Representations of Integration, Cultural Differences and the Intercultural in Questionnaires Collected with Professionals and Parents

In this article we present quantitative data collected in Italy for the CHILD-UP project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme in the period 2019–2022. The aim of this work is to focus on a specific topic which emerged during the analysis of the questionnaires collected within schools. This topic is the perceptions of professionals and parents on the issues of integration, cultural differences and the intercultural. Starting from a theorization of these concepts, we focus on quantitative data collected in the first part of the project by means of questionnaires distributed in a number of schools in Modena, Reggio Emilia and Genova. These questionnaires were given to professionals, students, and parents in kindergartens, primary schools and lower and higher secondary schools. However, here we only focus on data collected from professionals and parents. This data shows how participants express ambivalence and disorientation concerning representations of hybridization, celebration of cultural differences, understanding of problems related to intercultural differences and assimilation. Moreover, significant differences exist between professionals (teachers, mediators and social workers) and between professionals and parents, who seem more frequently interested in assimilation.