Restorative Approaches in Schools: Meeting on the Common Ground of Fundamental Rights to Create an Inclusive Education System

Inequality affects LGBTI people also within the educational system, where stigmatization of sexual
and gender minorities at school is a persisting problem (Valfort, 2017). According a US survey (Grant et al., 2011) LGBT youth experience high rates of harassment: 63% of respondents has been victim of acts of discrimination impacting on the quality of life, including bullying, teacher bullying. Rates of mistreatments increase when other intersectional factors, such as race, intervene. The success of the currently adopted anti-bullying policies is not monitored and there is no follow-up. Furthermore, the first qualitative research conducted within the EU project SOT-SchoolsOut reveals a general reluctancy to report homotransfobic bullying, accompanied by a wide difficulty of teachers in qualifying it as such and by a tendency to minimize. Regardless of their belonging to minorities, students have the right to a safe learning environment, where they can feel welcomed and accepted. The education system can play a key role both in developing policies that protect youth from discrimination and in promoting a cultural change that, going far beyond a remedial approach to the advocacy of LGBTI rights, educates younger generation to mutual respect on the basis solidarity and equality, protected and guaranteed by the Italian Constitution and worldwide affirmed as common values (ia Apostoli, 2016, 2019; EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; ONU Human Rights Declaration). Gender stereotypes and sexist culture are not eradicated in Italy (Gender Equality Index 2020 ranks Italy 14th in the EU on gender equality; see also Viggiani, 2020) and the school system is not flawless in challenging inequalities, especially with respect to the inclusion of LGBTI students. Up to now, some raising awareness leopard-spot initiative have been undertaken, but they appear insufficient to stimulate the necessary transformation that is, first and foremost, a cultural one. To pursue such a transformation, it is necessary to establish a dialogue between key stakeholders: teachers, students, families, religious representatives and policy-makers. The ideological connotation that the topic of LGBTI inclusion still assumes and the «fears» preventing discussion of topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity at school show that the most urgent need is to overcome cultural barriers and tackle the issue on the common ground of fundamental rights. For this purpose, the adoption of a Restorative Approach (ia Hansberry, 2016) could be a successful strategy both to prevent discrimination and to tackle existing cases (Hopkins, 2002) shifting the focus from the need to punish the bully to the need to repair the harm. The EU project LetsGoByTalking has highlighted the unexplored potential of Restorative Justice applied to victims of hate crimes: discriminations injury the identity of victims and communities and a restoration process could allow to comprehend the wounds generated by the hate-motivated conduct and the prejudices underpinning it and, thus, to understand that they threaten universal human rights (see Patrizi’s Co. Re. Model; Patrizi, 2020). To this purpose, restorative practices (community conferencing, circles, autobiographical restorative writing) could be implemented in schools, eg during hours of civil education, religion, as well as during anti-bullying activities and represent the occasion to start re-shaping education in order to make schools and society more inclusive and Just.