Historically, intercultural education has promoted mutual respect for contemporary societies’ diverse ways of life by redefining them as educational opportunities that can question and widen one’s – and the others’ – cultural horizons; however, as a perspective and a practice, intercultural education also aims at supporting citizens’ and immigrants’ demands that their rights be realized as well as at pointing out the reasons why such goal is not reached or is reached only through great difficulties. To achieve this, the issue of power differentials rather than celebration of diversity must be taken into consideration, and pedagogical approaches be crafted so as to make it possible to create “equitable classrooms”. It must be added that, as a result of this, current educational emphasis is on “good practices”, often disseminated among teachers by ad hoc educational services at the local level. Ce.Se.Di (Centre for Didactic Services of the Province of Turin) is one of these local institutions aiming to innovate school pedagogy and professional identity as well as to address the contemporary changes in school population. Within Ce.Se.Di cooperative learning has been promoted cooperative learning in primary and secondary schools through a group of expert teachers available to teach others that pedagogical approach. My presentation for ECER 2008 will concern the findings about the professional, pedagogical and organizational strategies both Ce.Se.Di and those teachers enact in order to make cooperative learning known and practiced in schools of the province of Turin. Findings will be gathered through participant observation of office life and organizational activities, and teachers’ life stories. Such a research, and its presentation, is relevant to this network and to ECER 2008 because it focuses on the educational efforts that have been locally sustained for many years and the results they have achieved, as well as the educational role of local institutions in realizing more equitable classrooms.

Methodology: participant observation and in depth interviews

The research aims to problematize innovative educational initiatives launched and pursued at the local level, while at the same time discussing the educational relevance of "locality" in a multicultural context