GUIDANCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND PRIMARY EDUCATION DURING SCHOOL CLOSURE DUE TO COVID 19 LOCKDOWN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COMMUNITY OF MADRID

Abstract

The work presented is part of a large project regarding the role of the assessment of students with special educational needs, from the perspective of the counsellors responsible for this assessment within the framework of the right to inclusive education. With the situation generated by the lockdown of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the goal of this study is to analyse if the changes generated in psych pedagogical assessment and other guidance practices, are positioning educational guidance teams in a more coherent line with the right to inclusive education. An interpretative phenomenological study was carried out, which gathered the opinions of 60 professionals of educational guidance teams of the Community of Madrid (Spain) through an open questionnaire, and 17 professionals of these guidance teams through in-depth interviews. The information collected was subjected to the thematic analysis method. The results show that, although for some the turbulences of the pandemic were not strong enough to provoke reflections on their professional practices, for others, they constituted an opportunity to take a step towards an educational model. In this sense we can say that the crisis has offered learning opportunities, sometimes leading to questioning the dominant discourse embodied in the usual practices of counsellors. It is questionable whether the situation this 2020/2021 school year is allowing them to continue some of these thoughts and practices. Or whether the return to the routine is reducing them to a footnote.