Conference Program

In accordance with the ‘Guidelines’ issued by the Italian Ministry of Education (MIM, 2024), the teaching of civic education in primary schools - structured around three interconnected conceptual pillars: the Constitution, Sustainable Development, and Digital Citizenship - is established as a cross-curricular and foundational pedagogical paradigm, aimed at the holistic development of the individual and the citizen. Its transversal nature implies that educators are required to integrate citizenship content within their specific teaching pathways, transcending the logic of fragmented knowledge to promote a unified and critical understanding of social and institutional reality.

The 'on-life' reality (Floridi, 2017) in which we are immersed is increasingly integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) devices that act as invisible mediators: through the massive analysis of behavioural data, they filter information to steer user choices (Susser et al., 2019). This generates informational isolation that reinforces pre-existing biases and restricts encounters with diversity. The use of subtle persuasion techniques (nudges) and probabilistic calculations enables AI to anticipate and co-create individual desires, transforming apparent freedom of choice into a pre-channelled path (Zuboff, 2019). This scenario delineates a paradox of individual autonomy and raises crucial ethical questions regarding the transparency of systems that, by operating silently, redefine the boundaries of human agency and access to reality.

Given these premises, it is evident that, from primary school onwards, there is an urgent need to structure Artificial Intelligence (AI) education within the framework of Civic Education. This aligns with the digital citizenship pillar, which addresses the necessity of cultivating informed technology users capable of navigating virtual spaces with critical discernment. An early approach allows pupils to be transformed from passive consumers of algorithmic suggestions into conscious citizens, capable of recognising the probabilistic and non-deterministic nature of such technologies, thereby ensuring the preservation of free and pluralistic access to reality (Panciroli & Rivoltella, 2023). Without specific algorithmic literacy, children risk growing up within "filter bubbles" which, by catering exclusively to prior preferences, drastically limit encounters with otherness and divergent thinking. Therefore, educating on AI from primary school means deconstructing this paradox of individual autonomy by making explicit the silent mechanisms that redefine the boundaries of human will (Ranieri et al., 2023).

The following contribution presents a didactic experiment conducted with children in Year 1 and Year 2 of primary school in the metropolitan area of Naples. The project was structured around a co-writing activity (Lowry et al., 2004; Tinajero & Rojas-Drummond, 2012; Storch, 2019; Coccimiglio & Ranieri, 2023; Tsatsou-Nikolouli, 2025; Martins et al., 2025), followed by a comparison with AI. The latter was utilised as an alternative device to enable children to detect the adherence (or lack thereof) of algorithmic choices to the proposed text and the extent to which these diverged from the choices made by the children themselves, thereby highlighting AI biases.

In democracies which have emerged after authoritarianism development of new elites is a part of the process of transformation. We can observe certain stages in that process. At first there is concern about the role of the outgoing authoritarian elites in the new system and a plan for their replacement. It is followed by the search for the new elites, naturally coming from the amateur ranks of “democratic” opposition. Then we witness the process of professionalization of the new elites. This professionalization usually means a second replacement, this time the first generation of new democratically elected elites leaves the stage replaced by policy entrepreneurs who treat civic values instrumentally. In the background of this process of elite replacements we witness the gradual fading of the civic values from the aspirational role as noble alternatives to the authoritarian rule, to the role of a façade covering brutal power games over narrow interests. It might be said that when it comes to the significance and usage of civic values among the political elites the process of democratic transformation resembles that of semantic forgetting till it reaches the stage of civic amnesia. The process of civic forgetting has its spillover effect into the sphere of civic education of young people who become new political cadres. The purpose of this text is to describe the stages and scope of civic forgetting, explain its causes and consequences for the character and prospects of new post-authoritarian democracy.

Formal Civic Education and Democratic Education Through Direct Experience Within the School Place : a Productive Tension or Virtuous Interplay? A Qualitative Survey in 10 French-speaking Belgian Schools.

Building on the results on a one-year sociological research on school democracy pedagogical practices and devices in French-speaking Belgium, our contribution focuses on the relationship between formal civic and democratic education (formal teaching of rights, institutions, and rules of citizenship distributed across various subjects) and democratic education through practice (direct experience of participation, actual engagement in projects, speaking out, collective decision-making).

In relation to the theme of this symposium, our contribution seeks to broaden the analytical lens by examining the interplay between formal education practices and the concrete participatory devices designed to foster the direct experience of democracy in schools (a dimension which has been politically promoted in French-Speaking Belgium in recent years, since the “Pacte pour un Enseignement d’Excellence” was voted).

Based on a qualitative survey conducted in ten (primary and secondary) schools, through observations, in-deph interviews with principals, teachers, and focus groups with students, we demonstrate that these two approaches coexist to varying degrees in schools without ever fully harmonizing. These ten schools were grouped into four clusters based on their degree and modalities of implementation of democratic principles, highlighting the tensions, obstacles, and dynamics at work in contrasting settings.

To the question of formal democratic education and education through action, our research reveals that these two approaches constitute a dialectical tension that runs deep in the way all schools conceive, organize, and implement democracy. This tension manifests itself in very different ways depending on the contexts observed. The contexts in the schools in the first cluster (those that are relatively new to democratic issues) focus mainly on formal learning; civic language is used, but opportunities to practice democracy remain marginal or symbolic. In intermediate configurations, projects exist but are not always linked to formal learning or existing mechanisms. In the most advanced schools, the two approaches mutually reinforce each other: participatory mechanisms are used as venues for civic learning, and formal learning gives reflexivity to lived practices. This virtuous interplay produces both firmly rooted learning and experienced notions of lived democracy.

The teaching of civic education is universally recognised as a key driver in the formation and education of constitutionally aware citizens.

In recent decades, new pedagogical challenges have emerged in this field, and consequently new opportunities have arisen. These have been addressed both through Law No. 92/2019, which introduced a specific curricular subject with a substantial number of teaching hours, and through the successive national guidelines, the most recent of which were issued by Decree No. 183 of 7 September 2024.

The new guidelines identify three fundamental conceptual pillars: the Constitution, economic development and sustainability, and digital citizenship. They acknowledge that the study of civic education can no longer be confined solely to the dimension of civil rights but must extend to multiple aspects of social life, including technological development and environmental issues.

It is therefore necessary to reflect on whether the pursuit of these new educational objectives risks overshadowing another aspect that, even in the recent past, has been considered fundamental by several members of the scientific and civic community (for example, Aldo Moro). In particular, it is worth considering whether the educational project, even in the absence of explicit guidance, should continue to value the historical phases that have shaped the evolution of our society.

This contribution therefore aims to analyse whether, and to what extent, it is beneficial to integrate both a historical-critical approach and an ethical-critical perspective into the teaching of civic education. This analysis also incorporates the viewpoints of students—future teachers—attending the Laboratory of Planetary Citizenship and Environmental Sustainability Education offered within the Primary Education Degree Programme at Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples.

The exploratory study is prompted by a reflection on what aspects of the Ventotene Manifesto remain relevant today—such as the values of freedom, rights and democracy, cooperation among states, European integration, and solidarity among peoples—and proceeds to critically examine some of the major contemporary challenges, including the crisis of the European Union, the resurgence of nationalism, armed conflicts, and climate change.

The integration of the Guidelines for Teaching Civic Education (MIM, 2024) with the paradigms of intercultural pedagogy establishes an educational horizon in which citizenship is no longer perceived as the mere acquisition of legal notions. Instead, it is understood as a relational praxis grounded in the recognition of otherness. The convergence of these two fields is primarily expressed through the transcendence of a monocultural vision of law and coexistence, proposing a model of “inclusive citizenship”. The first pillar of the Guidelines, centred on the knowledge of the Constitutional Charter, aligns with intercultural pedagogy through the valorisation of Articles 2 and 3; by enshrining the inviolability of human rights and both formal and substantive equality, these articles mandate the overcoming of all ethnic, religious, or social barriers. In this sense, civic education becomes the elective ground for exercising “cognitive decentring” (Abdallah-Pretceille, 1996) — a pivotal capacity in intercultural reflection that enables individuals to move beyond cultural self-referentiality to embrace a plurality of perspectives as a constituent element of democracy.

Parallel to this, the second thematic core regarding sustainable development and global citizenship projects individual responsibility onto a supranational scale, requiring a critical reading of global interdependencies inherent to the intercultural approach. According to Milena Santerini (2017), intercultural education for global citizenship represents the necessary evolution of the traditional concept of civic belonging, transcending the boundaries of the nation-state to embrace a planetary dimension consistent with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. The author posits that the second pillar of the Guidelines for Civic Education should not be understood as a simple repertoire of ecological best practices, but as a pedagogical device aimed at forming a citizen capable of inhabiting complexity and interdependence, thereby promoting an “ecology of relationship” that protects both the environment and anthropological diversities. Within this framework, empathy assumes a fundamental gnoseological role: it is interpreted not as a vague sentiment of proximity, but as an “intercultural competence” that allows for the recognition of the other in their full dignity, surpassing mechanisms of exclusion and identity barriers (Portera, 2020; 2022). Santerini emphasises how empathy acts as the engine of decentring — the ability to view the world through different cultural lenses — which is an essential condition for understanding global challenges, from the climate crisis to migration, not as isolated phenomena but as nodes in a network involving the whole of humanity. Ethical responsibility is indissolubly linked to this empathic dynamism, transforming awareness into civil action.

Building upon these premises, a research-training programme was developed for prospective primary school teachers. Based on film analysis as a pedagogical device (Malavasi et al., 2005), this programme constitutes an elective strategy for translating the theoretical tenets of cognitive decentring and the ecology of relationship into concrete didactic practices. The activity, structured according to the paradigm of reflexivity, intended to utilise the filmic medium not as a mere illustrative aid, but as a “laboratory of gazes” capable of fostering the empathic posture and ethical responsibility that should characterise the teaching profession (Sozio, 2025).