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The health emergency and the forced closure of schools represented not only a moment of profound crisis in the global school systems but also an unprecedented opportunity for rethinking, renewal and experimentation. The Italian school system has indeed shown a strong commitment by all educational services and a significant ability to react to the conditions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some significant gaps have emerged which made the transition to distance learning sometimes unfeasible or ineffective. The online initiative “Forming & Confronting with the Educational avant-gardes” and its related survey, whose results are presented in this contribution, are set in this scenario. With the aim of providing support and coaching to the entire educational community in its attempt to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic crisis, a cycle of 41 webinars was organized between September 2020 and March 2022, focusing on a series of core themes of educational innovation. The participants (6476 in total) were given a satisfaction questionnaire at the end of each webinar and a follow-up questionnaire at the end of the cycle. The survey made it possible to investigate emerging needs in training and professional development during the pandemic and consequently to reshape the training offer based on the feedback from the participants. The training value of the initiative has been tested in the course and at the end of the webinar cycle. More than 3185 participants answered the satisfaction questionnaire while the follow-up questionnaire obtained n. 1068 responses. The survey results show an excellent appreciation of the overall training proposal, pointing out its efficacy as both a coaching/professional development tool and as an opportunity for confrontation and exchange of good practices between peers. The data obtained also indicate the development of formal and informal networks among the participants as a result of their attendance at the webinar cycle.

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While the recently ratified Basel Convention aims to regulate international toxic waste movements across the globe, reservations from the EC and OECD (amongst others) seem set to undermine its implementation.

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