Intercultural Mentoring tools to support migrant integration at school (INTO)

[ES] Within the scope of European policies and to combat educational disadvantages for migrant children, numerous actions have been taken to improve the position of migrant children in education. In secondary education the emphasis lies on diversification of the offered teaching methods and extra guidance of the pupils. Some schools in Europe have set up measures to increase the continuity of the educational support in terms of migrant pupil inclusion and orientation. Despite these measures, dropout rates are still high among migrant youth and compared to their native peers a disproportionately large number attend the lowest levels of secondary school after completing primary school. The disappointing results of regular guidance are partly the reason for the development of more innovative forms of guidance. The project aims to promote strategies and methods that help students with a migrant background at risk of ESL to maintain their motivation through the development, testing and validation of an Intercultural Mentoring Programme based on the empowered peer education methodology.The Intercultural mentor profile will be adapted to different European contexts, developed in collaboration with at least 100 school staff members (headmaster and secondary school teachers from 5 different European countries) and tested with at least 50 students with a migrant background trained as Intercultural Mentors. The impact of the project will be sustained thanks to its outcomes: (i) Didactic Kit: conceived as self-teaching materials will contain the training framework to directly implement the model of intervention in secondary schools system; (ii) Guideline Handbook: support the future implementation of training courses – by other education organizations and secondary school, (iii) Project website: it will include not only the results and materials of the project (handbooks, e-learning platform, reports, etc.) but will also include updated information on young migrants

Intercultural Education through Religious Studies (IERS): COMENIUS Multilateral project

[EN] Religious and cultural diversity are today more than ever a critical and political challenge as the recent emergencies related to geo-political and economical global transformations clearly show. European countries are concerned by a big immigration flow that demands an educational effort in order to foster the mutual understanding and integration. According to Toledo guiding principles, IERS project meets the needs of an innovative approach in teaching about religions and beliefs at school by providing teachers of humanistic disciplines with new tools that help teachers and pupils to plunge deeper into religions and cultures of non-european countries, as well as raising the knowledge of the religious traditions that contributed to the common European cultural Identity, promoting it in the best way suited for encourage intra -and extra- European cultural dialogue attitudes. The Project aims to support the development of social, civic and intercultural transversal key competences by educating towards a positive understanding of cultural and religious differences, a readiness to engage in dialogue and to avoid or manage conflicts. By encouraging teachers and pupils to expose themselves to the differences and commonalities of religious topics, it promotes also the values of democracy, equality and human rights as it deals with social and civic dimensions of both intercultural and interreligious dialogue. The project will involve high school in-service teachers by developing a complete set of didactical tools and training experiences. The results will be: 1. A baseline study which analyzes the actual situation of teaching about religions throughout Europe; 2. New innovative didactic tools such as Multimedia Digital Modules to be used in classroom activities, accompanied by a Handbook with didactical guidelines for teachers. 3. Teacher support activities (virtual community, training activities, developing of didactical projects to apply in classroom)

I libri per le scuole italiane all’estero (1890-1943). Profili editoriali e bibliografici

The essay reconstructs the entire corpus of books for abroad Italian schools, both primary and secondary. The textbooks were designed, edited and printed, on state (primary schools) or private (secondary schools) impulse, during a period of over half a century of Italian history (1890-1943). This period marks the birth and end of this editorial experience. The typographical and editorial aspects of this book production are studied with particular attention to the fascist texts, in their various editions and re-impressions and material and editorial quality. The essay even reports the changes introduced from time to time in this sort of books, the printers, the circulation and the economic effort both with respect to the individual texts (when known) and as a whole, the fees recognized to publishers, authors and illustrators. The study is based on direct consultation of primary printed sources, contemporary secondary sources, archival sources and specific scientific literature.L’articolo ricostruisce l’intero corpus dei libri per le scuole italiane all’estero, primarie e secondarie, appositamente pensati, editi e stampati, su prevalente impulso statale (scuole primarie) o privato (scuole secondarie), durante un arco temporale di oltre mezzo secolo di storia italiana (1890-1943), che segna nascita e termine di questa esperienza. Sono approfonditi gli aspetti tipografico-editoriali di questa produzione libraria, con particolare attenzione ai testi unici fascisti, nelle sue diverse edizioni e re-impressioni, nella ‘fattura’ e qualità editoriali; sono segnalate le modifiche di volta in volta introdotte, gli stampatori, le tirature e la circolazione di questi libri, lo sforzo economico affrontato sia rispetto ai singoli testi (quando noto) sia nel suo complesso, i compensi riconosciuti agli editori, autori e illustratori. Lo studio è stato realizzato attraverso la diretta consultazione delle fonti primarie a stampa, delle fonti secondarie coeve, delle fonti archivistiche e della letteratura scientifica in materia di libro scolastico per l’estero

Differences among young adults, adults and elderly chronic myeloid leukemia patients

Background: The incidence of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) increases with age, but it is unclear how the characteristics of the disease vary with age. In children, where CML is very rare, it presents with more aggressive features, including huge splenomegaly, higher cell count and higher blast cell percentage. Patients and methods: To investigate if after childhood the disease maintains or loses these characteristics of aggressiveness, we analyzed 2784 adult patients, at least 18 years old, registered by GIMEMA CMLWP over a 40-year period. Results: Young adults (YAs: 18-29 years old) significantly differed from adults (30-59 years old) and elderly patients (at least 60 years old) particularly for the frequency of splenomegaly (71%, 63% and 55%, P < 0.001), and the greater spleen size (median value: 4.5, 3.0 and 1.0 cm, P < 0.001). According to the EUTOS score, that is age-independent, high-risk patients were more frequent among YAs, than among adult and elderly patients (18%, 9% and 6%, P < 0.001). In tyrosine kinase inhibitors-treated patients, the rates of complete cytogenetic and major molecular response were lower in YAs, and the probability of transformation was higher (16%, 5% and 7%, P = 0.011). Conclusions: The characteristics of CML or the host response to leukemia differ with age. The knowledge of these differences and of their causes may help to refine the treatment and to improve the outcome