Beyond the “Internal Split” of the First Cycle of Education in Italy: Secondary Teacher Education from an Equity Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines initial teacher education through an equity lens, emphasizing its central role in shaping meaning-making frameworks, professional dispositions, and educational practices. Focusing on the Italian school system, it analyses the “internal split” within the first cycle of schooling as the result of regulatory and training structures that produce discontinuities and inequalities. It considers the “60 ECTs” introduced by Law 79/2022 as a promising tool to address the divide between primary and lower secondary school and its equity-related distortions, by integrating educational theory, subject-specific pedagogy, and an understanding of school contexts.