Special Pedagogy as an inclusive science: some critical reflections La Pedagogia speciale come scienza inclusiva: alcune riflessioni critiche

Special Pedagogy is called to constantly question its traditional epistemological habitus by accepting the challenge posed by the multiplicity of educational‐formative questions emerging from the complex panorama of differences, diversities and “special educational needs”. However, it is necessary that our discipline maintains rigor and specific identity autonomy in the democratic and dialectical comparison with other sciences: the "special and non special" educational needs of each person must be understood and recognized by adopting a plurality of interpretative frameworks characterized by the evolution of skills, knowledge and professionalism suitably revisable, within the current socio‐cultural contexts, going beyond the limits of a mechanistic‐deterministic perspective of the Special Pedagogy itself. Overcoming the risks of a, by now, obsolete identity coincidence, Special Pedagogy is committed to strengthening productive dialectical relationships with inclusive education, using a sensitive and attentive pedagogical gaze aimed at identifying and enhancing new research territories in order to design, with a view to ecological‐systemic, innovative directions of meaning capable of guaranteeing full participation, educational equity and a significant sense of belonging to each and every subject, founding goals of the process of school and social inclusion.