From Integration to Inclusion: Some Critical Issues about Teacher Training in the Italian Experience

Starting from the 70s of the last century, Italy has represented a particular reference point, in Europe, with regard to the integration of persons with disabilities into public training courses, first at school and then at University level. In the last fifteen years we have moved on to consider the possibility of making the training path not only able to integrate but also to include persons with disabilities and more generally anyone with a significant difference in terms of behavior models and ability and skills learning compared to typical development. What practices have become necessary for training effective inclusive teachers, specialized in the various Neurodevelopmental Disorders as well as in curricular teaching? The article aims to critically discuss the path from integration to inclusion especially with regard to Italy, through a double glance: the theoretical one and the experiential one, analyzed through data collection. From the theoretical point of view we believe that the inclusive principle should not only look at people and their relationships, but also the point of view of the different subjects and their possibility to dialogue, and tolerate the conflict of interpretation. This view should turn itself into a resource for understanding in a critical way the socio-psycho-pedagogical dynamics that regulate the relationship with diversity. From the surveys significant progress is shown in inclusive teaching practices, but much work still needs to be done especially in relation to training students with disabilities to achieving adult life, autonomy and, where possible, work-life integration.