School and immigrant families: what relationship?

Abstract

This paper addresses the topic of relationship between school and foreign families, with the aim of underlining the importance of their involvement for the educational success of pupils with a migratory background. The issue is crucial for all students, regardless of nationality, but without a doubt the relationship with immigrant families requires special attention. In various ministerial documents the relevance of the topic in question is underlined, e.g. in the Linee guida per l’accoglienza e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri of 2006 and 2014, in the 2015 Miur Note, “Diversi da chi?”, and, more recently, in the document Orientamenti interculturali (2022). Despite the requests contained in the ministerial documents, the involvement of the families of foreign students in Italian schools still presents critical issues. It is therefore appropriate that pedagogy, especially from an intercultural perspective, encourages reflection on this aspect.