International networking is essential for effective and well-functioning knowledge management. Within Europe, it may seem easier to change countries, but when the cultural environment, learning, education and everyday life are very different – as between Hungary and Italy, for example – interesting or even funny situations can arise. At the same time, there is no doubt that learning about another culture can still provide someone with personal experiences and strength that can make them more resilient and confident in their everyday life. It certainly helps to build knowledge, to transfer knowledge and also to make people who have been through such experiences somehow more receptive and helpful to others. Gabriella Pusztai, one of the most widely read Hungarian-Italian bloggers, tells us how this can facilitate international knowledge transfer.

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Gabriella Pusztai moved to Italy 15 years ago, since then she has been living in the local community, and although she keeps in touch with her Hungarian friends, she has immersed herself in Italian culture and everyday life. And although you don’t expect major changes within Europe, Gabriella warns that it can be a huge culture shock to travel and move to Italy. 

For example, one of the exciting differences – also prominent in the field of education – is that there is no one-size-fits-all, one-size-fits-all rule across the country: you can often find different processes, rules and customs in different regions, cities and even institutions.

It is also very interesting that oral communication is much more important for the people of the country. While in Hungary we are not used to interacting with strangers verbally, for example in an official matter or even in an innocent contact, in Italy it is commonplace and natural. So, for example, if you are going on holiday in Italy, feel free to contact the locals, they will certainly help you and you will certainly get valuable and necessary information faster than, for example, from Google Maps or a website.

Travel opportunities for teachers in Italy – it’s like stepping into another world!

Italy is the 9th largest economy in the world, with nearly 60 million inhabitants, a highly industrialised country, and although its physical distance from Hungary is not significant, there are many cultural differences in everyday life and education that are worth learning from. This is of course very much in evidence in Italian vocational education and training.

Gabriella, through the IAL Tuscany organisation, often organises mobility to the Italian education system(Erasmus+ funded student and teacher study trips), always taking great care to help highlight the most interesting differences between the Hungarian and Italian school systems, beyond the objectives we have discussed. If requested, he will of course also help with the technical aspects of the mobility (accommodation, travel).

Perhaps the biggest surprise for Hungarian teachers on mobility is the autonomy their Italian colleagues have. The Italian educational culture is based on the fact (and this is even enshrined in the constitution!) that teachers can decide for themselves how they teach and that even the head of their institution cannot interfere in this – although the working groups, students and parents do have some influence. There are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to this: it is very easy for an innovative teacher to deviate from the usual methods and achieve brilliant results with his or her students, but it is more difficult to persuade a teacher who rigidly follows outdated pedagogical principles to change.

Inclusive education in Italy

1977 marked a turning point in the history of Italian schools towards inclusion: pupils with disabilities can be included in normal classes and differentiated classes are abolished, providing specific forms of integration and support. This provision has radically changed Italian schools and society.

The Italian Constitution states that the Italian Republic guarantees schooling for all (Article 34) and provides for the fulfilment of the compulsory duty of solidarity (Article 2), and that “the Republic has the duty to remove all obstacles to the freedom and equality of citizens in order to ensure the full development of the human personality” (Article 3).

One element of Italy’s inclusion strategy is that there is no admission to secondary school, but a lottery is used to select who can go to a particular school if there is an oversubscription. This has a huge impact on tackling social inequalities. The role of schools in Italian society in general is also very different. According to Gabriella, while Hungarian schools prepare you mainly for work, the Italian school system wants to “educate you as a human being”, so that you can find out how you want to live as an adult.

But this is not just a matter of perception, in Italian schools inclusion is very strongly supported by the state. In all schools, there are facilitators who work with pupils with different degrees of illness, disadvantages, for several hours a week or even for the whole school year. Integrated pupils, even if they do not finish school, are much better socialised in society and can even acquire part-skills. A huge advantage is, of course, that the rest of the class also learns a lot about inclusion from the years spent together. This inclusive approach is also continued in the legislation on the labour market, making it easier to find a job in the labour market after the school years.

Another proof of the inclusive approach is that in their schools, disadvantaged students had the opportunity to attend classes in person, while other students could follow the lessons online during the COVID-19 crisis and the closures (for example, the Tuscany region decided to do this, so it was also determined region by region).Tutors and helpers supporting disadvantaged students had the opportunity to support students in their daily learning and school tasks.

The vocational schools of IAL Toscana, where Gabriella works, have also switched to online education overnight. Of course, in many cases in Italy too, students did not have a digital device or internet at home. The school helped those who needed the internet or a laptop to connect to learning. 

The service school – from school architecture to teacher training

The day before the talk, Gabriella arrived at a project kick-off meeting led by the Hungarian Association for Digital Education (MDOE), in which Learnitect Design Ltd, the Italian IAL Toscana and the Portuguese vocational training institution Previform are collaborating. The international collaboration will involve a project on school spaces and the role of schools.

The overarching aim of the project is to support teachers, school leaders and schools in creating inclusive learning and community spaces, to promote digitalisation and STEM education, and to support the implementation of inclusive education and community learning. 

The project is based on the basic premise that the COVID-19 crisis has changed the notion of the school as an institution, as a place. It has become an important question of what we even consider a school to be today, and how school spaces support inclusive education, 21st century skills development, digitalisation, STEM education and community knowledge sharing. Consequently, schools (as institutions, buildings, ethos) are essential to achieving the European education goals. Therefore, the involvement of schools in the project (prior information, awareness-raising, questionnaires, interviews, school visits, podcasts and participation in the creation of architectural models) is considered of utmost importance. The primary target groups of the project are therefore schools and the support of school leaders and teachers.

The key to the school’s success continues to be a well-prepared, competent and qualified teacher, as well as teacher cooperation and school culture.An important question is how the traditional school becomes a real learning organisation with the support of teachers and teacher communities. The primary target group of the project is therefore teachers and teacher communities, since they are ultimately the ones who interact with children in classrooms and community spaces, and teachers are primarily involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of learning-teaching processes. 

In addition, the opportunities and responsibilities of school leaders are constantly changing. The competences and opportunities entrusted to them, as well as the financial and professional means and possibilities, vary considerably from one European country to another. We therefore focus on common features and good practices. 

The issues of space and knowledge transfer and the changing needs of schools are very difficult to keep pace with the slowly changing environment. For Gabriella, participating in mobility has given her a great ammunition to find the necessary changes, as mobility gives people the opportunity to meet the most open and change-oriented institutions. Italy is characterised by large schools. Thanks to the school autonomy mentioned earlier, a good head teacher has a significant influence on the development of innovative learning spaces in his or her school. Therefore, in Italy we find a very wide variety of schools, reflecting the vision and beliefs of their principals.

The school is not a separate body, but “part of a living organism”, says Gabi, who says that one of the most important characteristics of a school now is its cooperation and relationship with its environment.This culture of collaboration is evident in many areas of Italian life, whether in professional agricultural or civil society organisations.

It is also exciting that in Italy there is no teacher training in the Hungarian sense. For example, someone with a degree in architecture can teach technology and mathematics. So, in fact, you can start teaching without any knowledge of methodology or education, but you have to do a so-called habilitation course many years later if you want to move up in the system.

Members of the table

Gabriella Pusztai

Originally a French-Portuguese teacher and linguist, he is one of the most read Italian-Hungarian bloggers, entrepreneur, international project manager of the adult education organisation IAL Toscana. Her blog, I came to Italy, is very popular in Hungary.

In 2004, she worked in a back office of the Ministry of Labour as a coordinator of the first EU funded projects on labour issues after Hungary’s accession to the EU.In 2008, she moved to Florence, Italy, where she has been working (among other activities) as a freelance project manager for the regional training institute IAL Toscana. 

Their projects are very wide ranging, mainly on training and related services, but as a trade union-owned training institute, they have also carried out several international trade union projects over the last 15 years. Last year, for example, he had the opportunity to represent one of the Tuscan regional trade union confederations in a bilateral German-Italian stakeholder consultation process on vocational training. IAL Tuscany’s training target groups are also diverse. They range from training for the (long-term) unemployed, to in-service training for company employees, to vocational training for early school leavers. 

The number of Hungarian schools coming for professional training, study trips and Erasmus+ mobility has also increased in recent years, and it organises programmes for them to get to know the Italian school system and Tuscan vocational training better. 

She has not completely abandoned teaching, occasionally teaching equal opportunities and French in specific projects, and has recently started to give some yoga classes, having been active since 1999.

Bertalan Péter Farkas, editor-in-chief

Knowledge manager, knowledge management consultant, trainer, project manager, but originally a teacher of geography and history. In his day-to-day work he provides global knowledge management for management consultants, coaches and international experts, and as an entrepreneur he works to promote the education scene in his home country and Europe. After a few years of teaching, she worked for government agencies (Educatio, EMET, Tempus) and headed the Knowledge Management team of the Tempus Public Foundation for almost 6 years. As Managing Director of Learnitect Design Ltd. he is involved in knowledge management and design of learning spaces for knowledge transfer, online and offline learning management, design of community spaces and international project management. She conceived the idea for the Csomópont podcast in 2022, which finally became a reality in autumn 2023.

The Csomópont podcast is Hungary’s first knowledge management podcast, a place about knowledge and knowledge management, where original people, inspiring ideas, engaging community and company stories, carefully crafted lines and a dash of public thinking come together. 

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The article was written by Kristóf Györgyi-Ambró, edited by Éva Tóth.

This content was produced with funding from the European Union. The opinions and statements expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Union or the European Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA).