Covid-19 Lockdown in Italy: Perspectives and Observations from Special Education Teachers of Changes in Teaching and the Student Experience

IF 1.1 Q3 FAMILY STUDIES

Child Care in Practice Pub Date : 2021-10-08 DOI:10.1080/13575279.2021.1975649

M. Capurso, Tara Devi Roy Boco

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

ABSTRACT In March 2020, the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit Italy and had dramatic and unforeseen consequences for millions of schoolchildren. Students with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) were faced with drastic changes to their local environment caused by the lockdown. This impacted their ability to function in ways in which they were acquired and posed new challenges for their teachers. This qualitative exploratory study aimed to capture and understand special education teachers’ perspectives of their own work and their perceived changes in SEND. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 21 special education teachers at the end of the 2020 school year in Italy. The interview guide was based on the structure of a microsystem, as described by Bronfenbrenner’s model, and targeted questions about perceived changes in their roles, relationships, and activities due to the lockdown. The interviews were examined by deductive thematic analysis. The lockdown situation caused marked changes in the teacher’s work and their students’ lives and significant losses in the developmental and educational processes compared to a pre-pandemic ordinary school setting. In some cases, teachers employed effective coping strategies that helped build resilience in SEND. Critical aspects of privacy and the lack of centralized online learning tools are discussed with relation to the vast and unregulated use of ICT. We conclude that three key aspects essential for good support are: providing specific teaching tools and caring human contact, having a supportive home environment, and having adequate ICT devices and a good internet connection. Our findings will inform teachers, caregivers, public administrators, stakeholders, and social services on support mechanisms for schooling during the lockdown.

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意大利新冠肺炎封锁：特殊教育教师对教学和学生体验变化的看法和观察

摘要2020年3月，第一波新冠肺炎疫情袭击意大利，给数百万小学生带来了巨大而不可预见的后果。有特殊教育需求或残疾的学生（SEND）因封锁而面临当地环境的巨大变化。这影响了他们以获得的方式发挥作用的能力，并给他们的老师带来了新的挑战。这项定性探索性研究旨在捕捉和理解特殊教育教师对自己工作的看法以及他们在SEND中感知到的变化。2020学年末，我们对意大利21名特殊教育教师进行了深入、半结构化的采访。正如Bronfenbrenner的模型所描述的那样，面试指南基于微观系统的结构，并针对他们的角色、关系和活动因封锁而发生的变化提出了有针对性的问题。访谈采用演绎主题分析法。与疫情前的普通学校环境相比，封锁情况导致教师的工作和学生的生活发生了显著变化，在发展和教育过程中也遭受了重大损失。在某些情况下，教师采用了有效的应对策略，有助于建立SEND的应变能力。讨论了隐私的关键方面和缺乏集中的在线学习工具，以及信息和通信技术的广泛和不受监管的使用。我们得出的结论是，良好支持的三个关键方面是：提供特定的教学工具和关爱人类接触，拥有支持性的家庭环境，拥有足够的ICT设备和良好的互联网连接。我们的研究结果将为教师、护理人员、公共行政人员、利益相关者和社会服务机构提供关于封锁期间学校教育支持机制的信息。

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来源期刊

Child Care in Practice Nursing-Community and Home Care

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

5.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Child Care in Practice is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal that provides an international forum for professionals working in all disciplines in the provision of children’s services, including social work, social care, health care, medicine, psychology, education, the police and probationary services, and solicitors and barristers working in the family law and youth justice sectors. The strategic aims and objectives of the journal are: • To develop the knowledge base of practitioners, managers and other professionals responsible for the delivery of professional child care services. The journal seeks to contribute to the achievement of quality services and the promotion of the highest standards. • To achieve an equity of input from all disciplines working with children. The multi-disciplinary nature of the journal reflects that the key to many successful outcomes in the child care field lies in the close co-operation between different disciplines. • To raise awareness of often-neglected issues such as marginalization of ethnic minorities and problems consequent upon poverty and disability. • To keep abreast of and continue to influence local and international child care practice in response to emerging policy. • To include the views of those who are in receipt of multi-disciplinary child care services. • To welcome submissions on promising practice developments and the findings from new research to highlight the breadth of the work of the journal’s work.