REVEALING THE EVERYDAY LANDSCAPE: INNOVATIVE SYSTEMS FOR HERITAGE EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS. THE SCAR (SCHOOL ACTIVATES RESOURCES) PROJECT

Abstract. The Italian Plan for Cultural Heritage Education identifies in the training related to cultural heritage the possibility of contributing to the cultural and social improvement of the life of every person, also developing, through a conscious use, the sense of belonging to one or more cultures and territory.

Given these potentialities, the document reveals a lack of responses to training needs and underlines how the launch of educational courses that put school and university in synergy in the places of culture are among the priorities to be achieved in the period 2016-2018. The Italian Digital School Plan also stresses the importance of a renewed educational approach and effort to promote heritage and provides that all students are offered courses on the digital management of Cultural Heritage. The interest in the heritage, after all, is identified by European policies as part of the right of every citizen to freely participate in cultural life.

The ScAR (School Activates Resources) project, aims to respond to these requests with an experimental and methodologically innovative action, set in a context rich in critical issues and on a fragile and ScARcely recognized heritage such as that of a part of the Milanese urban periphery. The aim of the project is to promote the shared knowledge of the latent urban patrimony and increase, especially in young people, the sense of belonging to the neighbourhoods, the sense of active citizenship and the responsibility in the common good’s care. Another priority is to provide schools with tools for educational innovation, inclusion, and technological update, to limit early school leaving.