Intercultural education in italy. Cultural identity, educational emergency and teaching strategies: a mathematics laboratory

The research about the intercultural phenomenon in Italy increased with the growing phenomenon of migration, highlighting the problem of cultural diversity and social policies. "The encounter with the diversity should not be suffered, either tolerated, or rejected it should be accepted as survival strategy" (Callari Galli, 2000). This should go beyond the logic of the social emergency and the perception that people have of the problem. The school has, in this process, a key role. The goal of a good educa-tional project is to understand that the intercultural requires continual reference to the concrete experi-ences of the people Theoretical assumptions of the project are the concepts of “interaction”, “empa-thy”, “decentralization” and “cognitive transitivity" (Nanni,1998). The acquisition of cognitive transitivity is an opportunity to expand their cognitive potential through the refinement of "thought in motion" (Demetrio&Favaro, 2000). In this theoretical direction, we present an experimental laboratory of mathematical principles, made with the participation of experienced teachers, with the use of classical tools of teaching, research tools and techniques of social community animation. The various activities carried out have revealed an active and participatory and the establishment of a significant relation-ship between interlocutors. The students have put into practice the behaviour is not stereotyped, more reflective and less ethnocentric about the society and about the values. They finally listened to the voice of the protagonists of immigration and developed of the authentic reflections. We present here a multidisciplinary mathematical laboratory where students can understand that a discipline that seems static and rigid is the result of an evolution involving different peoples, with traditions and religions still very different, often conflicting. Multi-ethnicity, which increasingly characterizes our society, it is surely an important opportunity of growth and enrichment for people