Conference Program

The increasing diffusion of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems is profoundly transforming the educational and family environments in which children grow up and develop opportunities for learning and social participation. Within this evolving landscape, disparities in digital competencies and adult mediation practices may represent an emerging dimension of educational poverty, influencing children’s safe and meaningful access to online learning, relational, and developmental opportunities (Hong & Kim,2024; Yu et al., 2024). This perspective is particularly relevant for children who are adopted or living outside their family of origin, whose developmental trajectories are often shaped by adverse childhood experiences and specific needs for protection and educational support (Basso, 2023).

This contribution presents findings from an exploratory study aimed at examining the use, levels of trust, and perceptions of artificial intelligence among a sample of 180 parents, including 87 biological and 93 adoptive parents. The main objective was to investigate how family digital mediation practices may function either as risk factors or as protective resources within children’s developmental pathways. Quantitative results indicate generally cautious attitudes toward AI and relatively low levels of trust across both groups, with no statistically significant differences. However, adoptive parents demonstrated higher levels of digital literacy and greater involvement in supervising their children’s online activities.

Qualitative findings further highlight specific concerns expressed by adoptive parents regarding the protection of children’s identity and personal history, particularly in relation to the risk of unwanted contact with biological families and exposure to emotionally sensitive digital content. These findings suggest that parental digital competence and the creation of safe online environments may represent key protective factors supporting inclusion, participation, and children’s wellbeing.

Overall, the study underscores the need to develop educational and training interventions addressing not only children but also caregivers and educational professionals, fostering alliances among families, schools, and community services (Pentina, Hancock, & Xie, 2023). From this perspective, informed digital mediation emerges as a crucial educational practice for addressing emerging forms of educational poverty and promoting equitable developmental opportunities, contributing to the strengthening of educational communities capable of supporting children with complex family backgrounds.

Educational poverty represents a multidimensional condition that limits children’s opportunities for learning, participation, and the full development of their capabilities across different life contexts (Save the Children, 2016). It manifests not only as economic deprivation, but also as a restriction of relational, cultural, and symbolic resources that affect developmental processes.

Within adoption pathways, this phenomenon may assume specific configurations, intertwining with early experiences of trauma, affective discontinuity, and identity fragility that influence socio-emotional well-being and school experience (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010; Van IJzendoorn & Juffer, 2006).

Adopted minors may encounter difficulties in emotional regulation, learning processes, peer relationships, and in constructing a sense of belonging, thereby becoming exposed to risks of marginalization or misunderstanding within educational settings (Ferritti, 2019). From this perspective, educational poverty can be understood as a dynamic process generated by the interaction between individual vulnerabilities and the quality of support networks. Addressing it requires a systemic approach capable of activating protective resources at both family and community levels (Lo Piccolo, 2024).

In this framework, opportunities for dialogue between families and mutual self-help groups are particularly significant, as they foster the sharing of narratives, reduce isolation, and promote empowerment processes. These experiences positively affect parents’ capacity to interpret their children’s educational needs and to build effective alliances with schools (Guerrieri & Nobile, 2016).

Furthermore, the associative dimension can contribute to the generation of social capital, strengthening the sense of community belonging and counteracting stigma and stereotypical representations of adoption (Greco, Ranieri, & Rosnati, 2014).

This contribution presents an exploratory study aimed at analyzing the potential of such contexts in addressing educational poverty within adoption pathways (Balenzano et al., 2024). The study seeks to provide evidence useful for the design of integrated interventions capable of enhancing local networks and promoting equity, inclusion, and educational justice.

Research examining the relationship between academic success and living conditions has revealed that individuals living away from their birth family are more vulnerable (Chamberland et al., 2015; Coggi & Ricchiardi, 2019; Balenzano et al., 2024b).

Children in foster or residential care often experience disadvantage, social marginalisation and educational poverty related to adverse early experiences (Felitti et al., 1998; Racine et al., 2025; Janković et al., 2025), an absence of stable caregivers capable of providing continuous and quality bond, depressing life contexts, insufficient stimuli in childhood and long periods of institutionalisation (Stein, 2008; Oakley et al., 2018; Balenzano et al., 2024a).

It is worth considering how long studies have drawn attention to the critical dimensions and consequences of adverse childhood experiences (O'Higgins et al., 2015; Luke et al., 2015; 2017; Sinclair et al., 2020).

Conversely, it is interesting to shift the focus from a deficit-based approach to one that emphasises positive experiences and best practices, outlining positive life trajectories and educational opportunities for children (Goding et al., 2022; Pandolfi, 2019; McGuire et al., 2021; Ricchiardi, 2022). (Avant et al., 2021; Pandolfi, 2019; McGuire et al., 2021; Ricchiardi, 2022). Within this framework, protective factors play a pivotal role in fostering inclusion and equity in children's development (Goding et al., 2022).

This paper aims to advance research and practices that enhance protective factors and reduce the impact of inequalities throughout the life course, focusing on girls living outside their family of origin in foster care or residential communities. Countering educational poverty requires a multidimensional and integrated approach that can simultaneously address educational, family and community contexts.

On the one hand, the importance of integration between formal and non-formal education, social services, and local resources is emphasised (Ripamonti, 2022; Tabacchi, 2023). On the other hand, there is a need to support families and caregivers (Golding, 2003; Balenzano et al., 2024a).

The analysis will provide a theoretical basis for outlining educational support pathways for foster parents, educators and other adults involved in education and instruction. At the same time, networking between schools, families, and public, private, and third-sector services enables a coordinated approach to the complexity of educational needs, building personalised, sustainable responses in the process. In summary, tackling educational poverty requires policies and practices that can combine prevention, protection and the promotion of rights from a social justice and well-being perspective for all children.

Recent studies on educational poverty highlight its multidimensional nature, showing how exclusion may arise not only from socio-economic disadvantage but also from school practices that limit participation, recognition, and agency. This paper focuses on children living outside their birth families, with particular reference to pupils who have been adopted, and analyses how ordinary school routines may function either as risk factors or as protective conditions for their well-being and educational inclusion.

The contribution adopts the recent Italian guidelines on the right to education of adopted students as a conceptual and normative framework and develops a conceptual–argumentative analysis grounded in inclusive pedagogy, adoption studies, and research on identity and self-determination. The paper examines the role of micro-devices embedded in everyday teaching practices — such as assignments, classroom rituals, language use, textbooks, and information-sharing procedures — which often rely on implicit assumptions about family continuity and personal biography. When not intentionally designed, these practices may generate specific risks, including non-consensual biographical disclosure, symbolic marginalization, and reduced participation, thus contributing to forms of educational poverty linked to lack of recognition and limited control over one’s own narrative.

To interpret these dynamics, the paper mobilizes the concepts of self-determination and self-identification as key protective factors in school contexts. From this perspective, inclusion requires that students retain the right to decide whether, when, and how to share personal information and to define the terms through which their family history is represented in school life.

The paper proposes an organizational repositioning of teaching practices based on four operational principles:
(1) the right to choose about personal disclosure;
(2) safeguards against non-consensual identity exposure;
(3) non-prescriptive language and flexible task design;
(4) clear informational boundaries within school–family–services alliances.

By reframing everyday teaching as an organizational responsibility, the study argues that inclusive micro-practices can act as protective factors against educational poverty, supporting agency, belonging, and identity development for children whose life trajectories include adoption, foster care, or other forms of out-of-home care.

...some reflections on the strengths, weaknesses and proposals for implementing the document ‘Guidelines for guaranteeing the right to education for adopted pupils’, issued by the MIUR in 18 December 2014, No. 7443, and updated by Decree No. 5 of 28 March 2023 of the MIM, which renamed it ‘Guidelines to promote the right to education of adopted pupils – 2023’. Adoption, whether domestic or international, can bring with it its own particular challenges, for example during the initial stages of mutual family adjustment, settling into school, social integration, and adolescence; throughout the various stages of growing up, a person with a history of adoption feels the need to answer questions such as ‘Who am I, where do I come from, where am I going?? questions for which one may choose not to seek an answer, or instead embark on a search that may continue over time, whether peaceful or restless, with oneself and others. Experiencing complex life trajectories and multiple, often sudden, changes are unavoidable circumstances for every adopted child; the experiences accompanying these events, which take various forms, can themselves be very different, as can the possibilities for reworking and integrating one’s identity. These elements, however, must not lead to simplifications, generalisations or determinism, fuelling misleading expectations and interpretations of the behaviours and possible difficulties of those involved in adoption. These premises in themselves serve as a reminder of the complexity of every life story, including in adoption, and of the need to pay attention to the unique characteristics of each individual—both their specific challenges and needs, and their resources and potential. This applies to both the circumstances of life prior to adoption and those within the new family and social context. In addition to the family, the school environment is a crucial setting for fostering well-being, opportunities for growth and development, where the experience of interacting with peers and new adults at school constitutes one of the most significant relational milestones for building a secure cognitive and emotional foundation – the cornerstone for active learning, inclusion, and familiarisation with the new educational and cultural system. The 2023 Guidelines are an important and innovative document; they provide teachers with knowledge and a framework for adoption, whilst also requiring them to apply it, focusing on good practices for welcoming pupils into school at various levels (administrative and bureaucratic, communicative and relational, continuity in the educational pathway, and links with local resources). Schools are not merely called upon to ‘teach’, but to create a safe and welcoming environment that fosters the development of identity and a sense of belonging. However, when viewed from a pedagogical-educational perspective, including an intercultural one, certain critical issues also emerge in the 2023 Guidelines. It is on these issues that we propose a reflection and educational best practices. For example, regarding the significance of the overall approach to recognising and encouraging recognition, within the school context, of the unique aspects of the adoption experience and the personal history of pupils who have been adopted.

Out-of-home children are often exposed to adverse childhood experiences, which heighten the risk of educational poverty and emotional and behavioral problems. (Jozefiak et al., 2016; Seker et al., 2021). However, resilience-oriented perspectives highlight the role of some protective factors in promoting their adjustment and social inclusion (Ricchiardi & Coggi, 2019; Cassibba et al., 2023).

This study, part of RESILAB project, addresses two objectives: (a) to identify practices aimed at reducing educational poverty among adolescents in residential care, and (b) to examine the protective factors that promotes their positive outcomes.

A mixed-methods research combined data from focus group discussions and interviews with 9 professionals and questionnaires completed by 61 adolescents aged 11–17 (55.7% male) living in residential communities in Southern Italy, as well as their care workers. The measures examined included adverse childhood experiences, mentoring relationships, adolescents’ sense of belonging to the residential setting, attachment, hope, resilience, and emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Qualitative analysis identified three main strategies used to counteract educational poverty.

Educational relationships: building a supportive alliance between adolescents and educators through empathy, counseling, and a nurturing relational environment.

Structured educational planning: implementing individualized educational plans, annual activity programs, and practices that promote self-regulation and social competence.

Participatory and networked approaches: encouraging cooperative learning within residential care and fostering collaboration with schools, local organizations, social and health services.

Quantitative analyses showed that adolescents’ difficulties were positively associated with adverse experiences (r = .34, p <.05) and negatively associated both with the time spent in residential care (r = −.35, p <.01) and with a stronger sense of belonging to the community (r = −.29, p < .05), suggesting that living for a longer period within a care setting that fosters a sense of belonging may support psychosocial recovery. Consistently, among protective factors, secure attachment (r = −.36, p < .01) and hope (r = −.60, p <.01), were negatively associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties, while no significant association emerged between mentoring and adolescents’ adjustment. However, mentoring was positively associated with adolescents’ sense of belonging to the residential setting (r = .37, r = .43, r = .43, p < .01) and with resilience (r = .39, r = .37, p < .01).

Overall, the findings highlight the importance of strengthening relational and contextual protective factors to counteract educational poverty and promote adjustment among adolescents in residential care. Residential communities can serve as key educational environments that mitigate the impact of adverse experiences, foster resilience, and support more positive developmental and educational trajectories for vulnerable adolescents.

From this perspective, residential care is part of a broader educational community in which multiple actors share responsibility for supporting the development of vulnerable minors. Strengthening these collaborative networks is crucial both during residential care and in supporting young people’s transition to adulthood and social inclusion.