The 'Invincible Dualism' of the Italian School System. History of a ‘Controversial’ Relationship from the Casati Law Debate to Gaetano Salvemini’s Interventions in the Early 20th Century

According to the heuristic historiographical category of ‘invincible dualism’, the following paper highlights one of the ‘controversial’ aspects of the Italian school system in the first post-unity decades, recognizing the presence of a cultural, social, and educational prejudice against the equal formative value of technical and vocational education. The analysis of Gaetano Salvemini's contribution, one of the most influential protagonists in the italian debate on secondary education at the beginning of the 20th century, shows the persistence of a complexity of factors in play, starting from a lacking trust in popular education.