Pandemic times: when fragile symptoms of inclusion turn into signs of exclusion

Abstract

This narrative considers the contradictions between inclusion discourses and inequalities underlined by the pandemic. The report is based in information collected, essentially, in texts on the Internet and in data from a questionnaire distributed in virtual communities. In Portugal, as in other countries, schools have closed. Families were confined at home and the pandemic highlighted, in an unequal society, the exclusion. Despite the commitments to inclusive education, in Portugal it is orchestrated by rhetoric and political and theoretical ambiguities, with inevitable tensions in practices. With the closure of schools, although the effort of all agents is recognized, the lack of skills and knowledge and the lack of accessibility to resources affected the action and increased the exclusion of some students. After the euphoria it was noticed that distance education did not ensure continuity and equity in learning. The participation of some students, previously with fragile symptoms of inclusion, showed clear signs of exclusion. The risks of poverty have increased. Inequalities in access to digital resources and the digital literacy skills of pupils, other family members and even teachers became visible. Education seen, in a neoliberal logic, as a commodity subject to market laws weakens the action of schools, but these continue to be held responsible for supplying, without resources and preparation, the processes of exclusion to which many students are subject. Inclusion as a collaborative process and articulated in a horizontal and vertical logic it was more pertinent.