Pandemic and educational realities 0-6: an exploratory study on the “restart”

Abstract

from September 2020, in Italy, day-care centres and nursery schools have begun to welcome children “in presence” but with a completely new organizational structure due to the distancing and safety regulations imposed by the health authorities. By an exploratory survey we wanted to face the following questions: what responses did the “restart” under the banner of health constraints raise in 0-6 teachers in terms of perceived difficulties or positivity and activated strategies? Such answers, what pedagogical positions do they reveal? At the beginning of the 2020/21 school year, a questionnaire was delivered to 28 educational realities, focused on five themes: “relationships with children”, “relationships between children”, “relationships with parents”, “relationships between colleagues”, “spaces review”; for each of them, the ques-tionnaire asked each working group to discuss and indicate the positive and critical aspects perceived following the first impact with the new organizational structure, in addition to the strategies implemented. The data analysis was conducted according to an inductive method. With respect to the “relationship with children” and the “relationship between colleagues”, the data reveal, in both cases, a clear preference of the relationship in presence and an ambivalence connected to the “closure” in the bubble groups; with respect to this solution both risks of self-referentiality and positivity on the socio-relational level are in fact signaled. These results are discussed with the filter of some basic assumptions of ECEC pedagogy.