Schools and religions: experience, symbols and pratices

The essay deals with the compatibility of different religious practices, signs and symbols in multicultural education, based on the results of interviews with some headmasters, teachers and cultural mediators in schools of two Italian towns characterized by a large number of immigrants, carried out in 2008. This issue is very important today and has received very different responses in Europe, e.g. the French “law of veil” or the confirmation of the continued presence crucifix in the Italian classrooms, even after the recent judgement from the European Court of Human Rights that requires the removal of religious signs from state schools. As the number of students from different countries and with different religious beliefs is quickly increasing, the issue of inter-religious contact and dialogue is now unavoidable. In Italian education there are many religious practices concerning food, clothes, festivities and traditions that sometimes lead to “critical incidents”; nevertheless, the religious issue is not explicitly faced and thematized, even if religion can be an important aspect of identity.