Italian teachers of VATI - Victorian Association of Teachers of Italian - gathered on May 5 at the Catholic Leader Centre in East Melbourne.
Ferdinando Colarossi, VATI’s president, welcomed more than 230 teachers who were excited to see each other in person after three years of online meetings.
“Today is an opportunity to renew contacts, share ideas, and feel once again part of a cohort of committed professionals with a passion for teaching our beautiful language and culture to students,” said Colarossi.
He then went on to thank the other speakers for their contributions, which were crucial in stimulating ideas and strategies needed to enrich the teaching of Italian in schools.
“The best defence we have against forces that try to undermine programs,” Colarossi stressed, “is to have lively classrooms that are valued by students and parents”.
The day was designed to pursue this goal, offering a series of educational lectures and introducing three masterclasses dedicated to primary school, Year 7-10 and VCE.
There was an opportunity for those present to share initiatives and strategies to be adopted in the classroom.
“Today’s goal is to foster a sense of community, encourage networking and discuss the challenges facing Italian teachers in the current educational climate,” concluded the VATI president.
There were large audiences at all of the VATI lectures
The floor was then passed to Dr. Valentina Biguzzi, who recently assumed the position of Education and Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Italy in Canberra.
Addressing the teachers, Biguzzi recalled how important their role is in the promotion of the Italian language and culture in Australia, emphasising the value of the conference as a time for sharing best practices among colleagues.
“When President Colarossi sent me the program for the day, I was moved by the importance of the contributions and the high professionalism of the speakers,” commented Biguzzi.
John Hajek, keynote speaker and professor at the University of Melbourne, presented data from recent research conducted on the state of Italian language teaching in Victoria.
The research shows that Australia ranks first in the world in the number of people studying Italian, followed by Germany and France.
Hajek then highlighted data regarding Victoria, where 57 per cent of the students of Italian in Australia reside, showing that the state ranks fifth globally with 163,143 students.
These are important numbers which must be cultivated, grown and maintained in the years to come.
In this spirit, VATI has organised a series of activities for the year, including a language immersion weekend for teachers in June, a language maintenance course, a Model UN for Italian students scheduled for August 1 and mock
