The Future of Education

The current proposal explores the intersection between migratory status and disability: it asks how students with migratory background are managed within the classroom. Quantitative literature explained differences between natives and migrants resulting from primary and secondary effects [1]. Migrant students would perform worse than their Italian counterparts mainly because socio-economic status [2]. Further research has introduced tertiary effects [3] attributable to teachers’ and schools’ action [4]. This literature reaffirmed the differential management between Italian and migrant students, in terms of evaluation [5] and track choices [6]. The interest on classroom dynamics requires inspection of management of migrant pupils and interculturalism [7]. The current proposal analyses the case of disadvantaged students, described as a category of special education [8] [9]. Findings are from qualitative interviews with 54 Lower Secondary school professors aimed at understanding rationale for administering the Disadvantaged label. Data analysis was conducted following a Disability Race Critical approach [10] [11]. Similar works highlighted the “SENization” of migrant children within supposedly inclusive policies [12]. The proposal applies the notion of discrimination towards migrants and students with disabilities as mutually constitutive to the broader case of migrant pupils. The contribution expands DisCrit’s approach by pointing to deficit-thinking [13] as a central category in the process of assigning the Disadvantage label. The research shows how administration of Personalized Didactic Plans consists in an ableist manoeuvre [14].It penalizes students far from the ideology of normalcy [15] and reproduces educational inequalities. The proposal explores the future of education in considering a growing non-native population and the academic inequalities perpetrated at a micro-level.