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School dropout is a multifaceted phenomenon that goes beyond the extreme act of leaving school behind without getting a diploma (Besozzi, 2006). It has to do with episodes of compulsory school evasion, dropping out, repeated failures, irregular attendance, falling behind the regular age as a result of repeats, transfers and low performance (Zurla, 2004). Among those who “fall behind”, in Italy, students with migrant background are three times more at risk of dropping out of school or of living some form of school hardship. In fact, in Italy in 2020, 35.4 % of so-called 'foreign' students experienced some form of early school dropout compared to 11% of natives (ISTAT, 2021). Nevertheless, the background of the migrant does not trigger early dropout, but rather the intertwining of multiple variables which can be compiled in three groups: Socio-economic factors, such as educational level of parents (Tarabini, 2015), belonging to single-parent families (Turner, Thiede, 2018), and geographical segregation (Rothstein, 2005); causes endogenous to the school, like peer relationships (Wang, Eccles, 2012), teacher relationships (Wolley, Kol, Bowen, 2019), and school structure (Smeyers, 2006); lastly, personal variables, such as mental health (Dinh et al., 2013), lack of engagement (Rumberger, 2011), special educational needs (Johnson, Altmaier, Richman, 1999). Thus, in order to achieve a fair and equitable education, which succeeds in implementing actions to prevent school dropout, rather than “finger pointing” the migrant background of pupils, it would be desirable to implement a pedagogy of listening (Rogers, 1951), which stems from the personal experience of the children (Dewey, 1938) and values their cultural and linguistic heritage (Gibson, Bejinez, 2002; Grassi, Hanley, Liston, 2004). Given these theoretical assumptions, embedded in a transformative worldview (Mertens, 2009), this contribution aims to investigate whether and to what extent language and cultural enhancem

La nozione di appartenenza, da sempre intimamente intrecciata ai concetti di identità, identificazione e cittadinanza, secondo le più recenti teorie etno-sociolinguistiche scavalca questa categorizzazione dogmatica e giunge ad una concettualizzazione multi-razionale, fluida e multi-relazionale (Vallentin, 2017; Kuurne, Vieno, 2022). Anche se strettamente legata al luogo, al contesto e alla posizione (Anthias, 2016), l’appartenenza racchiude in sé aspetti culturali ed esperienze sociali che connettono le persone, creando un senso di appartenenza comune non prettamente fisica (Barth, 1969). È dunque proprio grazie a questa lettura sfaccettata, che concepisce l’appartenenza come un luogo sociale caratterizzato da relazioni ed emozioni (Yuval-Davis, 2006), che si sviluppano appartenenze multiple e complesse, negoziate nel quotidiano di ciascuno. Luoghi pubblici, quali le scuole, sono catalizzatori di convivenza di appartenenze multiple e diversificate, riunite sotto un unico tetto; luoghi che accolgono bambine e bambini con repertori linguistici variegati, che appartengono a un passato migratorio, più o meno lontano, a un presente locale italiano, e a un futuro ancora tutto da scoprire. Bambini che, se correttamente guidati, possono prendere consapevolezza del proprio vissuto e valorizzarlo, stimolando la maturazione delle proprie capacità di relazione, la ricerca della propria identità nella dimensione affettiva e sociale, e il decentramento conoscitivo del proprio vissuto (Brasca, Zambelli, 1992). Inserita in un paradigma trasformativo (Kawulich, 2012), che si rifà alla pedagogia degli oppressi (Freire, 1970) e alla Social Justice, la ricerca intende, da un lato, indagare da una prospettiva etnolinguistica le diverse rappresentazioni di appartenenza dei bambini e delle bambine di una scuola primaria del comune di Milano; dall’altro, secondo un approccio pedagogico-didattico, vuole comprendere quali strategie educative possano tutelare e valorizzare la ricchezz

The European Union has set as one of the European Education Area initiative’s goals the promotion of an inclusive high-quality education. In pursuance of its aims the EU has acknowledged the relevance of the promotion of language learning and the creation of a multilingual community (EU). The importance and challenge of a multilingual mind was observed not only from a bureaucratic point of view, but also and especially from an academic perspective; over the years, more and more researchers (E.g., Volterra e Taeschner, 1978; Genesse, 1989; Romaine, 1995; Guasti, 2007; Atkinson, 2011) have conducted studies on bilingual development at an early age. Nevertheless, the creation of a multilingual and multicultural scenario raises some obstacles; in a country, such as Italy, which, in the last quarter of the 20th century, experienced an accelerated spread of the national language that led from a situation of widespread dialect monolingualism, to extensive bilingualism and in recent years back to a common Italian monolingualism (Berruto, 2021), offering an efficient pedagogical approaches and foreign language teaching methods represents a challenge to overcome. The problem of foreign language teaching grows even more complicated at pre-school age. When working with young children, rather than carrying out a traditional didactic second language teaching and learning method, which may lead to stress associated to the second language, it might be more efficient to nurture a positive attitude towards foreign languages through the implementation of a Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach. Ellis (1994), Arnold (1999) and Daloiso (2009) have noted that negative emotions related to the second language acquisition proses might jeopardize the language performance and, therefore, the creation of a multilingual mind. On the other hand, Coyle (2006) claims that a CLIL approach can motivate both language learners and teachers (ivi.), becoming a strategy for exploring d