Gender, Class and Ethnicity in Italian Education

The book analyses how lines of (non)belonging are traced and how notions of (non)belonging circulate around and are attached to students from immigrant backgrounds.

The book analyses how lines of (non)belonging are traced and how notions of (non)belonging circulate around and are attached to students from immigrant backgrounds. Such circulations coalesce around values and practices linked to gendered, ethnic majority middle-class norms, through which difference is positioned and opposed in hierarchical terms.

This project analyses the relationship between teachers’ identities and their attitudes and pedagogic dispositions towards students from immigrant backgrounds, showing how these affect each other, contributing to their state of (non)belonging in the educational setting and in the wider society. Attention is brought to the pervasive and normalised background of neoliberal ideology, permeating the educational environment. In examining the (problematic) relationship between the previous elements, the book uncovers the intersectional reproduction of lines of belonging - and not belonging.

While the analysis is centred on a study in Italy, it is situated within and provides links to international connections, facilitating a wider and global understanding of issues related to social justice. The book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers across sociology, education, gender, and cultural studies. Due to the intersectional approach and the width of the issues explored, it will be of use to policymakers and practitioners.