Globalization has made the world smaller. The phone in your pocket is a good example: designed in the United States or Korea, assembled in China with components made from raw materials from around the world, inside it apps developed who knows where. A long journey to get here and be used for a selfie or, why not, to listen to a podcast about continuing education.

With goods, people have also moved more and more: some driven by opportunity, some forced by necessity, making our society increasingly multicultural. This is especially evident in secondary socialization settings such as schools. Whereas in the past in Switzerland we used to speak of secondos and years later of immigration from the Balkans, today the origin of pupils has expanded considerably, who now come from the four corners of the globe.

Such diverse origins confront teachers with new needs and perspectives and lend themselves as an opportunity to imagine new teaching activities, but not only. Reflecting on cultural diversity, can provide insights to refine the approach to the individualities of a class, valuing the peculiarities of each of its members.

In this latest installment of “In Practice,” we take you around the world with:
Lorenza Rusconi-Kyburz: lecturer-researcher at the Department of Formation and Learning / Alta scuola pedagogica SUPSI and head of the CAS Interculturality and Multilingualism in Schools

Alessia Masnari and Giulia Ferdani: tenured teachers at Molino Nuovo Elementary Schools.