1 Research Network SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, ESA Mid-term conference - Ghent University, Belgium 13-14.09.2012 Diversity in Education: Issues of Equity and Social Cohesion LOOKING AT INTERETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM: A PRIVILEGED OBSERVATORY ON EQUITY AND SOCIAL COHESION IN NORTHERN ITALY Mariagrazia Santagati Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy e-mail: mariagrazia.santagati@unicatt.it ABSTRACT In Italy the current debate about growing diversity in education concerns the presence of students with Non-Italian citizenship in the education system: in 2010/11 there are 711,046 foreign students attending Italian schools, accounting for 7,9% of the total school population. This presence arise several questions in terms of equity of opportunities for migrant children and in terms of quality of the educational offer for all. These problematic issues have great importance for the political and social debate because they have remarkable consequences on the future Italian society. On one hand the foreigners present in the Italian school system are characterized by a marked disadvantage. Starting from the statistical analysis we can highlight: the increase of foreigner students who have failed a one or more than a year, in particular in lower secondary schools; the concentration of foreign pupils in technical and vocational education; the “school lag” (that is, attending classes lower than those corresponding to age) of foreign students in secondary school; the risk of dropping out, an effect of the difficulties stemming from the transition from one education system to another and from belonging to social groups that are often lacking the resources and skills for achieving positive scholastic results. On the other hand the high concentration of migrant students in some schools can reveal implications for social cohesion, interethnic coexistence and construction of a common citizenship. This is a risk factor for educational failure, as well as producing a set of other problematic effects, such as the flight of natives, the isolation of schools, interethnic conflicts and relational problems, high levels of stress among pupils and adults. In this paper I present the results of a survey carried out in 2011 in Lombardy based on a sample of 1.040 Italian and foreign students attending lower secondary schools having more than 30% of Non-Italian pupils. The focus of the survey concerns classroom climate and interethnic relationship. I attempt to utilize the database of the survey, to understand if in the schools of this territory, it is taking place an exacerbation of ethnic contrapositions or there is a climate of exchange and openness to ethnic diversity, and also what kind of relationship exist between school climate, learning, and educational chances.