The Italian Leadership on Inclusive Education: Myth or Reality?

Background: Italy is internationally known as a Country with a longstanding “tradition” of inclusive education.Objective: Aim of the paper is to provide a frame on the educational policies that, since 1970s, have steered the school system according to a “fully inclusive” model, highlighting the instruments of teaching – learning and evaluation tools for assessing the quality of the inclusive processes.Methodology: Starting from primary and secondary legislative sources, the paper identifies three main focus points: the passage from the inclusive “principle” to the teaching – learning practices; the tools for answering special educational needs; the tools for assessing the quality of inclusive processes.Discussion: Even though there are many efforts to align to international legislative regulations and to modernize the concept of inclusive education, Italian reality seems to be ossified in self-referential attitudes, beliefs and practices that saturate the school system. The paper outlines the need for defining new systemic research approaches that can validate this long educational tradition.