of child learning, development and wellbeing; preschool external evaluation, complementing the internal exercise; a model for childcare settings self-evaluation. These three lines of research are guided by an overarching principle, that is the best interest of the child.

In sum, national preschool quality evaluation is a first-of-its-kind in the international panorama and a powerful tool to improve the quality of the entire ECEC system, an infrastructure that positions Italy at the forefront of quality for children. Our hope is that improvement stays current for all adults working for children’s development, learning and wellbeing.

Drawing on the theoretical framework of critical pedagogy (Granese, 1993; Fadda, 2009; Cambi, Cives, Fornaca, 1999), the aim of this paper is to develop a deep understanding of citizenship education, starting from its radical meaning and articulating the interconnections between the individual dimensions and the broader social and systemic dynamics, in search of collaborative and participatory solutions. Critical pedagogy is essential to analyse education as a pathway capable of orienting itself towards emancipatory and radical forms of access to knowledge, thus foregrounding values (Colicchi, 2021) and developing the transformative potential role of both knowledge and learning (Fadda, 2002; Mortari, 2007). The reflection also considers relevant theoretical contributions, current pedagogical and didactic proposals in peace and citizenship education (Baldacci, 2020; Mortari, 2008; Santerini, 2010; Nanni, Gross, 2024). Reflecting on the remarkable changes, asymmetries and outbreaks of war that are leaving profound marks on society, it is necessary to reflect on peace, on citizen’s rights and on the coexisting responsibilities for the individual and for the democratic institutions. Peace and citizenship education lead to learn that each one is part of society and is interconnected with others as human being, thus each one has a role in shaping the community (Nuzzaci, Rizzi, 2020; Mulè, 2010). Both, peace and citizenship education make people aware of their right to participate in political and social decisions and guide them to be leaders in decisions making (Santerini, 2017; Secci, 2012).

The paper finally analyses an innovative project concerning citizenship education. The project took place at a Higher Education Institute in the area of Cagliari and it aimed to encourage the training of informed citizens and promote the development of transversal skills between young students. Starting from the analysis of risk factors that cause anti‑democratic involutions and from a critical reflection on social phenomena, action in schools’ democratic life and participation in community were enhanced. The cooperative learning methodology of learning together (Johnson and Johnson, 1988, 1999, 2018) was considered as the best approach to improve peace and citizenship education between students.

Defining quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is an inherently complex task, since educational practices are deeply embedded in cultural contexts and everyday family interactions. Anthropological and sociocultural research has shown that practices considered good for children in one context often reflect specific cultural values rather than universal developmental standards (Tobin, 2007; Adair & Doucet, 2014). Comparative European research on early childhood settings similarly indicates that educational practices remain strongly influenced by cultural contexts (Slot et al., 2016). One way to address this tension is to focus less on prescribing ideal practices and more on understanding relational processes that support children’s experiences within their everyday life environments, thereby encouraging a more harmonious interplay between formal educational settings and children’s everyday family interactions.

This study presents the results of a quasi-experimental analysis conducted within the broader evaluation of a local project in Tuscany (Italy) aimed at preventing educational poverty. The project included several services for families with children aged 0–6, among which experimental play sessions for parents and children organized in a nursery school and in local ludoteche (toy libraries / lekotek: Björck-Åkesson & Brodin, 1992). These sessions encouraged parents to engage in playful interaction with their children using simple natural materials and everyday environments.

The evaluation adopted a post-test only design with nonequivalent groups (Shadish, Cook & Campbell, 2002). A key methodological challenge was constructing an outcome measure aligned with the intervention’s goal: strengthening parents’ competence in facilitating play. A survey instrument was therefore developed combining attitudinal and behavioral measures.

Parents were presented with pictures depicting children engaged in ambiguous play situations involving natural environments and ordinary materials. For each image, respondents evaluated the appropriateness of alternative parental reactions ranging from restrictive behaviors to facilitating and cooperative interactions. The resulting scale captured two attitudinal orientations: play-inhibiting control and play-facilitating cooperation. The survey also collected information on children’s everyday activities alone and with their parents.

Despite limitations in internal validity—notably the absence of baseline data and voluntary participation—relevant patterns emerge. Parents who attended the play sessions showed higher levels of play-facilitating attitudes than parents who used other project services but did not attend the sessions. No differences emerged in play-inhibiting attitudes. Moreover, treated parents did not display higher levels of tolerance for ambiguity (Arquero & McLain, 2010; McLain, 2009), suggesting that the intervention may strengthen dispositions to engage in play without necessarily modifying deeper personality traits.

Beyond the causal interpretation of the treatment effect, the analysis clarifies the broader meaning of parental attitudes toward play. Higher levels of play facilitation are associated with children’s engagement in everyday activities such as outdoor, creative and pretend play (Bruner, Jolly & Sylva, 1976; Lillard, 2015).

Even with an imperfect design, the study shows that investigating parents’ mental representations that inform perceptions and behaviors (Pylyshin, 1972) can generate evidence on how everyday family interactions facilitate or constrain children’s playful experiences.

Wellbeing is central to international policies since the Stiglitz, Sen, Fitoussi commission (2009), whose work stays current. Belotti and Moretti (2011) identified 12 domains of children’s wellbeing in 6 international studies, with educational wellbeing cutting-across them. Internationally, wellbeing is thematized in OECD’s IELS Study, “Measuring what counts” and “How’s life” series, it is part of the UN SDGs and is included in the European Commission’s 2030 strategy. Simply put, wellbeing is a precondition to learning and (pre)schools (as secondary socialization agents) are a major context for student wellbeing and agency (Corsaro, Fingerson, 2006). A pioneer in this field is Montessori (1999; 2000) that considered children as active agents of their growth and wellbeing in the prepared environment.

After COVID-19, wellbeing is crucial considering increased episodes of disruptive student behaviour, technological overload, absenteeism and dropout (OECD, 2024; Lee, Zarnic, 2024). However, student wellbeing at school is a highly situated concept and defining it for its operationalization is challenging. The ISCW study focuses on subjective wellbeing including affective (positive/negative) and cognitive life satisfaction (Ben Arieh, 2025), yet its scales are too detailed for national evaluation of school settings.

Linking evaluation to wellbeing might sound bizarre, but it is not. This paper addresses student wellbeing through an innovative study, part of a broader programme on school effectiveness and improvement (Freddano, Stringher, 2021). In Italy, curricular guidelines for the first cycle of education emphasise child wellbeing, especially in preschool (MIUR, 2012). The Italian national system for educational evaluation (Presidential Decree 80/2013) is promoting school quality since 2015 with a specific national self-evaluation format for all schools to use (INVALSI, 2014). Preschools have experimented a specific version of this format in 2018-2020 (Freddano, Stringher, 2021; Previtali, Stringher, 2017) and its revision has been extended to national level in 2025 (Freddano, 2025).

This theoretical contribution aims to describe the participatory quali-quantitative methodology behind the creation, with national stakeholders, of the updated (Pre)school Self-Evaluation Format. P-SEF includes a specific focus on wellbeing at school, through a set of indicators related to children’s and teachers’ wellbeing. This project is the result of a 10-year process (Stringher, 2025) for the identification of the indicators ultimately included in the format and concerning: child and youth wellbeing in (pre)schools as indexed by teachers’ perceptions; data collection methods in (pre)schools concerning student wellbeing; (pre)schools’ climate and its orientation to students’ and teachers’ wellbeing.

Data collection has been carried out in 2025 in almost 20,000 (pre)schools nationwide. The outputs of the study are quantitative measures of wellbeing; an additional output concerns the data collection platform for large-scale application at national level.

Outcomes, according to initial analyses, seem to merit further scrutiny, as student wellbeing seems to decrease sharply from preschool to secondary education. Practice, research and policy implications are manyfold and include ways to engage all (pre)schools in data literacy for wellbeing, yielding better student outcomes, and additional analyses on school processes’ determinants of students’ and teachers’ wellbeing in different school contexts. Policy initiatives supporting student wellbeing in schools are urgently needed.

In the contemporary context marked by the proliferation of armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, and the increasing fragility of democratic systems, education is called upon to confront the question of how social imaginaries are formed - those frameworks through which societies interpret violence, conflict, and alterity. From this perspective, peacebuilding does not concern only political and institutional processes, but also the symbolic and cultural dimensions through which individuals learn to interpret and make sense of social reality (Galtung, 1969; Reardon, 1988). Within this theoretical framework, the present contribution reflects on the role of narrative in early childhood as a pedagogical device capable of shaping the social imaginary and the symbolic horizons through which individuals interpret the world. Narratives addressed to children - such as fairy tales, stories, images, and symbolic practices - should not be understood merely as forms of entertainment. Rather, they participate in the construction of systems of meaning and interpretive models that contribute to the development of the cognitive and symbolic dispositions through which individuals learn to read and understand social reality (Bourdieu, 2023; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970). The analysis draws on sociological reflections on the imaginary, understood as a constellation of symbolic representations, myths, and narratives through which human communities construct and transmit shared worldviews (Durand, 1972). From this perspective, children’s narratives may be interpreted as privileged sites for the production and transmission of the social imaginary, shaping the ways in which individuals perceive themselves, others, and the social contexts in which they are embedded. The contribution is further grounded in the Lacanian triad of the Real, the Symbolic, and the Imaginary, which offers a conceptual framework for interpreting processes of subject formation as the result of a dynamic interplay between images, language, and those dimensions of experience that resist full symbolization (Lacan, 1974). Within this framework, the imaginary emerges as a space of symbolic elaboration in which children construct representations of reality through images and stories. These processes are intertwined with the cognitive and affective dynamics described by developmental psychology, where symbolic play and narrative practices play a central role in organizing experience and in the construction of meaning (Piaget, 1978; Vygotsky, 2014; Winnicott, 1971). Engaging with the international literature on peace education (Galtung, 1969; Reardon, 1988; Harris & Morrison, 2013; Bajaj, 2008; Salomon & Cairns, 2009), the paper argues that childhood narratives can be interpreted as pedagogical devices capable of influencing the formation of collective imaginaries, fostering ethical awareness and reflective competences oriented toward democratic coexistence. In this sense, narrative education can be understood as a form of “symbolic disarmament”, capable of counteracting forms of symbolic violence and supporting peacebuilding processes from the earliest stages of human development. In light of these considerations, the paper proposes to reconsider children’s narrative practices not merely as educational or cultural activities, but as pedagogical dispositifs that act upon the deeper structures of the social imaginary, contributing to the formation of subjects capable of dialogue, mutual recognition, and global responsibility.

In conflict zones, children are the most vulnerable group, a situation drastically exacerbated by the proliferation of global conflicts. Data from PRIO (2024) show that the number of children living in war zones has doubled, rising from 10% in 1990 to the current 19%. The observations made by Ladd and Cairns (1996) regarding the lethality of modern wars for civilians are tragically confirmed today: the United Nations Secretary-General (2024) reports a further 25% increase in violence against chidren compared to the previous year. These figures, which we must not forget refer to people, highlight serious short- and long-term consequences on a human, psychological and social level (Bessell, O’Sullivan, 2026). It is therefore imperative to prioritise the well-being of children in war zones and areas of genocide, ensuring the rights enshrined in the 1989 UN Convention. Having ratified the Convention in 1991, Italy is obliged to implement universal protection measures, without borders.

This presentation analyses the dramatic loss of educational opportunities in the Gaza Strip following 7 October, highlighting the resulting stalling of children’s cognitive, emotional and relational development. Despite this context, there are concrete examples of sumud, the typical Palestinian resilience that transforms attachment to life and the land into creative solutions as an informal school and artistic activities for children.

In line with UNESCO (2023), we believe that peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but a participatory process founded on universal access to education, a cornerstone right for the realisation of all other human rights. We firmly believe that the strengthening of justice and the rule of law depends precisely on the protection of educational experiences.