Insieme a distanza. Alleanze educative tra servizi per l’infanzia e famiglie durante il lockdown

The relationship with families is a crucial topic in educational services for children aged 0-6 years. The participatory and inclusive approach that has traditionally characterized Italian early childhood education and care has come under serious pressure during the Covid-19 pandemic: the ongoing health, social, political, and economic emergency has radically modified timeframes, spaces, an modes of communicating and relating, both in early years/nursery school settings and more generally. This paper examines the relationship between early childhood education services and families, by reporting and analyzing data from an exploratory study on distance education in services for children aged 0-6 years, during the spring 2020 lockdown in Italy. Specifically, a questionnaire was used to collect the views of a sample of educators, teachers, and coordinators concerning the practices that had been implemented in support of the remote educational relationship (in Italian, “Legami Educativi A Distanza – LEAD” programme). Among the various themes investigated, the focus here is on problematizing the ways in which families’ participation changed during the distance education phase