Reform and reaction: creating new education and training structures in Italy - John Polesel

Despite concerns regarding Italy's high levels of early school-leaving, regional differences in educational outcomes and persistent inequalities, efforts to reform the country's complex system of senior secondary schooling have been repeatedly frustrated. Regarded by the left as contributing to the reproduction of social inequalities, Italy's dual-track system of academic and vocational secondary schools has been the focus of many reform efforts, for the most part unsuccessful. Recent proposal for reform, initiated by the recently deposed right-wing Government coalition, reflected a very different approach to change, reinforcing the division between the academic and the vocational in Italy's schools and largely devolving responsibility for vocational education and training to the regions. This article examines the proposals and concludes, that, like past initiatives, they were largely ideologically driven, focusing on the structures of schooling rather than teaching and learning. The article pointed to the need for the current Government to base change on a strong theoretical foundation and on focused research into the outcomes of schooling for different student groups.
From: Comparative Education, Vol. 42 no. 4 (2006), pp. 549-562