The journey travelled – A view of two settings a decade apart

Inclusion is generally recognized as an ongoing, active process which reflects shifts in policies, practice and values as well as political choices made over long periods of time. Although intended as a transformative concept it can also represent a messy compromise between congealed policy positions and contradictory practices. Against this background of compromise and dissatisfaction, this study aims to examine how two schools with clear inclusive aspirations and intentions have weathered the last decade. Drawing upon two research visits ten years apart in which the schools were filmed and members of the school community were interviewed, this study reports on their perception of the journey travelled. Data from the study shows that in both cases there was a shift away from practices which were previously seen as being a route towards greater inclusion. The causes for these shifts were political, economic and social factors underpinned by the pervasive influence of the special education and medical model on the two schools’ practice and principles

Embodied Cognition and Special Education

Embodied cognition and special needs. Theotical and methodological approache

Outlook of the inspection of sprayers in Province of Trento

Mountain landscape is the environment of agriculture in Trentino. Most of the hectarage is of high quality products like apples (11,500 hectares), grapes (10,000 hectares) and lesser extent small fruits and vegetables. There is a strong co-operative spirit, and many activities are conducted in partnership form. APOT (Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers in Trentino) is a second degree Producers’ Organization of about 10,000 farms. Average size of farms is 1.5 hectares and, as a form of income integration, part-time model characterizes about 50% of them. Many housing districts are placed in sparsely among apple orchards and vineyards. Due to this condition the rural population has become more and more sensitive to issues related to spray drift. About 8,000 sprayers are in use on orchards and vineyards. To achieve a better e&cacy of treatments and rationalize use of chemicals, APOT in accordance with the local Government has decided to start the inspection activity since 1997. In addition a calibration of sprayer is made on the basis of farm orchards characteristics. Using two mobile test stations until now nearly 10,000 checks have been carried out (many sprayers have been checked twice or more). In compliance with Directive 2009/128/CE will also be organized activities for the control of sprayers used for weed control on localized application and for those in minor crops. ENAMA Guidelines have recently been made available and inspection activity is going on in close harmony with recommendations of ENAMA Working Group for national coordination on inspection activity

Towards integration of inspection procedures, calibration and drift reducing devices for an efficient use of pesticides and reduction of application impact

The fruit production of Trentino is an important industry of the local economy with a gross marketable production of about 215 million Euros with almost 75% comes by apples. The characteristics of the cultivation environments allow to get quality products. This is made possible by the constant technical updating operated by technical support of Consulting & Services Centre – CTT. This is one of reasons why IPM has come in the practice since the early 90’s and on this view the inspection of sprayers is mandatory and regularly made with $ve years interval. Many housing districts are scattered among orchards and population of rural surroundings has become more and more sensitive to issues about environmental sustainability and spray drift. Therefore vertical bench tests started to follow the standard procedures of inspection and calibration to carry the operators to a more e*cient way of application reducing drift losses. Moreover in the last years has become needful to start a series of test in order to$nd technical solutions for drift mitigation. In our view the next step to allow an adequate and e*cient use of drift reducing devices, and bring them in the practice, is to link inspection and calibration with drift reduction experiences. Informations, suggestions and adjustments are achievable by the technical sta+ of the inspection facilities (e.g. choice of a proper $lter mesh size according with the nozzle type, etc.) during inspection activity. On this view training during inspection has a key role to make the operator conscious of the most appropriate technical choices for e*cient use of pesticide application equipments