The specialized professor for support is assigned to the class in which a pupil* with disabilities is enrolled:
- assumes co-ownership of the section and class in which he/she works
- participates in the educational and didactic planning and in the elaboration and verification of the activities within the competence of the interclass councils, class councils and teachers' boards in accordance with Article 13, paragraph 6 of Law No. 104 of February 5, 1992
The specialized professor is in charge of educational-didactic activities through class support activities in order to foster and promote the integration process of pupils with disabilities. He or she offers his or her professionalism and expertise to make a significant contribution within the classroom in support of the collegial educational-didactic action, according to principles of co-responsibility and collegiality" (All. A., Article 2, Ministerial Decree 30/09/2011).
The profile of the specialized professor has been and is at the center of extensive debates by Italian scholars, in particular a crucial and systemic role emerges also in the perspective of Ministerial Decree 66/2017. "Giving him the function of pivot of the network of supports activated in specific classes, represents an exaltation of his role in the contextual perspective, of the involvement of other agencies and families, in the coordination and regulation of the life project and the annual plan for inclusion" (Cottini, 2014, p. 14).
A teacher therefore equipped with tools and expertise as well as observational sensitivity, to be able to look far ahead without losing sight of the everyday, who is concerned with setting up practices and relationships so that they work even without his or her presence, with solidity, broad and future vision and with multiple proposals that allow the inclusive project to constantly reconfigure itself. The specialized professor's areas of expertise are indicated in the relevant Ministerial Decree and explored in depth in the relevant literature.
