Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how the ecological crisis and the social crisis are tightly linked and that the ecological transition can only occur if connected to social justice. New aims and challenges are therefore emerging for citizenship education together with the need of redefining purposes and methods of education, as well as contents, in this rapidly changing world. Faced with these novel scenarios, the Italian educational system is requested to face old and new challenges and issues, including the relationship between knowledge and competences, and to redefine a new profile of the ‘good citizen’, actively involved in new social, political and economic contexts. A deep innovation of educational practices is also needed. Future innovative actions should also focus on transforming the relationship between schools and local communities – as already experienced and proposed by the «Territorial educational pacts» – and designing ‘local’ curricula for each educational institution.