Schools and children’cultural socialization

The Provincial Federation of Nursery Schools of Trento is an association of autonomous nursery schools. Established in 1950, it currently has 134 member schools, scattered throughout the entire provincial territory, which make up 50% of Trentino's preschool system. Since 12 years, the Federation has had a Research/training Agreement with the Department of Psychology of Social and Developmental Processes of Sapienza University of Rome, of which I am scientific responsible. This institutional and organizational framework has been essential to both realize paths of situated research in such a rich and complex educational system (134 schools, 8000 children and 1000 teachers!) and contribute to develop that system in an innovative way. Activities that involved, in multiple lines of shared action and research, the researchers of the Department and the managers, coordinators and teachers of the Federation. I will describe here how Vygotsky's thinking and ideas have been useful in dealing with this organizational and educational complexity. In particular their relevance in giving direction and inspiration to both the choices of educational design and those underlying teacher training activities in the Federation's schools.