Chapter 9: Parents’ Images of Their Children’s School System

Profound transformations occurring in the last 15 to 20 years within Italian society in the cultural, social, and labor market domains have been rapidly making traditional educational practices become obsolete (Salvatore & Scotto di Carlo, 2002). Working organizations, the community, institutions, and users in general have started begging for new educational and training services that can, first of all, cope with the emergency and, secondly, take into account social demands calling for improved school training and organizational quality, as well as the development of a more participative and user-oriented educational system. This has led the Italian school system to acknowledge the need to improve training processes, their effectiveness, and their quality in terms of appropriateness for the users.