DEBATE IN ITALIAN SCHOOLS: STATE OF THE ART OF A (STILL) INNOVATIVE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

Debate was proposed to Italian schools as an innovative teaching methodology in 2014 by the Educational Vanguards Movement, sponsored by INDIRE and the WeDebate network of schools supported by the Ministry of Education. While in Anglo-Saxon educational contexts Debate has an established tradition since the late 1800s and has long time a curricular use with a dedicated teacher, in Italy it is still considered an avant-garde teaching methodology (Giangrande, 2021) despite the fact that the scientific literature (Akerman & Neale, 2011) has recognized its effectiveness for the development of oracy and public speaking, but also as a tool for constructing knowledge and student learning (V. Cinganotto, L., Mosa, E., Panzavolta, S., 2021). After a gradual and contained initial diffusion supported by an intense training activity for teachers in view of the participation since 2017 in the National Debate Olympiad, since 2019 with the founding of the National Debate Society Italy, Debate has seen an increase in terms of interest and experimentation in the teaching practice of teachers particularly in the two-year pandemic that has severely affected the education sector worldwide and that, in countertendency, has seen in Debate an effective opportunity for the enhancement of students' skills also in the distance mode. The paper investigates the reasons for this development and updates the map of Debate experiences by teachers in Italian schools by focusing on the limitations of the proposal as an innovative methodology with respect to the perceptions of teachers who regularly practice Debate and who aspire to specific careers in the roles of coach and judge and to a curricular and non-project employment of Debate in their schools. The data used are the result of interviews and questionnaires with privileged witnesses with the intention of offering a focus on the state of the art and the perspectives that in the school setting leave one to identify new horizons for a teaching strategy capable of enabling students' life and soft skills and investing in their personal and educational success at a historical moment in which globally there is a need to invest in the fundamental values of civil coexistence and mutual respect.