E-inclusion: online special education in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic

Italian legislation requires that all pupils with special needs be integrated in regular classes through cooperation between the class and special education teachers. After school closure in February 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers had to work together to arrange online inclusive activities for all the pupils in their classes. The Department of Education at the University of Genoa (Italy) designed a qualitative study aimed at investigating the factors affecting e-inclusion through a questionnaire composed of six open-ended questions. A total of 785 teachers filled out the instrument in April 2020. The responses were analysed by combining qualitative content analysis with statistical textual analysis. The findings indicate that effective e-inclusion depends on technologies, relationships with families, collaboration among teachers and online teaching strategies; in particular, teachers had to create personalised activities through asynchronous and synchronous interactive ways for students to engage in, preferably in small groups and individually.