EDUCATING FOR INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY. TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY

School is a cultural, symbolic and relational context characterized by several cultural patterns of diversity and inclusion. The Italian cultural context is characterized by a long tradition of educational policies and legislations in support of diversity in school (eg. Laws on school integration in 1977, the closing of special schools and special classes, starting from 1971). However, despite the Italian educational system has a feeling for the diversity and the inclusion, homosexuality in school is still a very thorny and controversial topic. The paper, starting from a theoretical and comparative perspective, on one hand, aims to provide a representative profile of the teachers' attitudes and representations about homosexuality; on the other hand makes it clear the need to provide a permanent space of education to differences at schoo