One Sky, hundred Heavens in the Classroom. Religious Practices, Signs and Symbols in Multicultural Education

Abstract

The essay deals with the possible living together of different religious practices, signs and symbols in multicultural education. This issue is very important nowadays and has very different responses in Europe, e.g. the so-called French law about headscarf or the Italian confirmation of crucifix in classrooms. As the number of students from different countries and with different religious believes is quickly increasing, the issue of inter-religious meeting and dialogue is now unavoidable. In Italian education there are many religious practices concerning food, clothes, festivities and traditions that sometimes lead up to “critical incidents”; nevertheless, the religious issue is not much explicitly faced and thematized. The essay illustrates the results of interviews to some headmasters, teachers and cultural mediators in schools of two Italian towns characterized by a large number of immigrants. The aim of this work is to offer a detailed search, free from any defensive position or ideological alignment.