FORMALIZATION OF MODELS AND STRATEGIES FOR DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN A MULTIETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL SCHOOL

Globalization processes and international migration modifies society and education from the bottom and sets a number of crucial challenges for the redefinition of social life in Western contexts (Bauman, 2000; Castles, 2002; Beck, 2003). “New generations” have grown in Western societies, they are “acculturated” to the lifestyle of the receiving country and they show increasingly mixed cultural traits and plural identities (Portes, 2004; Rubén & Rumbaut, 2004). This “new” youth leads to questions on the equality of treatment and opportunities for social promotion (Besozzi et al., 2009). The challenge that a multiethnic society has to face rests in its ability to build new forms of social bond and “flexible belonging”, and to create new forms of integration at both a juridical and social-economic level. School is central to the quality of our lives in a pluralist society, because it has a strategic role in forming the citizens of tomorrow and it is a key institution for the acquisition of the necessary competences that help promote the social integration of new generations. The study of “new generations” and their scholastic experience becomes an important area of discussion and includes: the future of contemporary societies; the possibility of economic and cultural enrichment; new forms of social cohesion; the formation of mixed cultural identities (Kymlicka, 1995; Ambrosini & Molina, 2004; Sassen, 2007).