Conference Program

Ensuring equity for Roma students remains a critical concern across many countries (Brüggemann & Friedman, 2017; Council of Europe, 2024; FRA, 2023; Rutigliano, 2020). Roma teachers play an essential role in addressing this issue. Their life course experiences offer invaluable insights into the barriers faced by students from similar backgrounds (Fejős, 2018; Lampert et al., 2016; Reay, 2017; Sleeter, 2001). This study investigates the lives of Roma teachers who have demonstrated resilience, defined here as the capacity to succeed despite adverse circumstances (Luthar et al., 2000; Masten, 2025; Mu, 2024; Wosnitza et al., 2018; Zolkoski & Bullock, 2012). The study addresses two research questions: RQ1: What resources and obstacles characterized the life courses of Roma teachers on their way to obtaining a degree? RQ2: What markers does the legacy of the “resilient life course” leave in teachers’ current educational practice, and do these experiences manifest themselves as obstacles or resources?

Given the uniqueness of the target group, we employed snowball sampling. 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted in Hungary between 2019 and 2023. The interviews focused on both the participants’ biographical experiences of resilience and their pedagogical work. Data were analysed using thematic analysis following Brown and Clarke’s guidelines (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Findings suggest that resilient Roma teachers actively draw on their life course experiences in their teaching practice. A strong sense of mission – shaped by the experience of succeeding against the odds – appears to sustain long-term professional engagement. The present study argues that overcoming hardship can serve as a vital resource in the teaching profession. The insights generated have implications for teacher education programs, particularly in preparing educators from underrepresented backgrounds. Furthermore, the findings inform education policy by highlighting the value of lived experience in fostering inclusive and equitable school environments.

The research and analysis on which this paper is based has been implemented by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The analysis was further supported by the MTA–DE Future Awareness Development Research Group (University of Debrecen, Faculty of Humanities) and with the support provided by the Research Programme for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Transformative theory (Mezirow, 2003) focuses on conditions that facilitate the ability to create transformations from learning, which is done through activating processes that reflect upon the premises through which we interpret everyday life events within the social and organizational world (Fabbri & Melacarne, 2023). The theoretical and methodological approach of transformative theory is applied to study and analyze how (micro-)radicalization episodes (Melacarne, 2025) may threat the democracy (Moghaddam, 2025) in several everyday educational contexts, such as universities. The increasing number of multicultural students in Higher Education may generate distance (Amiraux & Araya-Moreno, 2014) and the lack of contacts due to the potential structural racism (Brookfield, 2018; Sabic-El-Rayess, 2021), which may lay the ground for the emergence of micro-episodes of conflict in informal settings among minority and majority students. Considering this scenario, how can we support coexistence practices in highly complex multicultural contexts? How we may prepare students to be democratic professionals? How can we prevent (micro-)radicalization in universities? The Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT, Bosco, 2025) helps us to analyze the impact of multiculturalism in teaching-learning process because facilitate cultural consciousness and critical analysis of beliefs and assumptions about self and others (Gay, 2018) using culture connected to the material that needs to be learned. The literature on this topic highlights positive effects based on the application of CRT practices in universities, in particular the: i) development of personal and professional skills “multiculturally responsive” useful for reading and interpreting social events; ii) belonging to a relational system that involves peers, faculty, and students; iii) learning cross-cultural perspectives of meaning. The culture is the aim, the object, and the instrument that may be applied with students to raise their learning, which will be multidimensional (Fiorucci, 2020), transformative, emancipative, and democratic. This contribution aims to describe methodological strategies that enhance cultural dimensions in the teaching and learning process in order to deconstruct radicalized thinking in the university. The actions are been targeted to students in Bachelor's and Master's Degree Courses of Educational Sciences. In this context, we describe the implementation of photovoice focused on the thematization of intercultural dialogue. Students have been involved in the 1) elaboration of visual materials, 2) analysis of the factors that may (or may not) facilitate the intercultural contact; 3) analysis of future educational practices that may be applied to prevent daily (micro-)radicalization episodes and hate incidents in educational settings. Studying the CRT and its applications in Higher Education provides the foundations to understand and strongly support the importance of pluralism in the universities in order to promote an antiracist and democratic learning for future professionals.

Despite the growing heterogeneity of the teacher population, the experiences of teachers with disabilities remain marginalized in public debate and Italian research, often confined to exceptional or individualized narratives. The presence of teachers with disabilities tends to be portrayed as an extraordinary case or inspirational testimony, rather than as a structural and legitimate part of the profession.

This project explores how teachers with disabilities make their experiences visible through interviews, public testimonies, editorial productions, and digital activism practices. These spaces of expression do not merely constitute moments of individual storytelling but function as practices of self-representation and identity advocacy, capable of challenging normative models and stereotypes related to the teaching profession.

Their narratives highlight forms of discrimination and ableism that permeate the teaching profession, difficulties in access and job stabilization, cultural resistance from colleagues and families, and reduced or paternalistic expectations. By paying attention to intersectional dynamics, it becomes evident that disability intertwines with other identity dimensions, such as gender or migratory background, producing counter-narratives to the normative model of the “typical”, able and white teacher.

This study argues that these practices of visibility and self-representation constitute a central element for education aimed at democratic citizenship, capable of countering ableism. Making the plurality of teacher identities recognizable means interrogating the implicit hierarchies that regulate access to the profession, promoting inclusive and equitable educational environments that value difference as a pedagogical and social resource.

The ethno-racial diversification of the teaching and educational workforce remains a largely unexplored issue in the Italian context. Existing studies highlight the scarcity of systematic research and reliable data on the presence and professional trajectories of educators with a migrant background in Italy. One reason for this gap is the still limited numerical relevance of the phenomenon. In the absence of comprehensive official statistics, data from AlmaLaurea (2024) indicate that 2.6% of graduates in Primary Education Sciences or Educational Sciences are foreign citizens, suggesting restricted access to both training pathways and employment in the educational sector.

At the same time, ongoing demographic and educational transformations point to a likely increase in the number of educators with a migrant background. The growing presence of second-generation students in Italian universities suggests that the diversification of the educational workforce may expand in the coming years, potentially responding to the needs of school systems characterized by stable multiculturalism. In many European contexts, the presence of teachers of immigrant origin in the public education sector has been considered an important indicator of the openness and inclusiveness of receiving societies, as well as a potential resource for addressing educational inequalities.

Within this framework, this contribution aims to develop a reflection informed by international literature and by the empirical evidence currently available. In particular, the paper focuses on two interconnected dimensions. First, it examines barriers and challenges affecting access to teacher education and professional careers among young people with migrant backgrounds, including institutional constraints, recognition of qualifications, and subtle processes of racialization within educational institutions. Second, it discusses the potential implications of teacher workforce diversification for students’ learning outcomes and broader school experiences, especially for pupils from minority backgrounds. International research suggests that greater diversity among teachers can contribute to improved representation, positive role modeling, and culturally responsive pedagogies, although such effects depend on broader institutional conditions and cannot be assumed automatically.

In addition, the paper presents preliminary findings from an exploratory mapping of racialized educators and teachers in Italy. The analysis combines data gathered through associative and professional networks with a documentary analysis of publicly available materials, including interviews, written testimonies, and digital content produced by educators with migrant backgrounds. This preliminary mapping aims to identify emerging professional trajectories, forms of collective organization, and narratives of belonging and exclusion that remain largely invisible within official data sources.

By bringing together conceptual reflections and exploratory empirical evidence, the paper contributes to opening a research agenda on the diversification of the educational workforce in Italy and its potential implications for more inclusive and equitable schooling systems.

The growing cultural diversity within the school system raises important questions about the role of teaching staff in fostering inclusive and democratic education. With the increasing recognition of the importance of education for social cohesion, interculturalism has emerged as a key strategy to address diversity in educational contexts, specifically following the failure of multiculturalism (Barrett, 2013). Interculturalism has been adopted as an alternative framework that encourages the integration of diverse cultural perspectives in educational practices, whose need is particularly responding to the rise of hate speech and violence against migrant communities (Bayer & Bárd, 2020).

At both the international and European levels, education is viewed as a central mechanism for promoting social and economic justice (UNESCO, 2023). Educational services represent an individual's first engagement with public life and citizenship practices (Rinaldi, 2021). The European debate also integrated education and democracy: education is essential for acquiring the attitudes, abilities, and knowledge required to coexist in a democratic society (Barrett, 2013). Despite the transformative potential of education, socio-economic factors remain a key determinant of academic success, and the achievement of “basic skills” (European Commission, 2025) is influenced by students' migrant or non-migrant backgrounds, contributing to disparities in school dropout rates (ECRI, 2024).

The Italian context has seen increasing migration flows in recent decades (Azzolini et al., 2019) and has reached about 1.3 million minors with migrant backgrounds in 2025 (Organismo Nazionale di Coordinamento delle Politiche di Integrazione degli Stranieri, 2024). In response, ministerial guidelines have aimed to integrate migrant students while valuing their cultural diversity (Wallace et al., 2021). However, students with migrant backgrounds generally tend to pursue technical or professional educational pathways instead of university-oriented ones (Santagati & Bertozzi, 2023). This behavior leads to the transfer of socioeconomic disadvantage between generations and the decrease in social mobility (European Commission, 2022). It also has consequences on the labor market and can contribute to explaining the acknowledged disparity between growing school diversity and teaching staff homogeneity (Santagati & Nur, 2025), as this mismatch can lead to underrepresentation of diverse perspectives in educational settings and limit opportunities for migrant-background students in the workforce.

Drawing from a multiple-case study that compares educational school and extracurricular activities in primary schools in Italy and France, this abstract examines how intercultural approaches can promote social cohesion by analyzing political frameworks, everyday practices, and the experiences of families. One interview from this study revealed that an educator’s migration background and religious beliefs fostered dialogue and built understanding and trust with the institution. This example highlights the connection between the personal identities of teaching staff and their ability to foster inclusive education.

Access to tertiary education programmes leading to a teaching qualification in Italy is very limited for young people of international origin and from minority groups. The limited data available indicates that around 1% of foreign nationals hold a degree in Primary Education (Almalaurea 2023), but the academic pathways remain largely unexplored. In fact, not all sectors of the education professions are inaccessible to these young people – for example, the profession of social-pedagogical educator – and it remains to be seen to what extent entry into the education sector occurs through other professional channels, whilst still maintaining a distinction in roles and prestige, and with what implications. Certainly, the scarcity of young people of international origin within the Italian teaching profession is an issue that requires analysis, particularly in light of possible reasons linked to legal and institutional constraints, socio-relational factors, as well as direct or indirect discriminatory dynamics.

This paper aims to investigate the barriers that make it more difficult to access teacher training programmes and enter the teaching profession and, secondly, to explore the factors that can contribute to successful pathways into teaching.

To this end, this study begins by analysing trends in the number of students of international origin enrolled on teacher training programmes, using an Italian university as a case study. Using data extracted from the university’s longitudinal database (covering the academic careers of students enrolled from 2000 to the present day and the various outcomes of their academic journey before, during and after university, broken down by immigrant background), it will highlight whether and to what extent the trend in enrolment of students with an international background on degree programmes in Primary Education and Educational Sciences has changed over the years, and what this implies regarding the attractiveness of this profession for younger generations with an immigrant background.

The paper then presents the findings of an exploratory study conducted among young people of international origin working in schools, based on a nationwide questionnaire. The survey examines: how young people of international origin with teaching experience in Italy gained access to the teaching profession; what challenges they faced; what resistance or discrimination they encountered; and which aspects of their identity they were able or had to bring into play.

Finally, the article offers a reflection on the ability of school settings to make the most of these teachers’ skills, both in day-to-day school routines and in the context of citizenship education, drawing comparisons between a number of significant cases.

The aim of this essay is to address the so-called male shortage in early education and teaching professions, through an interdisciplinary frame. Creating inclusive schools, as well as gender mainstreaming, are at the forefront of the EU policy (European Commission, 2020) and are key targets for European policymakers for the upcoming years. In this article I will explore the overlap of these two EU priorities, focusing on theinvolvement of men in early childhood care and teaching professions ˗ as the target that was set more than 20 years ago has still not been reached. Critical studies on masculinities and literature on role models in schools are here in dialogue with pedagogical perspectives on hidden curriculum studies and inclusive education theory. Most studies concerning the male shortage in education (Davis and Hay, 2018) focus on one or two dimensions, e.g. male educators in early care, black male teachers (Woodson and Bristol, 2020), male teachers with disabilities (Neca, Borges and Campos, 2020) or LGBTQI+ teachers (Lee, 2020). Hegemonial discourses are thus compartmentalised based on individual characteristics and the according single categories. Our hypothesis is that In order to challenge schools as mainstream and hegemonic discourse reproducers, it would be more effective to broaden the analysis and to consider all of these dimensions as different facets of a complex phenomenon.There is also an urgent need, I would like to stress, to move from a personal and biographical perspective −the individual teacher −to a social perspective −the team, the class, and beyond that, to an institutional perspective −the school as a democratic institution. The contribution describes a theoretical framework and preliminary results of a research proposal aimed at investigate whether a more diverse teaching staff may increase inclusion in education, understood as the never-ending commitment to developing better ways of responding to diversity. Although international literature is quite attentive to minority teachers, the Italian scenario does not look so rich of theory or empirical study. While reframing the male shortage definition in an intersectional framework, including gender identity and performance perspective, but also considering ethnicity, (dis)ability, religious back ground, I intend to investigate if a diverse teaching staff may challenge the mainstream curricula and increases the level of inclusiveness of schools in a diverse society.