To mark the International ICH Day, the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage and ComparativeLaw at the University of Rome UnitelmaSapienza is launching the first edition of “Living Heritage Across Borders: ICH in Italian Schools Abroad”, an educational initiative specifically addressed to Italianschools abroad.

The initiative aims to bring the principles and values of the 2003 UNESCO Convention into Italian schoolsabroad and to encourage students to discover, rediscover and critically reflect on Italian intangible culturalheritage as a living, dynamic and shared heritage across borders.For many students attending Italian schools abroad, Italian culture is part of their family history, personalidentity or everyday educational experience, even when they live far from Italy. Some may have Italianparents, grandparents or relatives who transmit memories, stories, practices, recipes, songs, celebrationsor ways of speaking linked to Italy. For others, Italy may be encountered mainly through school, language,teachers, classmates or cultural references, without a direct family connection. In both cases, intangiblecultural heritage can become a meaningful bridge: a way to reconnect with Italian traditions for those whohave Italian roots, and a way to discover them for those who approach Italy from outside.

The initiative is based on the conviction that younger generations, especially those growing up inmultilingual and multicultural contexts, should be actively involved in recognising, safeguarding andtransmitting the knowledge, practices, expressions and traditions that communities identify as part of theircultural heritage. In this perspective, Italian intangible cultural heritage is not presented as somethingfixed, distant or confined within national borders, but as a living heritage that travels with people, istransmitted through families and communities, and can be rediscovered, reinterpreted and kept alive indifferent cultural contexts.

For this first edition, the UNESCO Chair has developed a dedicated educational toolkit for participatingschools. This toolkit has been specifically conceived to help students reconnect with, rediscover andexplore Italian intangible cultural heritage in an international context. It opens with an introductory sectionexplaining what intangible cultural heritage is, what safeguarding means, and why it is important tointegrate living heritage into formal education.The toolkit then proposes three activities for each educational level: primary school, lower secondaryschool and upper secondary school. For each level, one activity is designed to help students reconnectwith Italian living heritage and with the traditions, memories and practices that may be transmitted withinfamilies and communities; one activity introduces intercultural diversity and respect for the heritage ofothers; and one activity explores music not only as cultural content, but also as a tool for learning,participation and intercultural dialogue.

As an additional support for teachers, the UNESCO Chair has also translated into Italian the UNESCO toolkit “Teaching and Learning with Living Heritage”, available on the UNESCO website, with the patronage of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO. This translated resource will be shared withparticipating teachers, together with an explanatory video, to provide further methodological guidanceand practical tools for implementing the classroom activities.

Text as provided by the organiser(s).