Tutors’ relational professionalism and care-based personalisation in Italy: facilitating innovation in a formalist school culture

Progressivist approaches to teaching and learning are rare in the Italian school system. Equality of inputs, whole class teaching and curriculum transmission are preferred. However, the case of a vocational education and training (VET) programme, run by a private State-recognised school, shows a way forward to introduce personalised approaches in school systems characterised by formalist pedagogies. Constructivist teaching and personalised education are not, as a rule, promoted by teachers at the classroom level, due to a complexity of structural and organisational reasons that this paper will present. The difficult task of supporting fragile pupils who have experienced failure within the State school system is addressed by tutors-educators operating at the school and individual levels. We show how tutors’ relational professionalism and their role of care are valuable instructional and educational resources. The data reported are based on direct observations, semi-structured interviews, and follow-up focus groups with key actors in the field. This theory-testing case study shows how a formalist culture has evolved into a student-centred organisational model. The ‘affective’ aspect of justice in schools represents a way forward to facilitate radical innovation in formalist cultures, in order to adapt teaching and learning to all students.