Hamsters on a wheel? Conflict over the role of School Teachers in the primary education state school model

This article analyses the recent debate in Italy over the re-introduction of the traditional teaching model characterised by a single teacher managing one school class, in place of the previously existing team-teaching approach. This reform was recently proposed – by the Education Minister Gelmini – as a radical change of pedagogical approach in schools. The main feature of this change is its emphasis on the special close relationship between a nursery school-teacher and the child-pupil. The idea basis of this reform will be questioned in the light of a plurality of sociological issues concerning various facets of school life and teachers’ work: the evolution of socialization models within school and society and “the challenge of complexity” in contemporary societies; the impact of reforms on real life and work within schools; the consequences of teachers’ “individualism” and the “opacity of the classroom”; the teacher-pupil relationship and the effects linked to selection processes; finally, the importance of constructing a “teaching community” will be examined.