Conference Program

The literature on educational poverty has highlighted the multidimensional nature of inequalities in learning processes and the particularly high exposure to educational risks among minors who are not living with their family of origin, for whom relational continuity and access to protective resources constitute central factors in developmental trajectories. Within this framework, this contribution analyses the role of normative frames and value systems in the construction of educational vulnerabilities and in the activation of support resources, with particular attention to gender dynamics in educational decision-making processes.

The paper assumes that the assessment of educational difficulties is a process shaped by social representations of expected developmental standards and by culturally legitimised models of autonomy and individual success. From this perspective, the concept of bionormativity is used as an analytical lens to examine how such models may orient the interpretation of difficulties and the definition of educational interventions, potentially affecting the activation of protective resources in the trajectories of minors in out-of-home care contexts.

From an empirical standpoint, the contribution integrates two analytical strategies. First, it draws on secondary analyses of data from the European Social Survey Round 11 to examine the distribution of values related to self-assertion, social recognition, and gender roles in the European and Italian contexts. This analysis makes it possible to reconstruct value hierarchies and representations of individual autonomy that contribute to defining socially shared models of development and success, thereby outlining the cultural context within which educational processes and protective practices are situated.

Second, the contribution presents an exploratory study based on factorial vignettes administered to education professionals, aimed at observing the threshold for activating interventions and the perceived structural nature of school difficulties in equivalent situations, varying only the gender and relational context of the described profile. This design makes it possible to analyse whether, with the same level of difficulty, differences emerge in the intensity of educational responses and in the definition of protective resources.

The contribution therefore integrates structural and cultural dimensions in the analysis of educational poverty, highlighting how value systems and normative categories may shape the interpretation of vulnerability and the activation of protective factors in the educational trajectories of minors in conditions of particular fragility.

Adopted and foster children are children who, for different reasons, have been separated from their birth families. This separation means that their lives have been marked by adverse situations at an early age.

These difficult experiences, prior to adoption and/or fostering, usually influence their development at different levels (emotional, social, cognitive, etc.), which can result in difficulties in learning processes and social relationships with their peers or the adults who accompany them throughout their schooling, among other things.

In order to minimise these difficulties, the school environment must become an emotionally safe space, adapted in its daily practice to the diversity of the students.

Educational practices that promote inclusion

When discussing educational practices that promote inclusion, it is essential to take into account UDL (Universal Design for Learning), which promotes flexibility in the curriculum to adapt it to different learning styles and paces. Based on this idea, the following are considered inclusive practices:

• Adapting resources and materials to facilitate access to information for each student:

- Visual and audio incentives, graphics and diagrams, various material supports and textures...

• Using emotionally-based open methodologies that promote group cohesion, combating discriminatory attitudes, fostering respect for diversity and increasing self-esteem:

- Teamwork, peer tutoring, diversity projects, talking circles…

• Planning activities that can be adapted to different learning paces and with different options for execution:

- Hands-on activities, experimentation, discussion, reading aloud…

• Promoting collaboration and networking with professionals who work with students and their families, creating an atmosphere of cooperation with teachers that improves students' emotional security.

• Implementing reference persons when needed at different times throughout the school year.

Educational Policies towards an Inclusive School

In terms of the educational policies necessary for true inclusion, the following measures are essential:

• Recognise the special educational needs of adopted and foster children in the Laws on Attention to Diversity among pupils in schools.

• Include Early Adversity in teacher training in Faculties of Education and in all university studies or training courses related to childhood.

• Establish common protocols for all centres in the process of schooling adopted and fostered children, covering all necessary aspects.

• Leverage the experience of other communities in training professionals in this field and promote actions similar to existing ones that are generating positive results.

• Compile resources developed by different departments and entities and promote them for use by education professionals.

• Promote the diffusion of essential documents through government websites, with regular updates, so that they are visible and accessible.

Summing up:

“We must promote an inclusive school where all differences are welcome and where all students feel valued and have the same opportunities to develop”

Promoting educational environments that reduce inequality, stigma, and exclusion is a central challenge in addressing educational poverty and supporting equitable developmental pathways for children with complex family histories (Ferrari et al., 2022). Within this framework, addressing adoption in school contexts is increasingly recognized as relevant both for children’s well-being and for the creation of inclusive learning environments (Caceres et al., 2024; Novara et al., 2020). Although the literature emphasizes the importance of self-disclosure and openness in communication about adoption (Aramburu Alegret et al., 2020; Ranieri et al., 2022; Ranieri et al., 2025; Santona et al., 2022), studies describing structured school-based interventions on these topics and evaluating their effectiveness remain scarce.

This work presents an exploratory study of the intervention “Quante storie in ogni classe” (“How Many Stories in Every Classroom”), a programme developed by a voluntary non-profit organization Petali dal Mondo, and implemented in primary schools. The intervention is conceived as an educational practice designed to strengthen protective factors relevant to the prevention of educational poverty, fostering opportunities for self-disclosure, active participation, recognition of individual stories, promoting a positive classroom climate, and enhancing the quality of peer relationships. From this perspective, narrative work serves an inclusive function not only for adopted children but for the whole class group, making differences visible and valuing them within everyday school experience (Brown & Shelton, 2024; Grotevant & Van Korff, 2011).

The study assumed a pre–post design in order to observe possible changes in children’s levels of self-disclosure, perceptions of classroom climate, and sociometric dynamics. Twenty-four children from a comprehensive school in the North of Italy (mean age 7 years), including one adopted child, took part in the research. Both quantitative and qualitative instruments were used: the Self-Disclosure Scale; the Social Satisfaction subscale of the Children’s Loneliness; the Social Dissatisfaction Scale; graphic and narrative productions representing the self at school and in the family; and a sociogram to analyze peer relationships.

Overall, the findings indicated a positive trend following the intervention. Improvements were observed in perceived social satisfaction and relational classroom climate, together with a shift toward deeper and more reflective forms of self-disclosure. Sociometric data also showed increased reciprocity among classmates. While causal conclusions cannot be drawn, these results suggest that structured self-disclosure and cooperative structured self-narrative activities and cooperative work may contribute to a more participatory and inclusive school context, supporting processes of recognition and belonging that are key dimensions in the prevention of educational poverty.

The study, therefore, proposes this intervention as a promising educational practice capable of strengthening relational protective factors. In this perspective, the findings encourage wider dissemination of school-based interventions addressing adoption and autobiographical narrative, and call for further research into their effectiveness, supporting genuinely inclusive educational pathways for children with complex and challenging family histories.

The paper aims to propose a reflection and a critical analysis from a pedagogical perspective of the ministerial document Guidelines for the right to education of pupils outside the family of origin (2017-2023).

The theoretical framework for this reflection is inherent in the complex concept of educational poverty. Introduced in Italy by Save the Children in 2014, this concept has recently been relaunched as "the deprivation of children and adolescents from the opportunity to learn, experiment, develop, and consolidate skills, talents, and aspirations" (Save the Children, 2022).

Therefore, by configuring itself as a "multidimensional phenomenon" (Istat, 2024), it, by intertwining factors of a different nature (not only economic but also connected to the lack of educational and cultural resources characterising the educational community), is configured both as a "poverty of resources" and as a "poverty of outcomes": the latter form of educational poverty is related to the lack of possibility of acquiring cognitive, social and emotional skills capable of allowing each person to feel part of a community, to "actively and consciously exercise the right of citizenship" (Ibidem).

Starting from these considerations and with constant reference to a pedagogical (Santerini, 2019; Amadini et al. 2023) and intercultural pedagogical (Fiorucci, Minerva, Portera, 2017; Macinai, 2020; Portera, 2022) perspective, aimed at promoting the capacity for existential planning of individuals and communities within a democratic social framework (Dewey, 1965), this contribution intends to reread the text of the Guidelines, focusing on the following questions:

- What idea of ​​the minor supports and guides the set of operational indications contained in the document? What idea of ​​educational poverty does this image of the minor contribute to shaping?

- What are the underlying principles (human and ethical) on which the "Italian path to inclusion" proposed by the document is built?

- What idea of ​​"school" emerges from the document?

- What strengths and weaknesses characterize the text in terms of operational, formative, and didactic attention and indications?

- What specific contribution can the pedagogical stance offer to strengthen the strengths highlighted and, above all, to smooth out the weaknesses?

By responding from a critical-pedagogical perspective to each of the above questions, this paper aims to outline a path of pedagogical reflection aimed at enabling educational action to translate into an experience capable of enabling each child to learn with others not only to "know" and "know how to do," but also, and more specifically, to "be," in order to "learn to live together" (Delors et al. 1997) in today's plural social contexts.

National and international reports indicate a decline in the number of children placed in foster families and a corresponding increase in the number of children accommodated in residential care, likely linked to a reduction in the availability of foster families (Ministero del Lavoro, 2024; Administration for Children and Families, 2024; Delhon, 2023). The difficulty in recruiting available foster families is currently exacerbated by the growing complexity of the situations of children in need of protection. In particular, the high prevalence of children presenting significant risk factors makes the matching process and the successful development of foster care trajectories even more delicate.

This study, developed through a collaboration between the University of Turin and the Municipality of Turin, aims to identify educational and social support strategies that can foster positive outcomes even in foster care placements initially characterized by high levels of complexity. The methodological framework is grounded in the Success Case Method (Brinkerhoff, 2003), enriched by insights derived from the theoretical orientation of Appreciative Inquiry, an approach developed by David Cooperrider and rooted in a constructivist and generative perspective on organizational change. Appreciative Inquiry is distinguished by its focus not on deficits or critical issues, but rather on the identification of strengths, effective practices, and enabling factors that make successful experiences possible (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005).

Within this perspective, the study of “success cases” does not constitute a merely positive selection of data; rather, it represents an epistemological stance aimed at understanding which relational, educational, and institutional conditions foster generative outcomes even in highly complex situations. The research involved an in-depth analysis of successful cases through the engagement of multiple sources to enable triangulation of perspectives (foster families, social workers, psychologists, and family associations) (Greenhalgh, 2025). The identification of recurring positive factors provides a basis for designing new forms of support for children placed under protection.