Abstract
The Italian school system has a long tradition of inclusive education, starting in the 1970s with the first experiences of integrating students with disabilities into regular schools. Since then, legislation has developed to guarantee students with disabilities and other special educational needs the right to individualization and personalization. This article presents the main developments in Italian inclusive education, documenting both positive outcomes and ongoing challenges, especially those which could be of interest for international readers. The article is structured around three relevant themes: the persistent influence of an individual-medical model of disability on school practices; support opportunities and additional resources for inclusion; and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and their role in the improvement of the quality of inclusion.
Highlights
In this article, we investigate the main developments and challenges of inclusive education in the Italian school system, utilizing the available research data to present positive innovations, critical challenges, and potential developments
This article presents the main developments in Italian inclusive education, documenting both positive outcomes and ongoing challenges, especially those which could be of interest for international readers
We investigate the main developments and challenges of inclusive education in the Italian school system, utilizing the available research data to present positive innovations, critical challenges, and potential developments
Summary
As discussed in the previous section, school legislation recognizes three main categories of SENs entitled to an IEP: disabilities, specific learning disabilities, and other special educational needs. Regarding the last category of “other SEN”, it was conceived of as a sort of “residual category” for other diagnosable disorders that are not recognized by the other two categories (attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, language disorders, etc.), and for different forms of social disadvantage For the latter, no formal diagnosis is needed: the law makes it the responsibility of the teaching team to decide whether the student has needs that require the activation of differentiation measures formalized in an individual learning plan. For Italy, data on students without Italian citizenship and with a disability statement confirm this concern (MIUR 2019) More research on this topic is needed, with reference to the overrepresentation of male students among all categories of needs recognized by Italian law. Even if the system is acting more and more within a rights-based approach, trying to adopt a bio-psycho-social and relational perspective, the strong link between medical statements and allocation of provisions raises many issues and challenges, some of which deserve further attention in research
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