How can educational research assume an intersectional approach? A case study on homelessness in Brescia.

The study, entitled “Road Companions” (Compagni di strada), was conducted by the Research Center on Family and Childhood Education (CesPeFI) of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart between September 2022 and October 2023. Its objective was to investigate the specific intersectional phenomenon of homelessness in the urban context of Brescia, Northern Italy. The investigation employed a qualitative methodological framework, specifically ethnography, to enhance the ability to identify and make visible the numerous invisible subjects involved in the specific interstitial dynamics, intersectional contexts, and processes that characterise the phenomenon. The findings substantiate the assertion that the selection of particular typologies of educational approaches is of critical importance in addressing the reproduction of mechanisms of selection and exclusion, particularly when such approaches are informed by an interlinked perspective that takes into account contextual factors, individuals, social and territorial variables, as exemplified by the case of homelessness.