National indications, OK for revision but if those who enter the classroom every day also participate

It was announced a few days ago that Minister Valditara has set up a commission to revise the National Indications for the curriculum of pre-school and first cycle education, the document whose most recent version dates back to 2012 and which, on paper, aims to guide the world of schooling by defining general educational goals and specific learning objectives for the various areas of knowledge.
The commission proposed by the minister is 'composed of experts of proven scientific and professional qualification with the task of drawing up and formulating proposals aimed at revising the Directions'. A closer examination of the composition makes it clear that the members envisaged are exclusively university professors of general pedagogy, lacking experts in the didactics of the disciplines or the disciplines themselves (Italian, foreign languages, history, geography, mathematics, science, music, art and image). But, above all, the absence of profiles working in the school world on a daily basis is noticeable.

Changing the Directions in order to improve them should not be considered taboo. For example, if there are profound changes in society and in the school their modification may become a concrete need, or if aspects of the text are identified that are not adequate, a discussion is certainly desirable. However, we believe that any decision to intervene on the Directions should be preceded by a profound reflection on their effectiveness and adequacy, precisely in order to identify their critical aspects. Something that has not occurred.

The Directions, precisely because of the diversity and vastness of the themes that are included, must be the fruit of a process of involvement, interaction, sharing of different subjects, in order to find a balance between the desired learning objectives and the achievable ones. They cannot be the result of reflections that have as protagonists exclusive profiles that express only one perspective or that do not have specific competences on the learning that characterises the school. First and foremost, those stakeholders who will then be called upon to interpret and apply the Directions in schools and classrooms on a daily basis must be involved in the revision process. Not only that, in the reflection on how to modify the Directions cannot be without experts in disciplinary didactics, who with their specific expertise can make a timely contribution to any proposals for modification. The method must therefore take into account a plurality of perspectives, basing itself on dialogue and comparison between subjects with different experiences and competences, from school to university, from pedagogy to disciplinary didactics, as a privileged medium to take into account in their contents the advances in scientific research on the various subjects involved. To date, however, the revision process has not been shared, except with a generic reference (also in the reply sent by the minister to the Chamber of Deputies) to consultations with experts from schools and disciplines who will be involved at a later date.

This confrontation cannot take place downstream of the process involving the commission appointed by Minister Valditara, but must take place immediately, to allow an exchange and collaboration with those who have already asked to be integrated in the process, such as the associations of linguistic, literary and philological areas, the associations of historians and the associations of mathematicians who have sent the minister their requests for involvement. The question of the method of the revision of the Indications therefore also raises a question of merit, a word dear to Minister Valditara, and requires that those who know the merit should also be involved in order to enter into the merit of the Indications. Schools are central, as we well know, in the development of the country, and it is for this reason that any intervention on schools must not be permeated with ideologism.

* National Secretary GISCEL - Group for Intervention and Study in the Field of Language Education