Challenges and Opportunities of the COVID‐19 Lockdown on the Italian School System: Teachers’ Perceptions of Distance Teaching for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the challenges and opportunities of distance teaching for students with disabilities during the first COVID‐19 lockdown period. Despite the Italian school system is known to be a traditionally inclusive one, the COVID‐19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown of schools may have created a particularly challenging situation for the education system. In April 2020, 3,291 teachers responded to a questionnaire, with more than 50% of them indicating a total or partial exclusion of their students with disabilities from distance teaching and showing knowledge of other pupils with disabilities being totally excluded. Such exclusion appears caused by the digital divide on one hand, and the didactic level on the other. In fact, the inclusive and the adapted digital materials were not always made available, as well as individualised learning objectives were not mastered in mainstream setting. Although teachers reported some positive aspects, such as a satisfactory collaboration with colleagues and families of children with disabilities, the class‐mates’ involvement was deficient. Moreover, the paper argues that a negative experience with distance learning is sig‐nificantly associated to a deterioration in the learning outcomes and behaviour of students with disabilities. Practical implications arising from this study, still relevant today, are discussed.