Dal dibattito italiano sul libro di testo scolastico alla legittimazione dell’adozione alternativa

In Italy, the Seventies were a decade of significant tensions accompanied by many changes in the educational field that mainly emerged from grassroots movements and their objections to “traditional” schools. Using a single school textbook in every class was one of the most contentious issues. Many studies were conducted on textbooks, all of which highlighted a distorted and reductive picture of social dynamics. An alternative proposal, exceedingly worthy of mention, is the editorial collection “Biblioteca di Lavoro” (1971-1979) directed by Mario Lodi. As a result of this debate, in 1974, Presidential Decree no. 419 granted initial legislative recognition to alternative textbook choices, later ratified with law 517/77, Legislative Decree 297/94, and Presidential Decree 275/99. Despite this, alternative adoption remains a minority choice, mostly unfamiliar and still considered difficult to apply, because it is intrinsically connected to an innovative idea of teaching.