With this contribution we aim to provide insight into Lamberto Borghi's thought, exploring how his educational research promoted democratic development by seeing the school as a link between local and globally community. 

Undoubtedly, Antonio Borghi (1907-2000) was one of the Italian pedagogists who has most influenced the pedagogical landscape of the twentieth century. After graduating in philosophy and German literature from the University of Pisa, he was a high school teacher for several years and in 1938, following the promulgation of fascist racial laws, he was fired for being a Jew. The escalation of the Italian political environment forced him to leave the country for the United States where he met the leading figures of the international cultural scene including Salvemini, Cassirer and Dewey. When he returned to Italy, he replaced Codignola as Chair of Pedagogy at the University of Florence, where he dedicated himself to elaborating a "secular" model of pedagogical, politically-committed research with a wide international scope.

In our contribution we will devote particular attention to his 1963 "School and Community", which investigates the relationship between the school and to the local and international community. We will show how Borghi always connects democracy with education and pedagogical research and stresses the importance of school action in the social, economic, and political transformations of history. We will then analyze his thought on the movement for European unity and on the need to build a democratic school model as a solid foundation for an international education. 

Through Borghi's thought, we will highlight how school and educational research contribute to the development of a territory, which, however, is to be understood only within a global perspective. 

The method with which we will approach the texts is historical-critical. We will set the facts and data within their historical framework, trying to bring out Borghi’s thought and his relations with the intellectuals of his time. After placing the texts in their historical context, the hermeneutic historical-critical approach will allow us to focus on Borghi’s influence on today’s pedagogy. We will make use of unpublished material and archival sources.

First, we expect to provide insight on Borghi’s theorization of the connection between school, democracy and education, linking the local context with the global one. Secondly, we expect to show how Borghi's pedagogical research was influenced not only by Dewey's thought and person as a theorist of activism and democracy, but also by other multiple sources and relationships. Throughout his life, Borghi witnessed the pedagogical significance of dialogue, which he cultivated by cherishing human relationships and exploring research paths with different worlds, such as the Catholic, Marxist and secular ones, managing to find a practical synthesis for his dialectical criticism.

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