RISULTATI RICERCA

The global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 has profoundly changed the daily life of most of the world population. People with disabilities have been particularly affected by these changes, which often have accentuated their isolation and marginalization also due to greater difficulties in accessing healthcare services. People with disabilities have also been impacted in relation to their ability to participate in physical activity with even more adverse consequences for their quality of life and health. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity practice of people with disabilities and to understand the changes that caregivers have perceived for the participation in physical activity of this specific population. It emerged that, regardless of the type of disability, people with this condition experienced drastic reductions in their physical activity levels during the pandemic and in most cases did not have access to any type of remote guidance. Furthermore, a higher prevalence of sedentary behavior and negative changes in eating habits have been reported by the caregivers, highlighting the need for specific strategies and initiatives for people with disabilities to maintain healthy habits and a physically active lifestyle.

A partire dalle sfide e dalle criticità di fronte alle quali ci ha posto la situazione pandemica da Covid-19, in quest’articolo si esplorano le possibilità che il Curriculum della Philosophy for Children, attraverso lo specifico dispositivo educativo della Comunità di Ricerca Filosofica, potrebbe offrire non solo a livello didattico, ma anche a livello comunitario. La proposta della Philosophy for Children, che si esplicita nella pratica dialogica del filoso-fare, potrebbe permettere di riorganizzare l’esperienza pandemica in un nuovo orizzonte di senso e significato, recuperando, nel contesto di questa "nuova normalità" in cui alla riflessività si è sostituita un’azione di tipo emergenziale, una prospettiva orientata al valore e alla cura dell’altro. Inoltre si sottolinea l’importanza della dimensione latente della communitas, in quanto condizione originaria e presupposto trascendentale della nostra esistenza, facendola 2dialogare" con la Comunità di Ricerca Filosofica, considerata come modello ideale verso cui tutte le comunità dovrebbero tendere.

Over the past decade the growing number of students with Attention and Learning Disorders in universities has been documented all over the world. Difficulties experienced by students during their academic career have led to an increase in the support services offered by Universities to meet their needs. This development has taken place as a result of changing attitudes and instructional practices across many countries. In this paper, we highlight an example from the Unites States where one university provides multiple services to increase optimal outcomes for this specific population.

The topic of university inclusion is today at the centre of the international and national debate. The reasons are related to a significant increase in the number of students with disabilities enrolled in university, as shown by the first report "Disability, Dsa and access to university education", presented these days by ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University system and Research) and CNUDD (National Conference of University Delegates for Disability). From this report, several steps forward for the inclusion of university students emerge, but also several critical dimensions that still require the attention of research and academic policies. This article will examine this issue and focus on exploring one of the critical nodes of university inclusion, namely the role of internships in the educational experience of students with disabilities and in their life project. A growing literature has explored their academic experience; on the contrary, there is little research to date that explores the issues and challenges of a central aspect of the higher education and training pathway, namely internships. Completing the study pathway in higher education is identified as a factor that can impact increasing the social and employment inclusion of people with disabilities (Union of Equality Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and consequent improvement of levels of Quality of Life (Giaconi, 2015). However, one of the main obstacles to obtaining a qualification is the accessibility of internships. This article addresses the meaning and implications of internships for competences’ building and insertion into the labour market of disabled graduates. Therefore, it explores the state of play of research, identifies the most critical issues, and reports about the running debate in the field.

The COVID-19 has dramatically increased the inequalities of the opportunities to education and health services of the children with disabilities. The data collected from international agencies between 2020 and 2021 demonstrate the danger of further rising the risk of exclusion of children with disabilities especially in developing countries. The marginalization of people with sensory disabilities during the Pandemic have further expanded compared to the pre-Covid situation. The article aims to investigate the barriers that children with hearing disabilities have encountered in accessing socio-educational and rehabilitation services and reflect on the importance of social support flexibly from different local actors. In this perspective, the Center of Attention for Communication, Hearing and Language of the Central American University José Simeón Cañas of El Salvador provides educational and rehabilitation service aimed to children with hearing disabilities transforming their methodologies and practices. Based on this analysis, perspectives of action and research will be envisaged to plan the future starting from the lessons learned.

La necessità di pensare ad un percorso formativo che permetta al futuro insegnante di sperimentare il proprio apprendimento teorico attraverso modalità operative quali il tirocinio, le attività laboratoriali, l’affiancamento di colleghi esperti durante il primo periodo di servizio, la formazione continua per tutto l’arco temporale dello svolgimento della professione, emerge a chiare note sia dalla ricerca scientifica che dai monitoraggi internazionali OCSE sullo status della scuola e sulle competenze dei docenti; emerge del resto anche dalle risposte dagli aspiranti insegnanti che esprimono, nelle risposte all’indagine presentata, l’esigenza di acquisire competenze specifiche circa la didattica inclusiva, la collegialità e l’interdisciplinarità, dispositivi ritenuti irrinunciabili per poter e saper declinare l’insegnamento in apprendimento. Il contributo presenta i risultati di un’indagine esplorativa svolta tra gli iscritti presso l’Università di Pisa, negli aa.aa. 2018/2019 e 2019/2020, al Percorso Formativo per l’acquisizione dei 24 Crediti Formativi Universitari necessari per accedere all’insegnamento, indagine volta a misurare la soddisfazione e i desiderata dei partecipanti.

This article addresses the issue of a trauma informed approach from a multidisciplinary perspective and global and systemic taking charge. The work is defined in the current pandemic background, with particular reference to the most fragile persons, in every phase of existence, especially when the fragility is due to deficit and disability. The guiding principles of trauma-informed organisations consist in creating a safe and reliable environment, allowing peer support and self-help, implementing personal empowerment, voice and choice. The TI approach aims to reduce exposure to adversity by implementing collective capacities for support, assistance, education and guidance. Trauma informed approach is a border territory to Special Pedagogy: the second part of the work outlines the role of Special Pedagogy in trauma and the issues highlighted by the COVID 19 pandemic, with the possible collective traumatic effect it can cause. The importance of recognizing, evaluating and dealing with stress due to trauma is highlighted in promoting collaboration with families and social networking, shaping policies and cultures to manage emergencies in relation to everyone’s needs, especially the most exposed people such as people with disabilities.

Preterm birth is an event that affects about 30,000 children a year, only in Italy. The great progress carried out in the context of neonatology (especially in recent decades) drastically reduced the risk of mortality. However, it should be reminded that these children may have a high risk of developing such serious complications which could potentially lead to permanent pathologies or disabilities, especially for those born to lower gestational ages (WHO, 2015). This contribution intends to analyze the phenomenon of prematurity according to the parenting and educational-teaching dimension. Premature parents, in fact, are immersed in a situation to which they were not prepared and which could interrupt or threaten the harmonious relationship with the newborn. For this reason, interdisciplinary synergistic actions should also be promoted in a way which calls Special Education both in direct support to families and in the preparation of generative welfare actions affecting educators and teachers, as valuable allies in early intervention and in the implementation of fully inclusive and efficient educational services for early childhood.

We present the implications of a novel approach to design-based research, Special Education Embodied Design (SpEED), for inclusive education. SpEED is a new way of thinking about how Special Education students can learn through whole-body participation (Tancredi et al., in press). The goal of SpEED is to update our thinking about special education and inclusion based on the latest developments in cognitive science. We illustrate the utility of embodied design to teaching and research on issues affecting learners in Special Education through examples centering different Special Education populations, including Deaf learners, learners on the autism spectrum, and sensory-seeking learners. Each project focuses on deepening the learning opportunities we offer students by using learners’ existing embodied resources. We conclude with a commentary on considerations for implementing SpEED within the Italian educational system.

Since the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was passed (2006), inclusive education evolved from a principle of education towards a right to be guaranteed for all students. Despite this, students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have not enjoyed this right on an equal foot with others, experiencing a stagnation in their inclusion over the last 15 years. Moreover, there is an important gap between the policies passed at national, regional, and local levels aimed at including these students, and the educational experiences that they are currently receiving within education systems. To address this mismatch and to provide educators with a framework for action that shortens what is current education of students with IDD and what should be, the purpose of this work is to present the conceptual and practical implications of the supports paradigm and the quality of life model, two frameworks that have now join together and that offer a systematic approach to address the access, participation, learning, and development of students with IDD to their fullest potential, the necessary goals of an inclusive and quality education.

This paper presents a reflection on potential training courses addressed to kindergarten teachers, working with children of 3-6 years of age. In particular, the data reported derive from a phase of the action research promoted within the Erasmus + European project More Opportunities for Every Child (MOEC), which involved colleagues from Italy, France, Spain and Poland in order to investigate the possibility to build efficient observational instruments to detect the difficulties of pre-school children. The outcomes of the project call for a growing necessity to promote a structured reflection on the fundamental value of efficient observation, which should be incremented through the training offer addressed to teachers, and on other aspects deserving special attention, such as educational strategies to guarantee quality, the promotion of true communities of practice, the development of professional skills, increasingly suited to support the educational and learning growth of each child in kindergarten.

Il presente lavoro pone in rilievo i drammatici effetti della pandemia da Covid e del conseguente lockdown per molte famiglie straniere e per i loro figli. In particolare, si vogliono evidenziare le problematiche economiche, sociali e scolastiche riscontrate da queste famiglie e dai loro figli nell’attuale lungo periodo di crisi sanitaria e di chiusura delle scuole. Tanti alunni stranieri non hanno potuto accedere alla didattica a distanza e in questi mesi non hanno avuto rapporti con gli insegnanti e con i compagni di classe, rimanendo completamente fuori dal circuito scolastico e da tutte quelle occasioni di interazione e di apprendimento fondamentali per il loro percorso formativo.

L’attuale tendenza della trasformazione urbana non interessa più solo l’espansione dei centri urbani, quanto piuttosto la riconversione del patrimonio esistente. Lo spazio urbano è discontinuo, composto di luoghi che il tempo ha posto vicino, spesso senza alcuna pianificazione, a dimostrazione che l’evoluzione della territorialità è più rapida di quella del territorio che ne conserva le rimanenze materiali. Vengono a formarsi, così, degli spazi interstiziali nella trama urbana che solo la creatività sociale può reinserire nella progettualità di un contesto abitato e vitale, risignificandoli di nuova funzione. Questa dovrebbe essere vista come un’urgenza perché, sia che la territorializzazione riguardi la conquista di spazi extraterritoriali, che quelli interni al proprio territorio, lo spazio urbano abbandonato rappresenta una sorta di minacciosa indeterminatezza che può arrivare ad essere de-strutturalizzante per il tessuto territoriale, così come per l’identità collettiva. La creatività risulta essere, quindi, una strategia territorializzante attraverso cui la società educa alla cittadinanza attiva reificando, significando e funzionalizzando gli spazi del suo vivere, autorappresentandosi.

To summarize this article with a single expression, we could enclose it in a lack, which has been widely argued on all its pages: the programming one. Moreover, there was a lack of planning and ability to predict for many institutions and most of the citizens. Or, still, there was often a failure to prevent, in order to remedy instead, and not always adequately. With a particular reference to Italy on these pages. The above-mentioned four limits or wounds are particularly serious for our country in this pandemic year. Furthermore, this pandemic caught everyone unprepared and inexperienced. And, then, too many people - I am referring to the Government here - sold themselves to a lot of virologists and various mass media exponents, etc., who have frequently ended up increasing the unease of a nation, which is exhausted at a sanitary, economical and psychological level, with an excess of self-representation and easy self-confidence, too. In particular, this text makes school and university and, therefore, those who attend them, from children to young people, its focal point. They are not considered as abstract entities, but embodied people still belonging to an Italy at high speed: from the rapidly increasing poor people in the Southern Italy, which has not progressed yet and is in a great difficulty, to a middle class who, far from being as the fundamental nerve centre of the Italian productive fabric in the last century, is being overcome by pockets of poverty, misery and unemployment on the other hand. Thus, the invitation to reopen school and university rooms, as it has happened for factories and companies for months. Obviously, in safe conditions. And with all the necessary due contextual measures. Moreover, in the desirable interpenetration between classroom teaching and distance learning for the next future, whi To summarize this article with a single expression, we could enclose it in a lack, which has been widely argued on all its pages: the programming one. Moreover, there was a lack of planning and ability to predict for many institutions and most of the citizens. Or, still, there was often a failure to prevent, in order to remedy instead, and not always adequately. With a particular reference to Italy on these pages. The above-mentioned four limits or wounds are particularly serious for our country in this pandemic year. Furthermore, this pandemic caught everyone unprepared and inexperienced. And, then, too many people - I am referring to the Government here - sold themselves to a lot of virologists and various mass media exponents, etc., who have frequently ended up increasing the unease of a nation, which is exhausted at a sanitary, economical and psychological level, with an excess of self-representation and easy self-confidence, too. In particular, this text makes school and university and, therefore, those who attend them, from children to young people, its focal point. They are not considered as abstract entities, but embodied people still belonging to an Italy at high speed: from the rapidly increasing poor people in the Southern Italy, which has not progressed yet and is in a great difficulty, to a middle class who, far from being as the fundamental nerve centre of the Italian productive fabric in the last century, is being overcome by pockets of poverty, misery and unemployment on the other hand. Thus, the invitation to reopen school and university rooms, as it has happened for factories and companies for months. Obviously, in safe conditions. And with all the necessary due contextual measures. Moreover, in the desirable interpenetration between classroom teaching and distance learning for the next future, which is still to be entirely created in the Italian reality. We have written these reflections, having in mind the psycho-social and educational conditions of the younger generations, so that an age of crisis does not become a double crisis in the way we are risking, and not for a little while, at present. With negative repercussions on them and all the times to come, whose signs are already evident, although they are mostly ignored. It is rather indispensable to translate them into opportunities for growth and life, culture and mental health. And with an Italian socio-economic gap which is nevertheless increasing. Finally, we have in mind that the right to study for each person and everyone is the only social lift which can change the destiny of a country, Italy, and also restart its economy and employment. Because skills are also a fundamental variable of GDP growth, such as a democracy effectively implemented and not only acted in words. ch is still to be entirely created in the Italian reality.

Il presente contributo si inserisce all’interno del Progetto “SUPER - Percorsi di orientamento e tutorato per promuovere il successo universitario e professionale” promosso dal Dipartimento di Scienze della formazione, scienze umane e della comunicazione interculturale dell’Università di Siena.L’articolo descrive i laboratori e gli interventi di tutoring realizzati con studenti e studentesse del Corso L-19 dell’Ateneo senese e con studenti delle scuole secondarie di secondo grado del territorio aretino al fine di promuovere percorsi di orientamento al lavoro che favoriscano la scelta consapevole del percorso accademico supportando lo studente nella costruzione della propria traiettoria professionale. Le due esperienze di percorsi laboratoriali presentati in questa sede sottolineano la necessità dell’uso delle metodologie riflessive per intercettare nuovi schemi di intervento ed azione per l’orientamento universitario.

Nella progettazione di percorsi di orientamento formativo e professionalizzante per gli studenti dei corsi di laurea in Scienze dell’educazione e della formazione (L-19) e di Scienze pedagogiche (LM-85) risulta irrinunciabile il dialogo con i servizi per costruire traiettorie di riflessività, esplicitando l’intenzionalità sottesa agli interventi attuati. Il contributo descrive una proposta realizzata nell’a.a. 2019/2020 nell’ambito del progetto SUPER – “Percorsi di Orientamento e Tutorato per promuovere il successo universitario e professionale” e configurata in modalità on line durante la fase 2 del Covid-19. L’esperienza “S-POT: officine progettuali” ha permesso agli studenti di confrontarsi con professionisti che operano in contesti educativi, condividendo riflessioni critiche con i propri docenti. In seguito, i partecipanti, con il supporto delle senior tutor, hanno lavorato in piccolo gruppo con l’obiettivo di proporre un’idea progettuale da sottoporre alle équipe incontrate. Questa iniziativa ha offerto la possibilità di entrare nell’eterogeneo mondo dei servizi che si interroga, cercando risposte innovative, a fronte dei cambiamenti costanti. In tal modo, sono emerse le diverse prefigurazioni professionali degli studenti e la concretezza plurale dei profili di educatori e di coordinatori pedagogici inseriti in équipe multidisciplinari. L’attraversamento di vari ambiti lavorativi ha dato voce alle molteplici sfide del sociale, facendo affiorare la vitalità dell’agire educativo e lanciando ponti di apprendimento condiviso.

In Italia, l’accesso al sistema dell’istruzione terziaria è ancora limitato, come pure appare diffusa una certa irregolarità nel percorso di studio universitario; in funzione di tali considerazioni, il contributo è volto a riflettere sulle azioni di orientamento messe a punto dall’Università dell’Aquila, nell’ambito del progetto “Super”, per accrescere negli studenti la conoscenza delle specificità del Corso di Laurea Interclasse L-19&L39 in Scienze della formazione e del servizio sociale e intervenire positivamente nella costruzione dei profili e delle prefigurazioni professionali da parte degli studenti coinvolti. Nell’ottica di rafforzare la collaborazione tra scuola, università e mondo del lavoro e garantire un dialogo efficace con i docenti e gli altri stakeholder interni ed esterni all’Università, i responsabili dell’iniziativa hanno dato vita a un progetto formativo, articolato in diversi step, che ha coinvolto quattro istituti superiori abruzzesi. Nello specifico, il progetto ha previsto momenti diversi di orientamento, formazione e azione, ambientati in due setting differenti: la scuola e il Dipartimento di Scienze umane dell’Università dell’Aquila. Realizzato attraverso un percorso di presentazione dei contenuti core del Corso di Studio, di illustrazione degli obiettivi e dei saperi pratici relativi alle professioni di educatore e di assistente sociale e di valutazione delle conoscenze apprese dagli studenti, il progetto ha conseguito gli esiti formativi e di orientamento illustrati nell’articolo.

The Autor describe a training orientation experience intended for fourth and fifth year of secondary school students aimed at promoting conscious access to the university world and facilitating the process of building their own professional prefigurations. These paths led by career advisors, experts in the world of work and guidance representatives involved 16 classes from four institutes for a total of 278 students. Each meeting was structured in two moments: a Photolangage workshop and a seminar, which consisted in making the experts in the field talk with the students of the schools participating in the guidance activity. The Photolangage workshop was followed by a moment dedicated to the meeting with experts from the world of training present in the territory, each of whom described their field of action. As it is written in the Guidelines, the guidance activity should also be done by those who have specific professional skills, who are outside the school and who can introduce the girls and boys to the world of work in order to promote the process of work inclusion. The experts in the area working in the field of education were asked to present to the students the professional profiles for the degree course: social educators, child educators and trainers. The experts called to converse with the students each represented different areas of education and social work: one coordinator of an educational service for children, two company trainers, two social planners. Each of the eight meetings included, at the beginning of the activity, the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire aimed at surveying the students’ previous knowledge about the educator’s field of action, the skills of this professional profile, as well as future aspirations and expectations with respect to the guidance experience.

Questo contributo si propone di indagare modelli e forme relativi alla continuità tra scuola superiore e accademia a partire dal concetto di transizione, tematizzato non come il semplice iter che lo studente compie dalla secondaria all’università, né come quella serie di attività di preparazione, che iniziano l’ultimo anno della scuola secondaria e che terminano con l’inizio della prima annualità universitaria. A partire dall’esperienza del progetto SUPER - Piani di Orientamento e Tutorato, questo contributo evidenzia l’importanza della partnership scuola-università nella co-progettazione e realizzazione di attività di orientamento e di programmi di tutorato learner-centred rivolti agli studenti superiori e universitari. A partire dalla lesson learned del progetto POT, la transizione scuola-università è qui inquadrata come processo complesso e multiforme di sviluppo e trasformazione che riguarda la vita e l’identità dello studente ma pure le dimensioni istituzionali e pedagogiche che concernono le istituzioni scolastiche e accademiche.