Otherness Between the Shores of the Mediterranean. Exploring the Italian and Tunisian School System Through the Lens of Intercultural Approach.

Today the majority of the world’s nations face common challenges, in terms of regional, ethnic and religious tensions. In fact, the increasing waves of immigration and the recent rise of attacks attributed to extremist religious ideologies have raised the bar of such challenges. Therefore, it is important that these crises should be overcome with specific approaches, in order to reduce the flow of prejudices, racism and extremism, promoting coexistence above all among the new generations. Since through education it is possible to connect different cultures, know and respect each other, interculturality should be encouraged more and more as an effective element for discussion and integration. Yet, such an option poses real challenges, given that, first of all, didactic materials should provide a serious help to acquire intercultural competencies. This research paper focuses on Italy and Tunisia as a case study in several sections (e.g., religious and ethnic pluralism, intercultural education). The study also interrogates the image of Islam and the other nonMuslim through textbooks and official school programmes. Despite the differences between the Italian and Tunisian cases, the paper concludes that the image of Islam and the other in both cases are based on lack of precision and standardization.