RELIGIOSITY AND SCHOOL INTEGRATION AMONG ITALIAN AND NON-ITALIAN STUDENTS. RESULTS FROM A SURVEY IN MULTI-ETHNIC CLASSROOMS

The paper investigates the role of religion among a group of adolescents (11-15-year-old) surveyed in Italian multicultural schools. The multicultural classrooms (with over 30% of pupils with ethnic background) may be interpreted as social spaces for inter-ethnic coexistence, open to ethnic and religious diversity. We rely on a sample of 1,040 students enrolled in lower secondary education in Lombardy in 2011 on which we investigate religiosity, conceptualized as consisting of religious belonging and religious practice. The investigation questions are: does religiosity hamper horizontal relationships with classmates and vertical relationships with teachers? What consequence does the religious practice produce on educational achievement, and more in general on school integration? On average, religious students tend to report a higher level of integration (positive relationships with peers/teachers) compared to non-religious students, even after controlling for a wide set of covariates. In addition, they gain higher marks. Furthermore, these positive results are similar among Italian and non-Italian students: for future research, this evidence suggests that religiosity of students with an immigrant background could be considered as a resource for their educational integration, especially when schools are more welcoming towards religious diversity

NURE: An ERC project to study nuclear reactions for neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research “beyond Standard Model” and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the 0νββ decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extract information on the 0νββ Nuclear Matrix Elements. In DCE reactions and ββ decay indeed the initial and final nuclear states are the same and the transition operators have similar structure. Thus the measurement of the DCE absolute cross-sections can give crucial information on ββ matrix elements. In a wider view, the NUMEN international collaboration plans a major upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities in the next years in order to increase the experimental production of nuclei of at least two orders of magnitude, thus making feasible a systematic study of all the cases of interest as candidates for 0νββ

The Muon Portal Project: construction and preliminary tests of the detection modules

In the last years, the demand for increasing the control security at borders and ports has lead to the development of innovative and reliable techniques to inspect the contents of traveling containers. Traditional systems based on X-ray inspection cannot be employed on occupied vehicles, since the energy or dose required would be too high in order to penetrate big cargos.One of the most promising technique is the so-called muon tomography: by measuring the deflection suffered by cosmic muons when traversing high-Z materials, it is possible to reconstruct a 3D image of the volume to be inspected and detect the presence of fissile (U, Pu) samples in a reasonable amount of time (a few minutes). The Muon Portal is a recently started Project aiming at the construction of a large area tracking detector that exploits the muon tomography technique to inspect the contents of traveling cargo containers. The detection setup is based on eight position-sensitive planes (giving X- and Y-coordinates). Each detection planes are segmented into strips of extruded plastic scintillators with wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibres to transport the light produced in the scintillator material to the photo-sensors at one of the fibre ends. In this Thesis the relevance of the muon tomography technique, the design of the Muon Portal Project, the characterization of scintillator strips, WLS fibers and SiPM devices for the detection modules are discussed. Some preliminary results on the tests of the first detection modules, the current installation status and a possible use of the Muon Portal detector in cosmic ray physics are also presented

L'altra faccia della segregazione scolastica. Gli insegnanti di passaggio nelle classi ad alta concentrazione di studenti con background migratorio

While student segregation in Italian schools and classes has been extensively investigated, the characteristics of teachers assigned to classes with students from migrant backgrounds have not yet been studied. This paper, based on several waves of INVALSI data, examines the association between these two phenomena, focusing on teachers who are not permanent in the class due to fixed-term contracts and/or because their turnover among schools. Although variations across grades and subjects are detected, the analyses conducted support the idea that it is important to consider the other side of the segregation process, namely the one regarding substitute teachers in classes with high ratios of migrant students

Lezioni dal Covid-19: il lavoro degli insegnanti tra autonomia estrema e nuove collegialità

Due to the unexpected pandemic crisis, teachers were forced to face the challenges imposed by social distancing. Within a few weeks of the national closure of the schools, Distance Learning (DL) was activated to guarantee school service continuity. The article reconstructs – through qualitative empirical material – how teachers handled DL and how they defined its heterogeneous forms in each school. In this article, it is shown how the sudden translation of school into the digital world took place. We focus on the interplay of teachers’ autonomy and collegiality, trying to throw light on how heterogeneous solutions to the pandemic, based on remote working, emerged within Italian schools