Panel G.19 — The topicality of the School of Barbiana on the centenary of the birth of don Lorenzo Milani
Convenors Luca Toschi (Centro Ricerche “Scientia Atque Usus”, Italy)
Keywords Lorenzo Milani; pedagogical and sociological legacy; inequality; social justice
On May 27, 2024, a few days before the Third International Conference of the journal “Scuola Democratica”, will end the year dedicated to the celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Don Lorenzo Milani, one of the undisputed protagonists of the democratization of Italian schools in the second half of the 20th century.
The panel aims to host qualified contributions – starting from those of the members of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Centro Generativo “Don Lorenzo Milani and Scuola di Barbiana” (www.sau-centroricerche.org/centro-don-milani)- to draw up, both from a theoretical and practical point of view, an assessment of the legacy and the forms of actualization of the experience of the School of Barbiana in today’s Italian school. The topics of interest will range from the values that underlie the School of Barbiana (for example: equality and social justice, combating school dropout, speech as a prerequisite for the exercise of citizenship) to the practices adopted (for example: collective writing, peer education, full time school, use of newspapers in education, relationship between knowledge and know-how, civic education and Constitution), up to the relationship with other pedagogical/cultural traditions and their representatives (for example: Mario Lodi and the Educational Cooperation Movement, Paulo Freire and the critical pedagogy, Aldo Capitini and the nonviolent movement). Contributions from different disciplinary fields will be encouraged and welcomed, including: pedagogy, sociology, philosophy, history.
Luca Toschi is a founding member of the Fondazione Don Lorenzo Milani and coordinator of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the Centro Generativo “Don Lorenzo Milani e Scuola di Barbiana”. The Generative Center is a project by the “scientia Atque usus” Research Center for Generative Communication ETS in collaboration with Fondazione don Lorenzo Milani and Fondazione CR Firenze to encourage the creation of a community committed to reflecting on social, cultural and religious issues inspired by the teaching and testimony of Don Milani with the aim of overcoming the current critical issues related to communication education and inclusion, on which Don Milani’s thoughts and practices still offer fundamental ideas today. But, above all, it aims to give voice to the many actualization projects that are made of Don Milani’s thoughts at a national and international level, in the world of schools and beyond.
The “scientia Atque usus” Research Center for Generative Communication ETS will make his Atque Integrated Environment (https://www.sau-centroricerche.org/ambiente-integrato/) available to speakers and participants to document and share resources and initiatives that will emerge from the speakers’ interventions.