Teachers’ perceptions of educational poverty. An explorative research in the secondary schools of Varese

Abstract

Fighting educational poverty is one of the main challenges for contemporary society. To face it, we have to assume a systemic perspective, guaranteeing the contribution of different subjects, each called to play its part. Pedagogical research is particularly challenged by this due to its practicalpoietic nature and its willingness to place itself at the service of social contexts. In the explorative research carried on in the secondary schools of Varese, we tried to explore educational poverty by studying its manifestations from teachers’ perspective. Collected data have highlighted many problematic situations in the classes; to face this complex situation it’s necessary both to take charge of the phenomenon of educational poverty by the educational community and to train teachers’ gaze helping them to understand students’ needs and to seize and enhance local opportunities.