Good teachers for special education in Italy

Since 1971 in Italy all children with special needs should be included in regular school: that implied the closure of almost all special schools and the introduction of particular forms of support that were clearly identified - some years later - with support teachers (Gelati, 1996). Support teachers' profession should be relevant for school integration and individualised teaching, but they are still not completely recognized (Gelati, 1996; Ianes, 2004).This research starts from previous studies on teachers opinion about their profession (e.g. Cardarello et al., 2009), by deepening the analysis of the support teacher's profile. The aim of this research is twofold: to identify which areas of profession preschool and primary school teachers ascribe to support teachers profession and to verify if professional identity influences those opinions. Through an ad hoc questionnaire teachers' opinions on support teachers' competences were collected. Factor analysis highlighted 10 main areas of support teacher competences and we identified differences in teachers opinions about the main areas of support teacher competences according to professional experience.