| Italy |
• History of Immigration
• School Info
• Video Footage
• Researchers
| History of Immigration |
Italy, historically, has been a land of emigration rather than immigration. However, in the last twenty years a very low birth rate and a strong economy in the north of the country, acting in combination with global and European geo-political changes that have facilitated the international movement of labour, Italian cities have become home to a heterogeneous mix of recent im/migrants from Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, China, and the Philippines. For example, in inner city neighbourhoods of Milan, approximately 25% of children in a typical municipal preschool are likely to come from im/migrant families that speak a language other than Italian at home.
This rise in the number of im/migrant children in Italian schools is primarily due to the fact that immigration is becoming more permanent and increasingly to include families, whereas before it was temporary and limited mostly to men. Im/migrant families recently have been able to obtain legal permission to live in Italy. The percentage of preschool children who are im/migrants is likely to continue to rise because im/migrant families have a higher birth rate than Italian families.
Italian im/migrants are concentrated in large cities (e.g. Milano, Roma), although the number of im/migrant families living in smaller cities (e.g. Prato, 7.85%; Mantova, 7.65%; Reggio Emilia, 7.15%; Modena, 7.01%, Piacenza 6.44%) is increasing.
As the rate of immigration grows, debates on cultural diversity in schools and in society are increasing. As in many other countries experiencing high rates of recent immigration, issues of “multiculturalism” and “cultural diversity” are hot topics among early childhood education and care professionals and practitioners. Italy is just beginning to articulate a national policy about im/migrants and, more specifically, about services for im/migrants in early childhood education. For example, in a recent revision of the quality rating scale used to evaluate Milan’s preschools, “multiculturalism” and “cultural diversity” are being considered for the first time. The Italian attitude towards non-Italian children in early childhood services and schools is in general positive, compared to a more mixed national attitude to adult immigration. Recently there has been an increase in political prejudice towards im/migrants accompanied by cuts in funding for im/migrant programs. But the situation is very much in flux and national and local educational policies are still a long way from being defined.
Early childhood educators are developing programs to help teachers work with children of im/migrants and new curricula are being developed, including the teaching of Italian as a second language. It is hard to generalize about the Italian approach to working with children of im/migrants because there is no one Italian approach to early childhood education. The preschools of Reggio Emilia have received the most attention outside of Italy, but other cities have their own unique curricula and philosophies. If we were to generalize, we would suggest that Italian preschools practice is an “inclusive approach.” This approach, which was developed in the 1970s when separate programs for children with special needs were replaced by a full inclusion model, is now indirectly influencing the treatment of im/migrant children. This ethic of inclusion leads to a generally welcoming approach and a positive attitude towards im/migrants in Italian early childhood education programs, but there is relatively little specific attention paid to cultural differences.
New laws specify that im/migrant children, even those whose families have not received legal permission to live in Italy, should be enrolled in public schools and that im/migrant children should attend regular classes with children of their age level. There have been some attempts to introduce instruction for im/migrant children to become fluent in Italian and to hire teaching aides to support this effort, but recent budget cuts in education make them less and less available. All teachers in Italian public schools, including preschools, are Italian nationals.
The great majority of preschools that serve children of im/migrants have children from several different ethnic and cultural groups. The only exceptions are a few programs in Chinese communities where all or most of the im/migrant children are Chinese.
In contemporary Italy, policy makers and early childhood education professionals are engaged in debate over the best way to meet the needs of the growing population of im/migrant children in ECEC settings. This debate reflects some key features and terms that are specific to the Italian context:
Schools should be considered as contexts for facilitating processes of social and cultural inclusion, rather than for fostering diversity and cultural segregation.
The concepts of “diversity as a resource” and “diversity as an opportunity for growth” are central to the dialogue among professionals and scholars about the possibility of creating a multicultural setting for preschool children.
In Italy the word integration carries the meaning of welcoming all children, including children with special needs, handicapped children, children with different skills and capabilities, and im/migrant children. Will programs designed for this diverse group of children work well to integrate into Italian society the children of im/migrants?
| School Info |
Coming soon...
| Researchers |
.....
Susanna
Mantovani
susanna.mantovani@unimib.it
Susanna Mantovani is Professor of Education at the University of Milano-Bicocca and at present Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences. Her work in the past thirty years has dealt with early childhood and early childhood policies making her one of the leading figures in ECEC in Italy and a consultant for many international projects. She has been involved in the OECD ECEC projects both in the Seventies and in recent years (Starting Strong, 2001), was a co- founder with Loris Malaguzzi in 1978 the Gruppo Nazionale Nidi-Infanzia, the largest Italian network of researchers, administrator and educators in early childhood, has served in the National Committees for the Guidelines for Nursery Schools, has started in 1986 the project Tempo per le famiglie funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation which has now developed into a net of infant/toddler centres across Italy. Her research and writings are on ECEC, research methodology and since 2000 on immigrant families and children. She speaks Italian, English, French and German She has written Manuale critico dell’asilo nido ( with Anna Bondioli,1990), La prima scuola ( 1993) La ricerca sul campo in educazione:i metodi qualitativi (1998), Nello stesso nido:famiglie e bambini stranieri nei servizi educativi ( with Graziella Favaro and Tullia Musatti, 2006) , is coordinator of the Italian entries for the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Education ( B.New and M.Cochran Eds., Greenwood Publishing Group,2007)
Chiara
Bove
chiara.bove@unimib.it
Chiara Bove is researcher at the University of Milan-Bicocca where she teaches 'Qualitative Methods in Educational Research’. Her research has been on the first transition of the child into childcare and on adult’s ideas and representations of attachment and separation experiences in the early years. She has participated in the collaborative Study “Italian conceptions of Community, Participation and Social Responsibility: Childcare as Metaphor” supported by the Spencer Foundation (1998-1999). Her research has dealt with the first transition of infant and toddlers into childcare, with on parents’ and caregivers’ ideas on attachment and separation in Italy and the U.S., with school and early childhood education, family education and with research methods in educational research in a cultural perspective. She has written “Le idee degli adulti sui piccoli. Ricerche per una pedagogia culturale” (Adult’s ideas on young children: Researches for a ‘cultural pedagogy’” (Junior, 2004), Attaccamento e inserimento” (Attachment and transition into childcare: relational styles and stories), (with S. Mantovani and L.Saitta, Franco Angeli, 2000), and the entry “Parent involvement” for the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Education ( B. New and M.Cochran Eds., Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
Giulia
Pastori
giulia.pastori@unimib.it
Giulia Pastori is a doctoral student at the University of Milano- Bicocca. She has graduated in Philosophy at the Università of Milano. She was awarded of a research fellowship by the Catholic University of Milan to study the 'weaning' experience of mothers and infants in Italy and in the United States. Her doctoral research is about the idea/notion of identity in preschool, with a specific focus on how preschools are facing the challenges of negotiating cultural differences.She has published "Idee e pratiche di svezzamento. Una ricerca in Italia e Stati Uniti" in Bove, C. Le idee degli adulti sui piccoli (2004).
Francesca Zaninelli
Francesca
Zaninelli is doctoral student and research assistant at the University
of Milan – Bicocca. She graduated in Humanities at the University
of Milano and in Education at the University of Milano–Bicocca.
She is an expert on professional development of teachers and educators
and she has been a pedagogical coordinator in ECEC services. Her doctoral
research is focused on “language, with a specific focus on immigrant
parents' and teachers' ideas”. She has published (with S.Mantovani)
“The Milan Report” in “Work and family in five cities”
European Commission–Directorate–General V,Barcellona, 1997
and (with S. Mantovani) “Come le politiche e i servizi per la prima
infanzia accolgono i bambini immigrati e le loro famiglie” in M.
Tognetti (a cura di), “Arrivare non basta”, Franco Angeli,
Milano, 2007.
Joseph
Tobin, PR Director, Joseph.Tobin@asu.edu
Fikriye Kurban Coordinator, Fikriye.Kurban@asu.edu
©2006
......design by
Sinan
Yucel
......