The initial training of educators for Early Childhood Education and Care in Italy: normative and curricular aspects

The quality of educational services for children depends structurally on the professional competence of the educators who work in them: such skills may develop within the services; however, they are mostly linked with the training itineraries that lead to practising the profession. Recent norms made mandatory an initial university training program within the undergraduate class L-19 for educators for children aged from zero to three. This norm found out that universities are at least partially equipped for the ensuing training challenge; however, a wide range of different offers marks the context. The paper, starting from a short reconnaissance of the existing norms, finds the essential characteristics that should appear in a possible academic curriculum for early childhood educators, it is based on hypotheses put forward in recent months. Such hypothesis is then compared with the present reality of the undergraduate courses in Italy within the class L-19, finding the coherence and the reasons for problems in the relationship between the state of things and the new request for training for the courses of this sector.