I am actually carrying-out a research project for a doctoral thesis in four primary schools and one secondary school in Bolzano (Italy). Purpose of my research is to investigate the relationships between forms of collaboration and an appropriate organizational culture in the school and the practices of inclusive education. 

My research question is how and to what extent participation and collaboration of different stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, educators, school managers), in other terms building an educational community, can play a role in improving the quality of inclusive education and reducing marginalization.  Could these elements also have a positive impact on teacher and pupil's wellbeing at school as working and learning place? 

The research topic has also a particular relevance for the European educational contexts. In fact, the educational policy in many countries, such as Germany and Austria, actually attempts to introduce in the school systems the basic principles of the UNESCO documents on Inclusive Education, e.g. by eliminating or reducing the presence of special/separated schools for pupils with special educational needs.

These countries are facing, at the same time, the problem of how the school communities should be best prepared to manage this big change in culture, values and practices within the school institutions, in order to realize "full inclusive school-systems".

However, in my country (Italy), where the inclusion in "normal" schools of students with disabilities is being for many years reality, the process of making the school system "completely" inclusive is not without ambiguities.

The existence of "specialized teachers for children with disabilities" for example, is by many authors (e.g. D'Alessio, 2011) regarded as an obstacle on the way towards real and effective practices of inclusive education and phenomena such as push and pulling-out (students with SEN, which learn in separated spaces with special teachers) are not completely disappeared in Italian schools. At the same time, was the Italian normative framework requires, is by many teachers curiously seen as a “bureaucratic fulfillment”.

In order to answer my research-question, I assume a socio-constructivist and participatory framework. The role of the researcher, in this case, is to empower the participants by building new knowledge and new skills: knowledge and skills which do not "fall from the sky", do not come (only) from studies or previous knowledge of the researcher, being rather activated by the context itself.

Aim of this partnership between practitioners and researcher is therefore not only, as already argued by other authors, the self-reflexion on the assumptions on which teachers’ work is based (Ainscow, M., Booth, T., & Dyson, A. 2004). The aim is also the working-though of an organizational culture and practices which could both eliminate phenomena of “taking-care-delegation” of children with SEN to the “special teachers” or “special educators” and improve learning outcomes for all the students.

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