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In this study, we adopt an ecological perspective to reflect on how a specific Italian school cluster adapted to the challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic by focusing on how students experienced the interplay between continuity and change in school teaching and learning practices caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the study investigates how the school's physical/virtual learning system was (re)configured to provide new opportunities for learning to a thousand‐plus population of primary and secondary students, and how they reacted to the transition to distance learning in terms of participation, autonomy, motivation and engagement. The research adopts a mixed method approach, based on school management system data and a survey tool, and analyses the students' response to the emergency from the perspectives of the students themselves, their teachers and their parents. While these converged in positive evaluation of the experience, a number of lessons were learnt, such as the importance of building on favourable pre‐existing conditions and leveraging a solid shared school culture to promote a prompt reaction to the emergency. Significantly, students with an immigrant background displayed varying degrees of participation in online activities. Overall, for each of the three stakeholder groups surveyed, solid pre‐existing digital competence levels and close collaboration within the school community were the most important factors for non‐traumatic transition to distance learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic? Research on the relationship between the COVID‐19 pandemic and the effects on teaching and learning processes is constantly increasing.Most recently published studies focus on higher education, while very few investigate the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on K‐12 education.Very few papers have studied the interplay between change and continuity within an educational ecosystem in times of crisis.What this paper adds? This is one of the first studies to analyse the process of systematic transition from onsite learning to online learning within the Italian school system in response to the pandemic.This study employs a multiple perspective research approach to analyse Emergency Remote Education in a sizeable school cluster, with a specific focus on student response.Teachers, students and their families all saw solid pre‐existing digital competence and close school community collaboration as key factors facilitating rapid adjustment to the emergency.Implications for practice and policy Having a solid common school culture to rely on facilitates prompt emergency reaction.Encouraging the creation of professional communities of practice that comprise both expert and novice teachers can help prepare educators to deal with an educational emergency through adoption and appropriate use of technological solutions.Collaboration between school and families proves to be a key factor for dealing with emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prato, located in central Italy, is the most multi‐ethnic city in the country, hosting 20 per cent foreigner residents. It is home of one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe, specialising in the textile sector. Yet economic success does not translate into educational success for the first‐ and second‐generation Chinese students living in Prato. Early school leavings represent a pressing issue in Prato's educational system, with 16.2 per cent of all students leaving school before graduating from high school. Among foreigner students, the problem is even more alarming, reaching 50 per cent. The highest leaving rate is recorded among Chinese students. This paper examines the phenomenon of early school leavings within the Chinese community in Prato – a super‐diverse city with highly interrelated migrant dynamics. The article works to critically assess educational policies, local statistics, and ethnographic findings derived from participant observation and in‐depth interviews with headmasters, teachers, and students from one middle school (Scuola Mazzoni), three high schools (Liceo Copernico, Dagomari High School, Datini High School), and one Chinese school (Istituto Internazionale di Educazione e Mediazione Culturale) in Prato. The paper aims to explore and analyse causes for early school leaving within the Chinese community, such as flaws in the Italian legislation in conjunction with the chronic shortage of funds for schools, the clash of educational style, and the lack of parental involvement. Finally, the paper examines strategies implemented by schools in Prato in an effort to redress the phenomenon and how the low educational engagement affects the cultural, social, economic, and symbolic capital of Chinese students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the educational outcomes and the human capital accumulation of a cohort of youths, focusing on their family origin. Using a unique survey of a Northern Italian province traditionally interested by large internal migration inflows especially from the South, we find that migrants' children have a higher probability of early dropout, especially in the case of males. This evidence calls into question the integration of internal migrants, for whom education plays a crucial role, even in a period in which foreign immigration seems to be of major concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses non-compulsory secondary school enrolment of immigrant students in Italy. Such enrolment implies a voluntary decision and can influence future career paths in the labour market. The results show that the enrolment rates of immigrants are lower than those of Italians. Immigrant students prefer vocational schools and shorter-term education. The pattern of these preferences remains constant across the throughout Italy, even if Italy presents strong differences in the economic development of its regions, with rich Northern and poor Southern regions. The enrolment rates of second-generation immigrant students differ from those of first-generation students, but the size of this component is still too small to indicate a clear trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores higher education students' beliefs and attitudes concerning language learning and use in the context of learning mobility, when lingua francas - including English - are used. Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 141 Erasmus students at an Italian University. The open-ended questions were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach, and findings checked against the quantitative data. The analysis distinguishes between respondents' beliefs, that is, overt convictions influencing learning behaviour, and attitudes operating below the level of awareness. Findings address three main issues: (1) the apparent contradiction between the respondents' attitudes and beliefs regarding the opinion that lingua francas offer valuable language-learning opportunities; (2) their implicit questioning of the language-culture nexus; and (3) the study sheds light on code choice and negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National policies may have heterogeneous effects at the regional level. When coming to programmes aimed at increasing human capital, worker mobility from poorer to richer regions can reduce the benefits of the policy for the former areas. We focus on Italy and estimate the impact of education on the probability of migrating from a lagging area to a leading one. Endogeneity is addressed by exploiting an increase in the minimum school‐leaving age in an instrumental variable framework. We find that one additional year of education increases the probability to migrate by 1.7 percentage points (9% of the average migration rate). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]