The Politics of Teachers’ Career Policy-Making in Italy: Reforming Higher Education in the Context of Internal Teachers’ Migration

One of the most prominent skill shortages in the Southern European context of Italy, shared with the neighboring countries, concerns secondary school teachers, both for the general and the VET tracks. To supposedly address such paradox, Italy has recently introduced a new scheme for teacher training policies for prospect teachers in secondary education, directly connected to the recruitment system: the first step into their career. The scheme is comprehensive of a new recruitment system, under the series of reforms foreseen under the EU National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), supported by the European Commission in the aftermath of the Covid crisis. The new teacher training regime foresees the acquisition of 60 ECTS credits, a trial year and the direct recruitment with an open-ended contract in sight. Crucially, the new training regime is ridden with curricular contents that account for the phenomenon of external migration, with a diverse student population, increasingly characterized by first- and second-generation migrant students. What mechanisms supported the inclusion of curricular measures for fostering teachers’ professionalism in multicultural teaching contexts? In practice, the recruitment system is multilayered and forces most prospect teachers to travel around the country for short substitute teaching experiences before landing the openended contracts: hence, we observe a consistent phenomenon of internal migration inside the country. With a total consistent teacher population of almost 800.000 teachers in the country, what is keeping such impasse? The politics laying behind the new reform has seen a deep juxtaposition between unions, the two governments that have dealt with the elaboration and approval of the new regime: this research investigates the politics of teacher training (within the higher education sector, as it concerns their degree), both for the general and the VET tracks. Through process tracing, conducted via elite interviews and document analysis, the study aims to uncover the factors underlying the politics of higher education policy in a migration context, specifically, within the teacher training sector.