Syracuse, Educating City: social, scientific, and political project

This paper aims to provide an overview of “Siracusa Città educativa, a political-institutional project launched in 2014 in the capital of the eponymous province in South-eastern Sicily. Part of the international network “Educating Cities” (IAEC) established in Barcelona in 1990, the social and pedagogical aims of “Syracuse, Educating City” work towards the concept of “global inclusion”. The project is based on a founding charter drawn up by a joint committee comprising the Department of Educational policy of Syracuse town council, the Prefecture, the Local Health Authority (Syracuse), the University of Catania, the Territorial Department of Education, the Syracuse Social Services, the “Defender of Children’s Rights”, of Syracuse City Council, and the Student Council, Province of Syracuse. The committee has the task of directing and monitoring educational planning within the territory and has already produced an additional document, “The Collaborative Charter of Syracuse, Educating City”. The charter serves as a civic pact supporting the development of an educating community within a systemic perspective of active citizenship that works towards change and improvement. Stemming from this project is a program of work entitled ‘città come sistema educativo’ that focuses on the development of citizenship from infancy to adolescence. The new responsibilities given to the local authority, such as the planning of educational initiatives across the territory, enables the introduction of fundamental educational policies essential to the strategies for the development of the city and its inhabitants.