Conference Program

Educational systems are increasingly characterised by forms of data-informed governance in which schools are expected to rely on evidence, indicators and digital infrastructures to support educational improvement. In Italy, this orientation has been institutionalised through the National School Evaluation System introduced by DPR 80/2013, which requires schools to produce a Self-Evaluation Report (RAV)and engage in structured school improvement processes. Within this framework,teachers are progressively involved in practices of data-informed decision making and evidence-informed practice supporting organisational reflection and school development(Brown & Malin,2022;Mincu & Romiti,2022).At the same time,these developments unfold within broader processes of datafication and platformisation of education,where digital platforms and data infrastructures increasingly mediate professional work and decision-making(Perrotta & Selwyn,2019).Rather than interpreting teachers’ emotional responses to these transformations as individual resistance to innovation, this study approaches emotions as situated indicators of how teachers experience and negotiate emerging forms of data-informed school governance. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on teacher identity and vulnerability(Kelchtermans,2005; Lasky,2005) and studies on the emotional practice of teaching(Hargreaves, 1998), the analysis interprets emotions as signals of how teachers position their professional role within evolving evaluation frameworks. In this perspective, professional agency is not conceived as an individual attribute but as a context-dependent capacity shaped by organisational conditions, professional cultures and opportunities for participation.

The study is based on qualitative interviews with 25 teachers working in five Italian upper secondary schools selected through purposeful sampling to represent different institutional profiles, territorial contexts and student populations. The sample includes general, technical and vocational schools located in metropolitan centres as well as in semi-urban and peripheral areas. Interviewees also represent different professional roles within schools, including teachers responsible for digital innovation,school evaluation,mentoring of newly appointed staff,newly appointed teachers,and teachers elected to school governing bodies.

Data were analysed through a structured content analysis approach inspired by the conception of content analysis as inquiry (Losito, 2007). A data matrix was created with interviews as rows and thematic domains derived from the interview protocol as columns. The analysis focused on four areas:the role of data in school functioning,perceived constraints in the use of data,professional competences related to data use,and broader concerns regarding governance and participation.Findings reveal a pattern of professional ambivalence rather than resistance toward data practices.Teachers recognise the potential value of data for informing pedagogical and organisational decisions.At the same time, they express concerns related to interpretative complexity,transparency,exposure to judgement and insufficient institutional support.These concerns are rarely directed at data or technologies themselves;rather,they reflect uncertainties about the organisational conditions through which data are produced,interpreted and used within schools.Emotions such as caution, uncertainty and professional fatigue emerge particularly where training,mediation and collective decision-making processes appear weak.Therefore, teachers’ emotional responses also illuminate the democratic dimension of school governance, revealing how far data practices are perceived as shared professional resources or as externally driven accountability devices.The study suggests that these emotional responses offer a useful analytical perspective for understanding how data-informed governance is experienced in everyday school practice and how the expansion of data infrastructures may reshape teachers’ professional space of participation and responsibility.

Teacher agency is a concept that has been widely examined in educational research, though its definition remains debated due to diverse theoretical perspectives (Andreoli et al., 2022). Educational research has increasingly emphasized the relationship between teacher agency and school inclusion, showing that teachers’ intentional actions are key to promoting inclusive practices (Pantić, 2015, 2017; Corsi, 2024). From this viewpoint, inclusion is seen as a broad process involving all students, rather than just those with disabilities, and addressing the multiple forms of diversity present in educational settings (Lascioli, 2014). In this context, inclusive teacher agency refers to teachers’ capacity to actively shape educational environments, influencing practices, relationships, and educational meanings (Biesta & Tedder, 2007; Biasi et al., 2014; Ciraci & Isidoro, 2017). Implementing inclusive practices plays a pivotal role in enhancing student well-being (Hannigan et al., 2019; Boyle et al., 2023).

Based on these assumptions, we conducted interviews with 15 teachers responsible for school evaluation and improvement plans in 15 Italian schools, characterized by a high presence of students with special educational needs (such as students with a migrant background, specific learning difficulties, etc.) and socio-emotional difficulties (including anxiety, low self-esteem, behavioral disorders, and family problems). The study aims to explore: 1) the conditions that influence teacher agency, focusing on enabling and constraining factors, and 2) the strategies through which teachers negotiate constraints to promote inclusion and student well-being. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to identify and interpret patterns of meaning.

Findings show that constraints on teacher agency are multidimensional. First, context-related constraints emerge, including the lack of structured procedures and protocols for the inclusion of students with a migrant background, the high turnover of special education teachers, the lack of resources for school psychological support, and the limited availability of innovative technological tools. Second, socio-relational constraints were identified, such as weak collaboration and support among colleagues, limited collaboration with external professionals (such as cultural mediators, psychologists, and local services), and weak educational partnerships with families. Finally, a few interviews highlight personal constraints, mainly related to teachers’ perceived lack of adequate competencies in managing students with educational and relational difficulties. According to interview data, teachers implement diverse strategies to address these challenges and promote students’ inclusion and well-being. Specifically, they act: 1) at the individual level, through active listening to students’ needs and mentoring activities; 2) at the classroom level, by promoting project-based activities such as workshops, theatre-based activities, remedial and enrichment courses, and peer tutoring among students; 3) at the community level, by strengthening collaboration within the internal school community (teachers, school leaders, and families) and with external resources (experts, psychologists, and local services).

The study shows that teacher agency contributes to enacting inclusive practices by supporting inclusion as a democratic process and promoting student well-being within the school community. The findings suggest that effective teacher action can operate across three levels—individual, classroom, and school community—, highlighting teacher agency as a situated, relational, and systemic process.

Inclusive education is widely seen as a cornerstone of democratic schooling, built on participation, recognition, and accessibility (UNESCO, 1994; WHO, 2001; UN, 2006). But turning these ideals into everyday classroom practice requires ongoing emotional and instructional effort from teachers.

Through the lens of the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework (Demerouti et al., 2001), adapting lessons for diverse classrooms, especially for students with special education needs (SEN) and language difficulties, constitutes a substantial job demand. At the same time, personal resources such as self-efficacy are believed to safeguard teachers' well-being and enhance their sense of professional agency (Dicke et al., 2018; Granziera et al., 2020).

This study examines whether inclusion demands in Italian lower secondary schools are associated with teacher stress and self-efficacy, and whether personal resources mitigate these effects.

Using TALIS 2024 teacher microdata for Italy (ISCED 2), we distinguish between structural and perceived inclusion demands. Structural demands refer to the reported share of students with SEN in a classroom (none; 1–10%; >10%). Perceived demands are measured through teachers’ self-reported stress related to modifying lessons for students with SEN. We analyze general work-related stress and standardized measures of overall and SEN-specific self-efficacy as outcomes. All analyses use teacher sampling weights and replicate weights, in accordance with international large-scale assessment standards.

The results show that both structural and perceived inclusion demands are associated with higher levels of teacher stress. Teachers working in classrooms where more than 10% of students have SEN report significantly higher stress compared to those with none. However, the strongest predictor of stress is not classroom composition itself, but the perceived instructional demand of adapting materials and teaching practices. When structural composition and perceived demand are modeled together, the effect of perceived demand remains strong, while the structural effect diminishes.

Inclusive instructional demands are also negatively associated with both overall and SEN-specific self-efficacy. In other words, the more stress teachers report from adapting instruction for students with SEN, the less professionally competent they tend to feel. Although higher overall self-efficacy is associated with lower stress, it does not fully buffer the impact of inclusion demands. Even teachers who perceive themselves as highly capable experience elevated stress under sustained inclusive instructional pressures. SEN-specific self-efficacy does not significantly moderate this relationship.

Collectively, these findings highlight a central tension. Inclusive education is normatively essential to democratic schooling, but it also generates emotional demands that cannot be managed through individual commitment alone. Consistent with JD-R research, personal resources such as self-efficacy reduce overall strain, yet they do not eliminate the stress associated with ongoing inclusive adaptation. Inclusion, therefore, emerges not only as a pedagogical responsibility but as a question of democratic sustainability. Without supportive organizational conditions and collective structures, the emotional labour required to realize inclusive values may erode teachers’ well-being and professional agency. Strengthening inclusive education ultimately means creating the emotional and institutional conditions that enable teachers to live out democratic principles in their daily practice.

In recent decades Italy has been experiencing a growing diffusion of instrumental practice in compulsory education thanks to middle schools with a focus on music (SMIM) (Spadolini, 2022). In these schools, students who request and pass an orientation test can attend three additional hours of instrumental, music theory, and ensemble lessons per week (Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito, 2022). Recent studies suggest that SMIMs could be less inclusive than the rest of the school system, at least in the sense that they do not host as many students with specific learning disorders or disabilities as the average for schools at the same level (Chiaro, 2022). Such a pattern might be linked to the possible gaps in instrumental teachers’ training in an inclusive perspective highlighted by previous studies, as well as critical issues related to collaboration and inclusive practices (Rizzo, 2022). Nevertheless, instrumental teachers’ own attitudes, perceptions, and professional needs remain largely unexplored.

My research focuses on the professional development of instrumental music teachers in SMIMs in Trentino, Italy. The central research question is: How can in-service professional development be designed to support instrumental music teachers working in inclusive school contexts, from the teachers’ own perspectives?

The study will adopt a design-based research (DBR) methodology (Lehrer, 2019). DBR allows for iterative design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions directly in the school context, emphasizing teachers’ beliefs (Dignath et al., 2022), attitudes (Kielblock, 2018), and situated practices as key elements in fostering inclusive teaching. Here, inclusion is considered broadly, focusing on equitable participation and learning opportunities for all students, rather than targeting specific groups or using formal labels. 

The exploratory phase of the study will begin with focus groups involving school principals and other staff members to investigate their point of view on the training needs for a specific professional development program for instrumental music teachers. In the meantime, questionnaires aimed at exploring and comparing attitudes toward inclusion, self-efficacy, patterns of collaboration, and the perceived effectiveness and relevance to practice of the training already attended will be administered to instrumental music teachers and teachers of other subjects.
Findings from both data sources will then be presented to instrumental music teachers and used to elicit a discussion on their perceived needs.
This first mixed-methods data collection will inform the design of a context-sensitive in-service training program. Expected findings include a deeper insight into instrumental teachers’ perspectives on inclusion, the identification of key professional development needs, and the development of a training model.

More than fifteen years after the Italian Law 170/2010 which recognised Dyslexia and all Specific Learning Disorders (SLDs), significant amount of training hours for teacher on inclusion; even after the recognition of Neurodiversity as the leading paradigm to adsress the special educational needs, ensuring a truly inclusive and accessible school enviroment remains a challenge. On one hand, teachers often feel burdened by improperly used practices that cannot guaratee results nor prevent the growth of resentement and cultural prejudices. On the other hand, students with special needs internalize the same prejudices, and that leads them, particularly at the beginning of the university years, to hide their special needs or to apply inadecuate coping strategies in study challenges.

This study proposes a solution aimed at decreasing teachers' perception of otherness and conflict towards students with special needs, specifically by enhacing their empathetic abilities to recognise a common human level. Using an interdisciplinary narrative approach, this study compares different supplementary phases in a standard teacher training course. One group watches a selected tv series featuring a neurodivergent main character. The second experimental group reads a selected novel in witch a neurodivergent character appears too. Both are involved in specific engaging narrative activities designed from narrative approach works to promote closer identification with neurodivergent characters. Both groups are interviewed both before and after the steps, to mesure the empathetic levels, self-efficacy perception and desired attitudinal changes. A control group, which follows only the standard course and is also interwied, establishes the baseline to evaluate the efficacy of the narrative intervention, a stroger human connection and shared humanity experience.

The post-training collected data demonstrate that both cognitive and affective empathy are significantly enhanced by the narrative approach, showing higher outcomes compared to the control group. Moreover, a specific section of the study analyzed teachers' perceptions of neurodiversity by applying the same parameters used in previous research on student self-narratives, thereby highlighting a significant 'perception gap' between professional beliefs and lived experiences.

The narrative approach, through both tv seris watching and novel reading, facilitates significantly the bridging of this bias gap, fostering a deeper and more effective empathetic relationship. This shift results in a reduction of perceived ‘otherness’ too, as well as an increased teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and wellbeing. This methodology seems to promote a stronger democratic sense of justice regarding learning rights, dismantling the 'special vs. normal' dichotomy in favor of a more human-centered and inclusive teaching practice.

Multimediality has been widely examined and increasingly adopted over recent decades. On one hand, it has been linked to the gradual consolidation of digital technologies; on the other, it has become an essential tool for inclusive processes. While the sensory saturation of visual and auditory channels has been acknowledged in broad terms, multimediality has assumed a more specific relevance for inclusion—exemplified by frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning. The principle of offering multiple modes of representation is now widely accepted. However, several limits persist. First, despite numerous initiatives in sensory education, teaching practice remains largely centered on vision and hearing, with other senses relegated to the background. Second, not all multimedia applications are effective: Mayer’s experimental studies demonstrate principles that distinguish multimedia use that fosters genuine learning from uses that generate only emotionally gratifying engagement without cognitive benefits. Third, there is a consequent need for appropriate teacher training.

Multisensory rooms open new possibilities beyond traditional multimedia formats: they enable methodological approaches and practical activities responsive to different forms of neurodiversity and to the varied cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds present in classrooms. Beyond predominantly therapeutic uses, these environments have become increasingly common internationally in special schools. Approaches are highly heterogeneous: primarily passive, recreational uses coexist with more active, pedagogically oriented applications. These international practices are not easily transferable to the Italian context, where, over the last decade, cultural initiatives and training events have promoted the spread of multisensory environments in mainstream schools—often without aims strictly tied to disability.

Some of the limitations identified for multimedia re-emerge at another level for multisensoriality: multisensory exposure alone does not automatically produce positive outcomes. Effectiveness depends on the modes of use, making teachers’ professional competencies essential to integrate the necessary emotional engagement with an equally necessary cognitive dimension grounded in their own training.

From this perspective, a first step is to analyze the perceptions of pre-service teachers to assess not only conceptual familiarity with multimedia and multisensoriality but also professional representations, expectations, and perceived criticalities. For this exploratory study, a questionnaire was administered to early childhood and primary teacher trainees. The instrument—composed of four sections (demographic/contextual data; theoretical and practical knowledge on multimedia and multisensoriality; pedagogical representations of multisensory rooms; professional training needs)—aims to capture both informational levels and emerging professional postures and training needs. Results provide actionable insights for rethinking initial teacher education with an inclusive, multisensory orientation.