Perceptions of the fragilities of adopted students and their families. A survey in the community of pre-service special education teachers

The presence of adopted children in classrooms is a situation that occurs fairly frequently in Italian schools. Teachers are not always able to cope with the complexity arising from the problems that adopted children present with regard to behavior management, learning difficulties, adjustment, and socialization (Ferriti & Guerrieri, 2019). To promote the right to study of all adopted children, Italian legislation refers to the Hague Convention (May 29, 1993) on the "Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption," Laws 184/83, 476/98, which ratifies the aforementioned Convention, and Law 149/2001 on adoption and foster care (Novara, Serio & Lavanco, 2016). The guidelines for the promotion of the right to study of adopted pupils were drafted by the Ministry of Education and Merit in December 2014 and were updated in March 2023 by the Joint Committee established by D.D. No. 2624 of Dec. 18.12.21 provided for in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and the CAI (Commission for International Adoption), with the collaboration of the Guarantor Authority for Children and Adolescents. These guidelines were transmitted to schools by Ministerial Note No. 1589 of April 11, 2023, to become a tool for the promotion and dissemination of a culture of adoption, acceptance, dialogue, and exchange between schools and families and also the well-being of adopted pupils and students. The University of Macerata is currently developing a project entitled "Smart solutions and educational programs for anti-fragility and inclusivity" (SAFINA), which is part of the Ecosystem Innovation, Digitization, and Sustainability for the Economy Diffused in Central Italy (VITALITY), funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. This project aims to support interventions for antifragility and resilience and among other objectives aims to build Guidelines to design inclusive pathways for educational institutions. One of the areas of intervention within socio-cultural disadvantage is that of adopted children. The purpose of the present research is to investigate future specialized teachers' perceptions of the problem of accommodating the fragility of adopted children and implementing strategies for inclusion and facilitating their inclusion in school practices. The survey sample consists of pre-service teachers who participated in the a.y. 22/23 in the activities of the Specialization Course for Educational Support Activities for Pupils with Disabilities in Preschool, Primary School, Grade I Secondary School, and Grade II Secondary School in Macerata University, to whom a semistructured questionnaire was administered to bring out their conceptualization of the problem, their experience, and their perception of the phenomenon, understood as a situation of fragility that needs specific attention. The paper will present and discuss the results of the survey and indicate learning paths for addressing the problem using individualized interventions or classroom group management strategies.