Integration and intercultural education in different social settings: comparing the cases of Trento and Bolzano

Along the years, cultural and ethnic diversity in schools of all grades has significantly increased, in all European countries. This is due to a significant extent (although not exclusively) to the increase of the number of pupils with migratory background, both first/second generations (Council of Europe 2008, 2014). Against this background, the Council of Europe (2008) and UNESCO (2006) have promoted ‘intercultural education’, intended as the equitable interaction of diverse cultures, as the main educational approach to manage growing migrant-driven cultural diversity in classrooms. However, despite their efforts to create an overarching framework for the promotion of intercultural education, we have not reached a univocal way of understanding and applying it across Europe yet (CoE, 2014). The present article investigates how migration-driven cultural diversity is understood by schoolteachers, as well as the application of the intercultural education paradigm across two different types of social settings in contemporary European societies. The first one is a predominantly mono-majority setting, characterized by the presence of a clear linguistic and cultural majority, co-existing with multiple different migrant groups. The second is a multi-majority setting (Carlà 2018, 2015), where at least two distinct autochthons linguistic and cultural groups, usually known as ‘old diversity’ (Ibid), co-exist simultaneously with mostly recently arrived migrants’ groups. I am interested in contexts where the old diversity is reflected in the institutional arrangements in place, including schools. On that basis, the article is centered around two questions: 1) How does teachers’ understanding of migration-driven cultural diversity in schools differ between social settings characterized by different levels of institutionalized cultural and linguistic differences? 2) What is the (interpretation and) application of the intercultural education paradigm by schoolteachers and how does it differ across the different types of social settings? I answer the article’s research questions by focusing on two cases that provide an ideal setting for studying these questions, i.e., the cities of Bolzano (multi-majority setting, institutionally divided between the German and the Italian groups) and Trento (mono-majority Italian setting), in the North of Italy. Based on original data collected through semi structured interviews between December 2022-April 2023, I carry out a double empirical comparison. First, I compare the existing similarities, differences, and recurring patterns in the way cultural diversity is understood and the intercultural paradigm applied, among teachers in selected Italian and German schools, in Bolzano. I am interested in the different shapes intercultural education takes and the specific purposes pursued. Thereafter, I compare these (double) perspectives with those of teachers in Trento, all working within the same type of schools, namely Italian ones. This empirical analysis contributes to the theoretical advancement of the intercultural education research literature. Most studies have investigated the application of the intercultural education framework within social settings characterized by a clear linguistic and cultural majority and several different migrant groups. Conversely, they have generally neglected the question of how cultural diversity and the intercultural education paradigm are reflected and interpreted within social settings characterized by the presence of autochthonous old diversity.