Virus and school: reflections about the factors that have exacerbated the consequences of the health emergency in Italy

Abstract

Italy was the first European country which has been affected by the fast spread of SARS-Cov-2, leading to a general lockdown that started on March 9, 2020, only two weeks after the diagnosis of the Italian patient zero. Such lockdown concerned also the school, that is, the social institution which suffered —and keeps suffering— the most the negative effects of the national restrictions whether because of the lack of precise indications regarding the didactics after the suspension of in-class activities or because of the deficiencies and criticalities that it has been facing since ages. It was only in April when teachers could eventually resort to e-learning; though, due to the lack of both methodological indications and adequate study plans, each school acted autonomously and the best they could. In most cases, it was the teachers’ initiative and individual efforts that led to a successful didactics. As a matter of fact, teachers tried any kind of strategy to keep in touch actively with their students, as testified through the technique of the focus group. Although, in disagreement with the message of hope spread during the lockdown, not everything has gone well; that is, the virus has highlighted a chronical situation of fragility and vulnerability, whose negative consequences and effects seem to persist also in the future. This essay aims at analysing what happened during the first Italian lockdown framing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a sociocultural dimension. For this purpose, I will take into account the main contextual factors that have contributed to worsen —from the didactic and teaching perspective— the consequences of the spread of the virus.