Men and women who made Italy. Experiences at school

Abstract

The goal we wish to reach in this paper is to identify methods and strategies to let students learn about the main events of Risorgimento. Our fundamental strategy is to emotionally and personally involve students, letting them truly wear the shoes of the protagonists and playing their roles in the storytelling of the Italian national unification, highlighting also the women who actively participated in the process, leading the way in female emancipation. The project “Gli uomini e le donne che hanno fatto l’Italia” addresses especially middle school students (aged 11 to 13). We reserve a particular attention to the local history, to highlight how it embeds in the national historic context of Risorgimento, contributing to the formation of a civic consciousness and to the promotion of the values that are the basis of our republican constitution.

Keywords

• protagonists of the risorgimento
• civic conscience
• links between local and national history
• emotional involvement
• interdisciplinary content