Conference Agenda

Most organisations and in particular universities define themselves as inclusive, at least in European Union, and the concept of inclusivity is considered positive and is part of their communication. On the other hand, the reality experienced by students with disabilities may be slightly different. So what allows universities to claim this term ?

Inclusiveness means every one, not favouring a group at the expense of another. The notion of orthogonality emphasise the reality of students who may be part of several groups often stigmatised.

When it comes to buildings and pathways, the answer is often legal. “If we fulfil the laws, we are inclusive”. We can show many situations where a building is equipped with a single elevator (law is respected), and the question of whether it is working or not, and what is to be done when a failure occurs could be a good indicator of how inclusive this organisation really is. Another issue is the way students with disabilities can access to the elevator in crowded situations.

Besides, the pedagogical accessibility is often a problem and training of professors, starting with newcomers is essential. The number of students with disabilities have been increasing a lot within the last 20 years in many European countries (in France from 8000 in 2004/2005 to 64000 in 2023/2024). A very positive point has been the creation of support centers for students with disabilities at each university, which have genuinely improved the experience of students. Nevertheless a lot of progresses remain to be done.

There is a growing concern regarding the importance of preparing students, regardless of their level of study, for the demands of life in an ever-changing society. For this reason, learning how to learn has become increasingly crucial in students' educational processes. In this communication, we discuss various models and implications for promoting self-regulation skills and analyze research on fostering self-regulated learning processes within a socio-cognitive framework.

This line of research aims to promote self-regulated learning through narratives, emphasizing the process-oriented nature of self-regulation. The socio-cognitive model underpins this research, highlighting the role of modelling and self-regulatory learning strategies. This research line develops projects in Europe (Portugal and Spain) and South America (Brazil, Chile, and Colombia).

This seminar presents studies in Portugal and Spain focusing on story-based tools designed to promote self-regulated learning processes. These tools target different educational levels: Yellow Trial Tribulation (Sarilhos do Amarelo) for early elementary students (Grades 1–4), the (Mis)Adventures of Testas Collection for middle school students (Grades 5–9), and Gervásio’s Letters for first-year university students. The presentations detail the theoretical rationale behind these projects, their structure, and the evaluation of their effectiveness.

The findings from various studies, from elementary school to university, are analyzed. The implications of these findings for school administration, teachers, and students are discussed.

The workshop is aimed at prisoners who are forced into a state of social marginalisation. Based on the book Parlami dentro. Oltre il carcere: lettere di (R)esistenza (2023), containing letters written by some people to inmates, the aim is to initiate a reflection on the importance of using narration as a tool for understanding and recognising oneself and the other, for reconstructing an interrupted relationship, and to encourage the practice of dialogue as an opportunity for reparation, for healing the fracture between the community and those who have violated the law and the social pact. The paradigm of restorative justice was adopted as theoretical framework.

Prisoners and students from the University of Macerata took part in the workshop, in meetings in the prison and events attended by students and prisoners.

The prison is an important part of society, but it struggles to be recognised and accepted; we want to try to strengthen the link between the outside and the inside: from the prisoners' point of view, contact with the outside world is one of the most important tools to achieve the re-educational purpose of punishment (Constitution art. 27, paragraph 3); in the dimension of the students, the relationship with those who temporarily live a state of detention makes it possible to rebuild a bond that puts the person back at the centre, overcoming stereotypes and prejudices that are hardly conducive to social reintegration and nailing the prisoner to the crime committed. The results of the action research will be presented

The introduction of restorative justice in a community setting can be a useful method of dealing with conflict, promoting mutual understanding, dialogue and the well-being of individuals. Based on this awareness, the present study aimed to test the effectiveness of a workshop to promote restorative attitudes. It was hypothesised that there would be an increase in positive outcomes, especially among younger participants.

A sample of 77 students (high school = 44; university = 33) completed the Restorative Justice Attitudes Scale (Taylor & Bailey, 2022) both before and after attending a restorative justice workshop. In this workshop, they read a news in which a crime had been committed involving different actors, and were divided into small groups to discuss the episode from the perspective of one of the actors involved. Each group took the point of view of two actors.

The results showed a significant increase on the harm and need scale, F = 15.51, p = .000, η2= .171, but not on the other dimensions. There was a difference in pre-post change between high school and university participants in terms of restorative processes, F (2,77) = 7.40, p = .008, η2 = .088.

The results show that a restorative justice workshop has an impact on the the awareness that all actors involved in crime are harmed. Adolescents seem to be particularly sensitive to restorative processes, i.e. more available to use restorative actions. Limitations, strengths and future directions are discussed.