Health service and school: new interactions. Comparison between the Italian system and the Swedish system on the diagnostic process of pupils

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to compare the Italian and the Swedish systems of special scholastic support followed by a discussion on the understandings they are founded upon and the social implications they favour. The two systems are compared using a priori criteria regarding the focus of intervention, the role of the operators, and the relation to the client. What emerges are two systems that are different in terms of the level of institutionalisation of medical and/or neuropsychiatric certifications related to scholastic support, the role of school and that of health services. In Italy, it is only a biomedical assessment that can lead to the most extensive scholastic support. The Swedish system on the contrary assigns a key role to the head teacher and the pupil health team who can decide on special support based on various kinds of evaluations. However, even though neuropsychiatric diagnoses are almost non-significant on a policy level in the Swedish system, the biomedical discourse might in practice be the prevalent understanding of learning difficulties. The connection between difficulties in school and psychiatric diagnoses favour a re-interpretation of the pupil through biomedical explanations and in the worst scenario a deviant career. To counteract, both systems might benefit from a context-based intervention aiming at generating alternative identity possibilities for the pupils.

KEYWORDS:

• Health service
• social interaction
• diagnostic process
• school
• pupil health team

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antonio Iudici

Antonio Iudici teaches at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology of University of Padova. He is in charge of health promotion and the most in-depth issues concern the inclusion of people with disabilities, children, students and victims of violence. Lecturer for Institute of Psychology and Psychotherapy of Padova.

Mathilda Tassinari Rogalin

Mathilda Tassinari Rogalin is a doctoral student at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, Department of Education. She is also a member of MAPS Multicultural Approach to People and Systems. Her main research interests are the interaction between health services and pedagogical contexts, inclusion and identity construction.

Gianpiero Turchi

Gianpiero Turchi is professor by Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology of University of Padova. His research interests are mediation, inclusive education, integration, deviance, text analysis, dialogical science. It is President of World Mediation Forum. He founded Madit metodology (Methodology of Textual Analysis of Computerized Data).