Inclusion: How Crucial Is Teacher Education? Special Teacher Education and Recruitment as Non-Traditional Factors of Inequality for the Quality of Inclusion in the Italian Context

The role of schools in achieving an ever-higher degree of social justice is internationally recognised: hence the need to assume equity as a pedagogical horizon of meaning to improve people’s life trajectories through education. Nevertheless, various inequalities impact on students’ paths: we propose the category of non-traditional factors of inequality to understand how school systems and schools create inequalities. We fit into the international debate on the shortage of specialised special needs teachers; our aim is to understand how and why special teacher education and recruitment are configured as non-traditional factors of inequality. Our focus on the Italian context allows us to give a contextual interpretation of the phenomenon. After an excursus on the legislation in terms of special teacher education and recruitment, we analyse the results of a study conducted between February and April 2023 to understand (1) if and why special teacher education and recruitment can be considered non-traditional factors of inequality that undermine inclusion quality and (2) what teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on the phenomenon are. After a data analysis using the Ministry of Education and ISTAT databases, two asynchronous online focus groups were conducted in two Facebook communities with parents and teachers. Ministry of Education and ISTAT data confirm that special teacher education and recruitment are non-traditional factors of inequality; the testimonies collected in the focus groups also reveal distorting dynamics in terms of equity and inclusion quality. Therefore, reflection is needed (in Italy but not only) to make special teacher education and recruitment more effective.