Is there leeway for Italian policy learning from advanced experiences in home language education? A comparative case study of Austria, Sweden and Italy

Notwithstanding the linguistic hyperdiversity that characterizes most European countries and the evidence that points to the value of migrant languages as resources for host societies, home language (HL) education is taken seriously and developed only in a few countries in Europe. The article aims to identify the policy design and implementation elements that can lead to effective HL teaching as well as the contextual and institutional premises that can facilitate or hamper processes of policy learning flowing from advanced HL education experiences (in this study, Austria and Sweden) to prospective policy learners (i.e., in this article, Italy). It does so in light of the lesson-drawing theorization of policy learning. The research design involves a comparison of three country cases, selected on the basis of their respective approaches to HL teaching. This comparison develops in terms of both contextual features and HL teaching policy characteristics, based on data collected from official reports. The research results are then discussed in light of the literature and indicate several lessons to be learned while at the same time pointing to the existence of many facilitators and a few obstacles to the activation of policy learning dynamics, and puts forwards a few ideas for both education policymakers and policy deliverers.Nonostante la iperdiversità linguistica che caratterizza molti contesti nazionali e il valore riconosciuto dalla letteratura scientifica alle lingue dei migranti come risorse per le società ospitanti, l’introduzione di tali lingue nei programmi di istruzione scolastica è una realtà consolidata solo in alcuni paesi europei. L’articolo si propone di identificare gli elementi che riguardano la formulazione degli interventi pubblici che possono condurre a un’efficace didattica delle lingua d’origine dei migranti, nonché le premesse contestuali e istituzionali che possono facilitare o ostacolare l’attivazione di processi di policy learning tra esperienze avanzate di insegnamento delle lingue d’origine (in questo studio, Austria e Svezia) ed esperienze meno avanzate in tal senso (in questo articolo, l’Italia). Il contributo affronta queste tematiche alla luce della teoria del lesson-drawing, comparando i tre sistemi d’istruzione nazionali, selezionati sulla base dei rispettivi approcci e obiettivi rispetto alle lingue dei migranti. La comparazione si sviluppa sia in termini di caratteristiche contestuali che di peculiarità delle specifiche politiche e servizi di didattica delle lingue dei migranti, sulla base di dati raccolti a partire da fonti ufficiali. I risultati della ricerca sono poi discussi alla luce della letteratura rilevante e indicano l’esistenza di molti facilitatori e di alcuni ostacoli all’attivazione di dinamiche di policy learning, proponendo al contempo alcune idee sviluppate a partire dalla comparazione sia per i policymaker che per coloro che sono preposti a erogare i servizi educativi

Mapping the use of knowledge in policymaking: barriers and facilitators from a subjectivist perspective (1990–2020)

The use of knowledge and evidence in policymaking is a recurrent topic of research due to its scientific and policy relevance. The existing and expansive body of literature has been scrutinised in various ways to grasp the dimensions of knowledge utilisation in policymak- ing, although most of this research has a monosectoral focus and is based on very general criteria of analysis that do not completely account for the complexity of policy making. This paper overcomes this limitation by enlightening the epistemological divide in the field between an objectivist and a subjectivist perspective and by distinguishing two dif- ferent focuses in this literature: a focus on knowledge for policy making and a focus on knowledge in policy making. Based on this analytical distinction, the paper presents an original and unprecedented systematic, intersectoral metareview by considering the thirty- year period between 1990 and 2020 (approximately 1,400 were selected for fine-grained analysis). This metareview offers a broader and more detailed map with a clear idea of the distribution of interest in the topic among the different policy fields, a better classification of the theoretical/empirical content and research goals that scholars adopt and a novel and, above all, more fine-grained perspective on the types of conditions that favour or disfavour a significant role of knowledge in policymaking. Ultimately, and above all, this metareview identifies three highly relevant components of policy making that can facilitate or constrain the use of knowledge in policymaking more than others: values/ideology/beliefs, actors’ relationships, and policy capacities

Three years of COVID-19 pandemic: Coping with crisis governance in the long term

This special issue of European Policy Analysis on COVID-19 policies follows two previous ones addressing that topic. The first one was published in the fall 2020 to examine the initial reactions of governments to the shock of the crisis (Colfer, 2020), and the second one in fall 2022, to analyze how governance processes had evolved with the prolongation of the crisis (Malandrino & Mavrot, 2022). This spring 2023 marks the 3rd year of the pandemic, which gives us even more hindsight to assess the questions raised by one of the most challenging public health events faced by nations worldwide in the recent past. This new special issues hence gathers contributions that address key transversal issues related to pandemic management: how to integrate scientific evidence into crisis management, and whether the inclusion of evidence even guarantees good outcomes. Is there a national administrative style that can help explain the output performance of crisis management? What does policy learning look like when the policy cycle happens within a reduced timeframe and under high political pressure? How legitimate are the policy instruments implemented during the pandemic in the public's eyes? The questions raised in this special issue are key not only to studying the crash test the pandemic has represented for governments and democracies but also to drawing lessons for future crises that wait around the corner. These crises will no doubt share some common characteristic with the COVID-19 pandemic: the need for arbitration between various policy requirements (e.g., somatic and psychological health needs, public health and the economy), the challenge of adopting sustainable governance principles in the general context of political short-termism, finding a balance between decisive public action and the requirement of democratic processes, the integration of scientific evidence into policy-making processes and the necessity of fighting against skepticism (e.g., corona-skepticism, climate-skepticism)

Fabrication of Europium-Doped CaF2 Films via Sol-Gel Synthesis as Down-Shifting Layers for Solar Cell Applications

In the present work, an in-depth study on the sol-gel process for the fabrication of Eu-doped CaF2 materials in the form of thin films has been addressed for the production of down-shifting layers. Fine-tuning of the operative parameters, such as the annealing temperature, substrate nature and doping ion percentage, has been finalized in order to obtain Eu(III)-doped CaF2 thin films via a reproducible and selective solution process for down-shifting applications. An accurate balance of such parameters allows for obtaining films with high uniformity in terms of both their structural and compositional features. The starting point of the synthesis is the use of a mixture of Ca(hfa)(2)center dot diglyme center dot H2O and Eu(hfa)(3)center dot diglyme adducts, with a suited ratio to produce 5%, 10% and 15% Eu-doped CaF2 films, in a water/ethanol solution. A full investigation of the structural, morphological and compositional features of the films, inspected using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), respectively, has stated a correlation between the annealing temperature and the structural characteristics and morphology of the CaF2 thin films. Interestingly, crystalline CaF2 films are obtained at quite low temperatures of 350-400 degrees C. The down-shifting properties, validated by taking luminescence measurements under UV excitation, have allowed us to correlate the local environment in terms of the degree of symmetry around the europium ions with the relative doping ion percentages

Highly Tunable MOCVD Process of Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films: Relationship between Structural/Morphological Features and Electrodynamic Properties

: The monoclinic structures of vanadium dioxide are widely studied as appealing systems due to a plethora of functional properties in several technological fields. In particular, the possibility to obtain the VO2 material in the form of thin film with a high control of structure and morphology represents a key issue for their use in THz devices and sensors. Herein, a fine control of the crystal habit has been addressed through an in-depth study of the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) synthetic approach. The focus is devoted to the key operative parameters such as deposition temperature inside the reactor in order to stabilize the P21/c or the C2/m monoclinic VO2 structures. Furthermore, the compositional purity, the morphology and the thickness of the VO2 films have been assessed through energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. THz time domain spectroscopy is used to validate at very high frequency the functional properties of the as-prepared VO2 films

Compliance with COVID-19 measures: A comparative study of street-level managers in Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Israel

Responsible for the direct-delivery of public services, street-level organizations (SLOs) serve as the operational arm of the state in general, and as the frontline of governmental efforts during times of crisis. Street-level managers (SLMs), who occupy the sole, top managerial tier in SLOs are under-studied not only during crises but also in routine, although exerting immediate significant influence on the daily life of local publics. To better understand on-the-ground policy efforts during the pandemic, this study focuses on SLMs’ compliance in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Israel. Data comprises 399 “compliance stories” gathered from interviews with SLMs in nurseries, schools, health and welfare offices, police stations as well as care homes. Standardized coding of the stories identified different levels of (non)compliance as well as the prominent explanatory variables that shape (non)compliance. Three influences emerged as the main compliance barriers, that is, lack of resources, relationship with the local public, and perception of the measure's effectiveness. Emphasizing that SLMs often act as local policy entrepreneurs who use their discretion to solve problems and serve their local public, findings further demonstrate the key role of SLMs in shaping the face of government for the public

Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic properties of nanostructured lanthanide doped β-NaYF₄/TiO₂ composite films

The photocatalytic approach is known to be one of the most promising advanced oxidation processes for the tertiary treatment of polluted water. In this paper, β-NaYF4/TiO2 composite films have been synthetized through a novel sol–gel/spin-coating approach using a mixture of β-diketonate complexes of Na and Y, and Yb3+, Tm3+, Gd3+, Eu3+ as doping ions, together with the TiO2 P25 nanoparticles. The herein pioneering approach represents an easy, straightforward and industrially appealing method for the fabrication of doped β-NaYF4/TiO2 composites. The effect of the doped β-NaYF4 phase on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) has been deeply investigated. In particular, the upconverting TiO2/β-NaYF4: 20%Yb, 2% Gd, x% Tm (x = 0.5 and 1%) and the downshifting TiO2/β-NaYF4: 10% Eu composite films have been tested on MB degradation both under UV and visible light irradiation. An improvement up to 42.4% in the degradation of MB has been observed for the TiO2/β-NaYF4: 10% Eu system after 240 min of UV irradiation