Factors of Educational Poverty and Resilience Responses in L’Aquila’s Young Population

Abstract

Disasters destabilise the lives of both individuals and communities, starting from trauma situations and stressful conditions that do not only characterise the first months of an emergency. Following the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, the problem of not only material but also cultural reconstruction became evident, considering the new social and economic dynamics that have greatly destabilised the quality of life of individuals, groups (families) and educational institutions (schools) in the post-emergency. Over the last few years, situations of educational poverty have evidently increased, especially among young people. In this context, several studies showed problems of social and individual fragility. Some educational projects and paths have been activated, aimed at responding to these critical issues and supporting both social and individual resilience. After over a decade from the seismic event, it is therefore possible to begin to reflect, especially with those individuals affected by the earthquake when they were children or teenagers. This chapter presents a study reflecting on the above. The qualitative study included interviews with fifteen girls and boys with the aim of reconstructing their “educational biographies” in the scenario of the reorganisation of urban, family and school life. The intention of the interviews was to search for possible causes of educational successes or failures and understand which forms of resilience—both individual and institutional resilience—and which vulnerability factors to conditions of educational poverty are at stake.