End of the program

Ciao everyone,

This is my last blog from Rome. What an intense month! We truly did a lot - I can't even begin to describe what we did, what happened, and all the emotions that have gone along with it. In terms of things happening outside of the content of the program, we had health problems/scares, people losing things or getting things stolen, emotional ups and downs. And in terms of the program, instead of winding down the last week, our program got more busy with all the different school visits. All in all, most of the students experienced and observed the power of schools. In contrast to the beginning of the program when the different people from organizations talked about the depressing state of affairs of the legal protections and citizenship pathway for students (that along the way others talked about too), this last week we also observed the caring of teachers, strong leaders, and some amazing schooling environments. We were mainly at 2 schools. The Iqbal Masih school is really one of a kind, with the strong relationship it has fostered with the Rom people around it for the last 20 years (one that is on its way to being threatened because of the strong persecution they are facing by Italian society and the law enforcement officials). This school was holding a sit-in with parents taking turns to sit-in and occupy the school each day of this first week of school; they were protesting the cut in educational funds, in general, but in particular, the proposal by the new Education minister to move to a one teacher system in the elementary schools (from its 2 teachers per school) which would especially affect different forms of extra curricular activities like drama and music, as well as extra support that is given to children experiencing different forms of difficulty, such as immigrant children. One of the things that really stuck out was the strong affection the teachers show for the kids - both physical and emotional - this was especially strong with kids with disabilities who are included in the classroom and have a resource teacher for them. Similar to the States, it seemed that teachers in middle schools and high schools have a more difficult time to create such environments for their students as we saw in the Manin Middle School and we heard from the teachers and others. On Wednesday of this week, after I provided a short presentation with the background on schools and immigrant students as well as my propsition that additive discourses in educational settings can be used to push back against the subtractive discourses in larger Italian society, the students in the program presented their extremely well documented projects on different subjects - Lia and Jamie started with a presentation on assimilation and integration and how these themes play out in government regulations as well as the schools. Then, Anjali and Jasmine discussed how the curriculum in the schools addressed inclusion and integration; Manmeet, Marissa and Irene presented their project on teacher attitudes and professional development in relation to immigrant children. Next, Maia and Megan explained how Italian as a second language is approached in the schools and Sterling and Trina focused on the identity of the children and how this gets constructed. The last two presentations were Emelia's and Gentry's on the difference between younger and older immigrants and Brukab and Sam's presentation on immigrant children and access to higher education. The program ended in a wonderful way - after a heavy, Roman group meal where we all shared our highs and lows and our biggest learnings from the program, we had an emotional and powerful conversation with a group called G2 - the second generation immigrants who have a platform for advocating their rights in Italian society. Four of them came to talk to us about their challenges and plights - since Italian law doesn't provide them citizenship, they discussed the different hurdles that they face. It was a wonderful way to end the program - to really talk to these young adults and hear about their hopes and fears. I have to say that I am really spent from this program but it has definitely been one of the most rewarding professional experiences I have had - arrivederci, Roma - e buongiorno Seattle!