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This article stems from the PRIN GOV_REL (Urban Governance of Interreligious Dialogue) research project carried out in four Italian cities in 2023–2025 and reports on some preliminary results of the empirical enquiry held in the city of Brescia. The Brescia area is characterised by high rates of residents with an immigrant background and a consolidated presence of religious minorities (Muslim, Orthodox, Sikh, Hindu and Protestant groups), many recognised centres (mosques, temples and Christian non-Catholic churches) and a significant commitment of ethnic–religious communities to local public life. This paper examines the creation of grassroots-level interreligious dialogue, seen as a communicative process. The empirical evidence is based on material collected by participant observations and semi-structured interviews regarding four initiatives that occurred in 2024. A sociocultural analysis outlines the communicative frame: text; context; aims; acts; interlocutors and their power/freedom of expression; interactions; results. The article examines the communicative pattern of each initiative, considering an intercultural orientation and a pluralistic model of interfaith dialogue. It seeks to answer the following questions: what was the fundamental message that the promoters wanted to convey? How do the single actors communicate their perspective of religious “others”, and what results did they achieve or not achieve? The analysis leads to identifying the patterns that facilitate and/or hamper dialogue, taking into account misunderstandings and “cul-de-sac” aspects. Final recommendations highlight the recurrent breaking points that should be prevented and some premises to guarantee successful communication between members of different religions in multicultural urban spaces.

In this essay I set out the current situation of Early School Leaving (ESL) in Italy by considering both data provided by institutional sources (national and international) and a review of the most recent contributions from the educational work that have been done intensively to fight against ESL over the last 20 years. I will argue that the way followed so far will not lead to surprising results, due to deep and structural persisting factors of inequality. After a short overview on the position of Italy in the European rankings, the article recalls the main interventions that took place in the country by different investors (public and non-public), setting up a multiplicity of fragmented macro-politics. Then I will look at the mechanisms of differentiation and unequal distribution of educational opportunities and I will conclude with suggestions on how to make the fight against ESL more efficient and forward-looking.

In March 2020 all schools in Italy were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the novelty of distance learning was introduced. During the 2020-2021 school year, pre-primary and primary schooling was carried out in situ, while secondary education was re-organized into a mixed system, with students spending 50% of their time attending classes from home, in distance learning. This reconfiguration was a challenge to students, teachers, and parents, affecting the learning experience of the most vulnerable students and students with disabilities, particularly. It necessarily brought into question Italy's \"progressive\" legal framework for \"school inclusion\". The scope of the present article is to analyze the teaching activities carried out with students with disabilities in Italy during the first wave of the emergency lockdown and their consequent challenges for school inclusiveness. An overview of the Italian inclusive model in education and the national measures adopted to guarantee the right to education during times of school closure/restriction is outlined. We have sought to test the hypothesis that distance learning may introduce many risks for inclusion (resulting in a \"downgrading inclusion\", that is, a decline of the level of inclusion already reached for students with disabilities), but it may also present an improvement in how teachers address these students and their needs. To this end, after reporting data from the available studies on this target, we provide insights from a web questionnaire submitted to a non-probabilistic sample of nearly 150 primary and (lower and upper) secondary school teachers. Results showcase that, though with a general worsening of school inclusion, in some cases, teachers were actually able to support students with disabilities and their families in a new, customized, empathetic, and more attentive manner.

Interculturalism is a way to deal with the cultural difference, which is a growing issue today and often manipulated in politics. In recent years, the populism (along with sovranism, nationalism, and authoritarism) has been the true enemy of the intercultural discourse, widening intolerance and racism in both social interactions, media communication, and urban contexts. The article aims at analyzing the fundamentals of Interculturalism and their apparent discrepancy with populism, providing reflexivity as a remedy to the current loss of sense of the intercultural discourse which sometimes became functional to the institutional racism. Firstly, the article recalls the basic values to understand the different nuances of interculturalism; secondly, it argues that leaving the “passion for interculturalism” up to the practicalities disempowers the intercultural discourse within the ambivalence of the field level. The authors argue about the need to focus also on the intermediate level in which embedding a rigorous discourse, inspired by the “reflexivity” critique. This is applied to the policy making in some crucial social and educational fields. The social planner is meant to use clear “middle ray concepts” and to distinguish the intercultural solutions from the populistic ones, on the basis of 4 antinomies: simplicity vs. complexity; rapidity vs. duration; conflict vs. conciliation; self-centered self vs. decentered self.

Educational poverty is widespread in compulsory education in terms of poor learning and socio-cultural disadvantages; it affects students with disabilities, students with learning difficulties, and those with an immigrant background. During the pandemic crisis, students with special educational needs (SENs) mostly suffered the risk of an additional deprivation. Within an advanced inclusive model during school closure, the Italian State guaranteed access to schools only to students with disabilities. What effects did this “equalizing” measure produce? What kinds of attitudes have teachers adopted and what roles have they played (active vs. passive) in order to make it sustainable? What was their acknowledgement of the educational poverty and deprivation? To what extent were their attitudes differentiated? This article explores the roles and attitudes of teachers during periods of lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. We assume that the teachers’ attitudes were differentiated on the basis of five cultural dimensions (auto/hetero-referencing; vision of remote teaching; relationship with bureaucracy, relationships with students; teaching as performance or relation), and two functions (classroom teachers/ SENs teachers). The study is based on 42 semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers, principals, and parents in six lower secondary public schools with high rates of SENs students and multi-ethnicity (Northern Italy), and focused on the organisational, teaching, and relational aspects. Results seem to confirm that not all teachers agreed with the Ministry line and adopted a range of responses to the challenge of maintaining inclusivity, from the inert/impatient to the creative/active ones. Their attitudes changed during the post-pandemic period from atomistic to more collaborative, and their preoccupation with the fragile “uncertified students” increased. The article closes with recommendations on teacher training.

En este artículo se ofrecen datos preliminares de un estudio nacional llevado a cabo en 2011 por el Ministerio de Trabajo de Italia – ISFOL mediante un cuestionario estructurado aplicado a una muestra probabilística de 1500 estudiantes en riesgo (escogidos de entre los que obtuvieron bajos resultados en el Isced- 2 de 2005). Se identificaron tres itinerarios vitales. ESLs (early school leavers) que están empleados en trabajos precarios y de baja cualificación o en situación NEET (not in education, training or employment); estudiantes que han obtenido el título Isced-3 en cursos VET (vocational education and training) o están en proceso de obtenerlo; estudiantes que han obtenido el título Isced-3 en el seno del sistema escolar o están en vías de obtenerlo. En este artículo se describen algunas variables personales, sociales y escolares determinantes para cada uno de esos perfiles. El estudio del perfil ESL (n=576) permite confirmar que es útil considerar al ESL como un agente personal, a no ser que se evite destacar la debilidad de los apoyos sociales que rodean a tales sujetos.

Purpose. To assess the diagnostic accuracy of dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DSCE-MRI) in differentiation between benign and malignant liver lesions by assessment of tumoral perfusion parameters. Methods Materials. Seventy-three patients with known focal liver lesions, including 45 benign (16 FNH, 27 angiomas, and 2 abscesses) and 28 malignant ones (17 metastases, 9 HCCs, and 2 cholangiocarcinoma) underwent 1.5 T MRI upper abdominal study, with standard protocol that included dynamic contrast-enhanced sequences. On dedicated workstation, time-intensity curves were determined and the following perfusion parameters were calculated: relative arterial, venous and late enhancement (RAE, RVE, RLE), maximum enhancement (ME), relative enhancement (RE), and time to peak (TTP). Results. All diagnoses were established either by histopathology or imaging follow-up. Perfusion mean values calculated in benign lesions were RAE 33.8%, RVE 66.03%, RLE 80.63%, ME 776.00%, MRE 86.27%, and TTP 146.95 sec. Corresponding perfusion values calculated in malignant lesions were RAE 22.47%, RVE 40.54%, RLE 47.52%, ME 448.78%, MRE 49.85%, and TTP 183.79 sec. Statistical difference (p<0.05) was achieved in all the perfusion parameters calculated, obtaining different cluster of perfusion kinetics between benign and malignant lesions. Conclusions. DSCE-MRI depicts kinetic differences in perfusion parameters among the different common liver lesions, related to tumour supply and microvascular characteristics.

In application of the Italian Law 30/2003, since s.y. 2003/04, parents can opt to enroll their children in the first year of nursery and primary school in accordance with more flexible age requirements, allowing children whose third/sixth birthday falls on or before April the 30th of the given year (previously, the cut-off date was 31st December). In addition to this reform, since 2006 nursery schools have introduced so-called «spring classes» for children aged two. All these innovations increase the heterogeneity within the classroom, along with an increase in parental choice and freedom. Hence, if the number of early enterers is to increase, a new relationship between childhood, school, and social times will inevitably take place. With the intermediation of parental choice, traditional time-markers are losing their importance, and children's development process will be less standardized than in the past. The essay offers a picture of the «de-standardization» of schooling in Italy as it stands today, by assuming it to be the end result of a long-term transition (from a centralistic vision to a more autonomist conception), which has provoked a rupture in the principle of uniformity as applied to the educational system, and it still fosters a more per-sonalized and privatized view of children's education. The main effects of early school entrance on Italian schools are outlined (in terms of enrolment rates at a regional level using data from the Miur - Ministry of Education) and used to analyze how different stakeholders are carrying out the reform: the positions of those in favour (parents and principals) are compared to against the reform (teachers and education specialists) with the help of qualitative data (also by Miur). Going beyond the opposition between contrasting social interests, it is worth questioning which sort of cultural change is likely to occur if children can be considered ready to go to school in-dependency of age; and who has the task/right to decide on their school readiness and to assess the consequences of an early school experience. In conclusion, the essay aims to sketch a child- centered point of view, over and beyond the defensiveness of adults' fears and projections.

This paper presents preliminary data from a national study carried out in 2011 by the Italian Ministry of Labour- ISFOL through a structured questionnaire to a probabilistic sample of 1500 \"at-risk students\" (who have taken Isced-2 in 2005 with the lowest mark). Three life itineraries have been focused: ESLs (early school leavers) who are employed in low qualified, precarious jobs or in a NEET (not in education, training or employment) condition; students who have achieved Isced-3 certificate in VET (vocational education and training) courses or are going to achieve it; students who have achieved Isced-3 certificate in school education or are going to achieve it. This paper describes some personal, social and scholastic determinants of each profile. The examination of ESL profile (n=576) leads to confirm the usefulness of a vision of ESL as a personal agent, unless avoiding to remark the weakness of social supports surrounding those subjects. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

The paper investigates the role of religion among a group of adolescents (11-15-year-old) surveyed in Italian multicultural schools. The multicultural classrooms (with over 30% of pupils with ethnic background) may be interpreted as social spaces for inter-ethnic coexistence, open to ethnic and religious diversity. We rely on a sample of 1,040 students enrolled in lower secondary education in Lombardy in 2011 on which we investigate religiosity, conceptualized as consisting of religious belonging and religious practice. The investigation questions are: does religiosity hamper horizontal relationships with classmates and vertical relationships with teachers? What consequence does the religious practice produce on educational achievement, and more in general on school integration? On average, religious students tend to report a higher level of integration (positive relationships with peers/teachers) compared to non-religious students, even after controlling for a wide set of covariates. In addition, they gain higher marks. Furthermore, these positive results are similar among Italian and non-Italian students: for future research, this evidence suggests that religiosity of students with an immigrant background could be considered as a resource for their educational integration, especially when schools are more welcoming towards religious diversity.