Obbligo o Verità? Come gli insegnanti nella scuola italiana percepiscono le strategie linguistiche di inclusività

Inclusive language is at the center of an intense and ongoing public, academic and educational debate in Italy and internationally. Within this context, teachers occupy a strategic and complex role. Understanding their perceptions is therefore crucial for mapping the current state and future trajectories of language education in Italy. This paper presents a pilot study conducted within the MSCA DE project Multilingual Perspective in Gender and Language, coordinated by the University of Bologna. The study investigates how Italian secondary schools engage with these opposing positions through a mixed methods approach involving a questionnaire administered to 132 secondary school teachers and two focus groups. The analysis explores teachers’ perceptions of inclusive language strategies in relation to personal beliefs, ideological positioning, perceived social pressure, and concrete teaching practices. Although teachers show strong principled awareness of inclusive language, it emerges as part of a broader discourse on gender and inclusivity rather than as an isolated priority.