IT WAS THE WORST

IT WAS THE BEST

OF TIMES

Education Days
and the Environment

Naples, Quartieri Spagnoli

Three days of activities, debates, meetings and workshops dedicated to education and the environment, for the presentation of EDUQA, the new educational center in the historic city centre. The EDUQA spaces and the adjacent ones of the FOQUS Foundation, will host also workshops for teachers and the public, ludic-scientific laboratories for children of different ages, art installations, cafés with authors and evening shows. The philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin is expected from Paris, a scholar and theorist of "complexity", one of the most authoritative figures of contemporary culture, who will hold the lectio magistralis "Lessons from a century of life" in Naples . With him, in the Court and in the spaces of FOQUS, many protagonists of the most current debate on the present and the future of education, school and the environment: click here to read the profiles of all the protagonists Sabah Abouessalam, Ettore Acerra, Gianluca Argentin, Giancarlo Artiano, Dario Bacchini, Emilio Balzano, Claudia Barone, Domenico Barrilà, Fernando Bayona, Francesca Bianchi, Vittorio Bo, Giulio Boccaletti, Gianluca Bocchi, Ferdinando Boero, Enrico Bottero, Sista Bramini, Oreste Brondo, Pamela Buda, Michele Buonomo, Renato Casagrandi, Stefano Caserini, Federica Cassini, Mauro Ceruti, Gilberto Giuseppe Chirico, Chiara Cirillo, Stefano Consiglio, Annalisa Cuzzocrea, Maria Milnem De Luzenberger, Stella De Stefano, Sara Della Corte, Maria Camilla Dell'Agnola, Nicoletta Di Blas, Davide Dioguardi, Samantha Di Rosa, Nausicaa Hebrew, Michela Fabbrocino, Andrea Fantini, Goffredo Fofi, Rachele Furfaro, Rossella Furfaro, Giuseppe Gaeta, Cristina Grieco, Emiliano Grimaldi, Maria Luisa Iavarone, Matteo Innocenti, Antonia Labonia, Giovanni Laino, Nicoletta Lanciano, Paolo Landri, Giuseppina Leporanico, Gad Lerner and Franco Lorenzoni Matteo Lorito, Raniero Madonna, Sarah Mancini, Gaetano Manfredi, Sergio Manghi, Giosy Mangione, Ricardo Marin-Viadel, Francesca Marone, Marco Martinelli, Giorgio Matteucci, Olga Mautone, Alfredo Meconi, Maria Mellone, Ermanna Montanari, Rita Montinaro, Edgar Morin, Scott Morrison, Marco Musella, Oscar Nicolaus, Marina Nissim, Marco Pallavicini, Antonello Pasini, Francesca Pasquali and Roberta Passoni Lavinia Pastore, Antonio Pescapè, Pina Picierno, Flavia Portanova, Renato Quaglia, Roberto Ricci, Marco Rossi DoriaMichelangelo Russo Conchita Sannino, Floriana Scarpati, Laura ScottiRoberto Serpieri Paolo Siani, Elena Silvestri, Pasquale Starace, Tonino Stornaiuolo, Maura Striano, Stefano Sturloni, Emiliano Tomei, Eleonora Tozzi, Nadia Vembacher, Giorgio Ventre, Andrea Vianello

the festival numbers
from 2023 to today

38

sessions

24

laboratori didattico-scientifici

103

speakers

Education Days
and the Environment

Three days of activities, debates, meetings, and workshops dedicated to the themes of education and the environment: This event is part of the activities of EDUQA , the environmental education center located in the Spanish Quarter, in the historic center of Naples. The spaces of EDUQA and those of the FOQUS Foundation , which promoted the project together with "Dalla Parte Dei Bambini" – Social Enterprise , "BE for Education Foundation," and "Con i bambini" – Social Enterprise, will host conferences, public workshops, and fun-scientific workshops during the three-day event.

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Education Days
and the Environment

The 2026 edition of GEA is anticipated and enriched by the results of the intense co-construction program born from the Cammino verso GEA project and the Summer School involving teachers, principals, and schools from various Italian regions. Building on a two-year process, the national network of schools is working on key themes such as inclusion, educational cooperation, democracy, ecology, and opening schools outside of school hours. The work developed during the Summer School and the discussion groups will continue to expand the network of connections throughout Italy, to learn from each other and take a step forward towards new school policies—centered on children, their teachers' skills, and their social capital.

Learn more about the work of the school coordination team. "On the Road to GEA" is the path and the pretext used this year to bring together and engage administrators, teachers, and parents who want to build a better, more equitable school that is more attentive to the needs of children. These are schools, teachers, and educational communities who share the desire to imagine and practice a different kind of education, inspired by active pedagogies, respect for each individual student, and the valorization of their potential. Rethinking and transforming schools is an urgent task in a historical moment in which there is an ever-increasing tendency to fill children's lives and minds, including through the use of technology, in a race to keep them constantly engaged. What else can we do, as adults? The question arises in the face of a situation that calls into question the very slow processes of knowledge transmission, transforming them in response to a completely changed and evolving context. What kind of school do we need? Objectives of the "On the Road to GEA" program We aim to create a space for sharing practices, an open laboratory where we can meet, exchange ideas and tools, and reflect together on how to promote an advocacy process for a truly child-friendly school. A school where participation, listening, and dialogue are the pillars on which to build significant relationships for growth. Through this program, and the many subsequent steps that will follow, we aim to explore and identify some "lowest common denominators" that can serve as guide and inspiration for our calls for change in the school as an institution. We intend to address this directly to the Ministry and all social forces active in the world of education. What we have begun is not a prepackaged project, but an open proposal: we want discussion to shape the content and working methods.

GEA 2026

The title of the 2026 edition of GEA is the opening line of a historical novel by Charles Dickens about the years of the French Revolution: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." A perfect opening to describe our years of crisis. Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, chose it to begin his speech at the 2017 Davos Forum, before Western leaders.

We live in one of the most complex periods in contemporary history. Wars, climate crisis, rising inequality, and rapid and profound technological transformations are reshaping the world in which children, young women and men, grow up. A world that often appears incapable of offering adequate responses to the challenges we face and risks handing over to future generations an already compromised future. The GEA (Education and Environment Days) festival was born from the conviction that we cannot simply recount the crises we are experiencing. Instead, we urgently need to build collective spaces where we can imagine and practice alternatives. School is one of these places. A fundamental educational and cultural space, where a society decides what kind of future it wants to build.

GEA's educational program links environmental protection with social justice, highlighting how the ecological crisis primarily affects the most vulnerable people and communities, thus requiring the integration of natural and human sciences. Talking about school means addressing the issue of educational and regional privileges and inequalities, starting from the premise that a truly democratic school must address the causes of exclusion. The GEA festival aims to be a space for reflection to move beyond the idea of children as passive recipients of other people's decisions, placing their voices at the center and recognizing them as active participants capable, even today, of analyzing problems, negotiating solutions, and asserting their ideas. Addressing environmental and educational challenges requires educational communities, regional networks, and collaboration between teachers, researchers, artists, activists, and citizens. Now in its fourth edition, the GEA festival aims to be an open space for discussion and planning for those working daily for change, affirming the importance of shaping the future through collective choices, relationships, and practices shared in schools and communities. The program for the fourth edition offers a rich array of insights and practical activities, divided into several sections. The event's highlight is a keynote lecture by Antal Kuthy, focusing on the topic "AI Sovereignty in Europe? Rights, Dignity, and Sustainability." Ample space is dedicated to a series of thematic conversations addressing environmental, social, and educational issues: Territory and Environment: The Active Landscape Network, curated by the Landscape For cultural association, will be discussed; Practices and languages for the climate crisis will be presented by Osman Arrobbio, Stefania Divertito, and Caterina Orsenigo; and lectures on change, climate, and the pandemic will be presented by Giovanni Lo Storto and Sebastiano Maffettone. School, Inclusion, and Society: The role of the school educator (New Scholastic Education Network) is explored, along with teaching Africa beyond the colonial narrative with Massimo Ciglio, the impact of AI and School with Michele Martini and Diomede Mazzone, the topic of the Teaching Profession: Today's Challenges and Opportunities with Laura Marzi, Gilda Terranova, and Pietro Savastio, and proposals on the Crisis of Inclusion and Support addressed by Simona D’Alessio, Arianna Vennarucci, and Dario Ianes. For teachers and educators, there will be workshops and practical labs focusing on the positive and non-punitive management of challenging classes (with Benedetta Zagni, Lenotyna Bratankova, and Annalisa Debiasi), well-being at school and the role of adults (with Sara Vanin and Sergio D’Onofrio), and education on sexual and emotional differences led by the Educare alle Differenze group, and on young people and marginalized contexts (with Tonino Stornaiulo and Oreste Brondo). Finally, the event pays special attention to younger children: Children's workshops include the creative workshop Il Leggendario: vista rivista smonta rimonta (with TigrEditrice and Chialab) and the Brick by Brick experience, organized by TeMA Lab (Federico II University of Naples) in collaboration with the "Brickanti - Mattoncini al Sud" association. The program for younger children will conclude with the show "Ragazzi, quanto storie! I segreti dello scrittore" (Kids, How Many Stories! The Writer's Secrets), a meeting-performance hosted by author Luigi Dal Cin.

Education Days
and the Environment

Discover the guests of GEA 2026:
the AI expert Antal Kuthy , the Italian architect and landscape and territorial planning expert Paolo Castelnovi , the urban planner and geographer Andrea Visioli , the Head of Public Relations and Development of Cultural Projects Benedetta Baraggioli , the Representative of the Danisinni ETS Community Foundation Elisa Ventura , the Director of the education sector at the Community Services Department Massimo Stefanini , Laura Cadamosti of AIAS ETS Milan, the Clinical Pedagogist, Representative for the Right to Education of the Metropolitan City of Turin Luisa Pennisi , the Professor of Sociology of the Environment and Territory Osman Arrobbio, the writer Stefania Diverito , the journalist Caterina Orsenigo , the School Principal Massimo Ciglio , the Researcher of sociology of cultural and communicative processes Michele Martini , the teacher Diomede Mazzone , the teacher of Computer Science Delfina Malandrino , the writer Laura Marzi , the teacher Gilda Terranova and the researcher Pietro Savastio , the teachers Simona D'Alessio and Arianna Vennarucci , the President of the School and Research Foundation Dario Ianes , the CEO Lering Giovanni lo Storto , the Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy and director, Sebastiano Maffettone.

protagonists of the workshops and laboratories:

Benedetta Zagni, Lenotyna Bratankova, Annalisa Debiasi, Sara Vanin, Sergio D'Onofrio, Tonino Stornaiulo, Oreste Brondo, Manuela Serantoni, Violetta Tomassetti, Domenico D'Amico, Luigi Dal Cin, TeMA Lab, Educate to Differences Group Naples

From October 2nd to 4th at FOQUS, in the heart of Naples.

Discover the event program

Sign up for the workshops

Discover the protagonists

On the occasion of Education and Environment Days and the start of the new school year, the new educational center EDUQA will be presented, a new school complex built with a design inspired by the most modern educational theories, which place the environment and methodologies of active pedagogy at the center of the programme EDUQA will be the first school in Italy with an environmental educational vocation: the dozens of teachers who will work there will have followed a special three-year training course on the climate crisis, sustainability, the environment and active school methodologies, according to a program edited by the CNR e by the main Italian institutions and universities involved in the environmental issue. EDUQA is the result of the collaboration between the schools “Dalla Parte dei Children”, the FOQUS Foundation, Bolton Hope Foundation and the company social “With the children”. EDUQA, which starts this year and will fully develop over the next two years, it foresees the opening of a nursery school, a school kindergarten, a primary school and a lower secondary school, which they will bring another 500 children and young people, protagonists, to the Spanish Quarters of the wider urban regeneration program initiated by FOQUS ten years ago, which in recent months is also recovering and re-functionalizing long-abandoned buildings and upcoming headquarters of EDUQA. Already next year, the children who will attend the programs of EDUQA will be over 300, to reach 500 starting from the year school year 2025/2026.