« Italy » in BROEKHUIZEN., WOLF K., FRANCOT R., MOSER T., PASTORI G., NURSE L., MELHUISH E., LESEMAN P., Resources, experiences, and support needs of families in disadvantaged communities

The present chapter focuses on the qualitative Children Study conducted in Italy as part of the ISOTIS cross-cultural study. The main aims of the Children Study were to explore children’s views on inclusion, well-being at school and to elicit children’s proposals to make their school (more) inclusive. In Italy, the fieldwork was carried out in two preschool classes, one primary school class, and in an after-school educational program run by Save the Children Italy. High levels of cultural and social diversity characterized all the three sites. This chapter will provide an overview of the characteristics of each site, the participants and the research procedure in the all three contexts, but the initial tentative data analysis will focus only on the study conducted with preschool children. The preschoolers were highly engaged in the research and advanced several proposals to make their school more inclusive and welcoming. Some of those proposals were actually implemented, showing children that their voices were taken into account seriously, and contributing to give visibility to multilingualism in their preschool context. Besides this educational impact, the study had also a formative impact on the teachers involved, who became more aware of children’s competencies and experienced the value of participatory methodologies.