School between equity and inequalities: A pedagogical reflection on the Italian context

This chapter aims to contribute to pedagogical reflection on the issue of equity in education, placing a specific focus on the Italian context. Having traced a normative and institutional framework on the Italian school system, old and new inequalities that impact students' educational experience will be analyzed. There is an urgent need to focus on nontraditional factors of inequality: they are produced by the school itself, combined with classical causes of inequality (socioeconomic and sociocultural background), and produce unprecedented forms of inequity. It is therefore necessary to understand how to take action to promote equity in school and build a more equitable society. The idea is that creative and courageous use of school autonomy is helpful in overcoming current inequalities. From this perspective, talking about educational justice rather than restorative justice allows us to construct a paradigm that combines the demands of equity and social justice with some aspects of restorative justice without giving in to the risk of compensatory pedagogy.