Lecco (Italy). On 29 February and 1 March 2024, the national event “100 visions for the future of education” was held in Florence, at the Innovation Center of Fondazione CR Firenze, to celebrate educational innovation in Italy and network among leaders.
During the days – promoted by Ashoka Italia, a network of social entrepreneurs that promotes change, with the contribution of Foundation CR Firenze, Foundation for the School, Foundation San Zeno, Foundation Pietro Pittini, KPMG Foundation, and with the patronage of INDIRE, the National Institute of Documentation, Innovation, and Educational Research of the Italian Ministry of Education – different themes related to the transformation of education were explored, offering moments of reflection, inspiration, and sharing.
The event is part of the wider research-action process of Educational Innovation Mapping, conducted by Ashoka Italy together with 17 partners and supporters, that has reviewed over 1250 realities on the national territory and has returned a dynamic profile and fermented panorama of educational innovation in Italy. On 14 December 2023, Ashoka presented to the Chamber of Deputies the results of the survey collected in the report “Roads of Innovation. Following the transformation of education in Italy” and launched a web platform containing 100 cutting-edge industry profiles of the sector (https://www.mappaturainnovazione.it/).
Included among these profiles was Everyone’s World Project of Mary Help of Christians Institute of Lecco, of the Lombardy Holy Family Province (ILO), which was recognized among the 100 innovative Italian realities.
Everyone’s World is an innovative educational model, replicable in many school contexts, which aims to make young people aware, helping them to understand the needs of others and take care of them. In particular, it intends to respond to the challenge of the present time, that of having a systemic vision, which necessarily involves multiple points of view, which cannot be limited to those offered by individual disciplines or the narrowness of the school walls.
The project has in fact led the students to confront different actors in and outside Italy, to become, with the contribution of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo BCC of Valsassina, an exhibition presented at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence during the National Festival of Civil Economy 2023 and at Assisi at the global event Economy of Francis.
“We are very proud of this important recognition,” said Prof. Laura Arrigoni on her return from Florence, “which makes us understand that we are going in the right direction, that of a school that innovates and that knows how to provide more and more opportunities for growth and comparison to students. In particular, now that we are in the midst of a revolution, the school must be the locomotive of this change.”
“’100 visions for the future of education’ was a festival, an occasion to celebrate and thank all those who, with hard work and passion, from below are implementing a change in the educational system. We have been able to intercept hundreds of extraordinary experiences, without territorial distinction, innovation flourishes everywhere,” said Federico Mento, Director of Ashoka Italy at the end of the event.
“I think of an idea of education that embraces the whole of the person’s life: The children of today and tomorrow will have to return to school several times in the course of their lives because they will change jobs several times and must have the skills to live these changes in a proactive and serene way. This requires a more agile school that invests in innovation and stimulates the creativity of individuals. And we need educational communities that generate alliances, that support the sense of belonging to territories and among people,” affirmed Francesco Profumo, Professor of the Polytechnic of Turin.
Sister Marilisa Miotti, FMA, Principal of IMA, motivates and supports participation in educational projects and processes, in which young people are at the center, “The path of innovation is a long journey, but full of stimuli that you can follow with the passion that normally distinguishes us and with the eye always focused on an agile and robust education, starting from experiences. For this reason, we cannot escape from participating in these kinds of events that help us to get involved and continue to improve”.
