Multiple discrimination and the risk of cultural impoverishment. Considerations regarding the pedagogical challenges of the complex society

This paper presents an overview of some of the major themes addressed by the Multidisciplinary Course on Human Rights Education coordinated by the author for the Department of Education, Languages, Interculture, Literature, and Psychology - FORLILPSI) of the University of Florence in collaboration with the Italian Committee for UNICEF. The main thrust of the course and therefore of these notes was and is valorisation of children’s rights education as a resource for combating the various types of discrimination that underlie processes of exclusion and social marginalization and that increase risks of educational poverty and cultural deprivation. More in detail, we analyze that set of cultural practices, behaviours, and beliefs that generate sexist and racial prejudices and lead to systematic violation of the rights of social groups, which thus suffer processes of inferiorisation.