Orientamento: a ciascuno la sua strada. Evoluzione delle teorie e riflessioni educative

The orientation process is a highly relevant topic in our post-industrial society. It is increasingly urgent the necessity to find strategies to orient ourselves because the consequences for the person and the communities are often unpredictable. In recent decades the most important laws reforming the school system have included and planned mentoring activities linked to formation process. This article proposes a reflection on this issue from the birth of orientation problem. When was this problem born? What is its history and what have been the human sciences evolution involved in its definition? What are the reference paradigms and what are the most important moments that led its present form? The orientation process will be examined from different perspectives and approaches, psychological, sociological, pedagogical and legislative since each one of them has its own specificity and connotation. In particular, we will try to highlight the presence of some still actual aspects of Father Agostino Gemelli’s reflection, an important landmark of the Italian research on the subject of orientation process.