The Use of Digital Technologies for an Inclusive School: Some Suggestions From the COVID-19 Pandemic Experience

During the Covid 19 pandemic, digital technologies were the immediate solution to school closures, becoming both the problem and the solution to a complex social and educational situation. This has highlighted several positive thrusts: a) the proactive capacity of some teachers who have developed forms of bricolage, especially in terms of inclusion for disadvantaged students; b) the need for teachers to reinforce collaborative network and to implement training courses of enhancing digital skills. We explore the impact of the digital technologies presenting the results of an exploratory qualitative research, involving 50 teachers from schools in Messina and its province, who participated in the training course ‘Methods and techniques for an inclusive school’. Distance learning during the Covid 19 pandemic increased loneliness and alienation of teachers, in a context where educational reforms have already caused individualisation of work, forms of soft-privatisation and market-driven education. Faced with the risk of digital inequalities amplifying the traditional ones, especially for the most fragile categories (minors with disabilities, BSE and DSA), teachers have learnt to use digital technologies pro-actively and to build a caring relationship in the digital space. However, they emphasised a growing need for training and for embedding new technologies in bottom-up processes that foster collaboration and sharing, both with colleagues and with families and students.