For a multivocal framework of second chance schools in Europe. The specificity of the Italian case

Abstract

Dating back to 1995 is the White Paper on Education and Training in which European policy proposed a series of measures to combat the social exclusion of young adults. Prominent among them was the pilot project of second chance schools, with the aim of reintegrating young people without a diploma into innovative training paths capable of instilling new motivation in a close alliance between school and territory. The model has proved successful: second chance schools have in fact spread throughout Europe, giving rise in some countries to true national networks (as in France and Spain), until the birth of a European network (E2C). These schools, however, have taken on different organizational forms and educational-didactic methodologies in the various territories: for this reason, the contribution intends to investigate the specificity of second-chance in Italy, which differs from most other European countries in terms of the target concerned (students of compulsory school age rather than those of legal age or those with only a lower license), educational objectives and managerial and educational arrangements. To this end, the reflection will be enriched by the first outcomes of a second chance mapping that is affecting the Lombardy region.