Effects on and adaptation of the family context during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some remarks from Italy and Mexico

ABSTRACT

The first COVID-19 case in Italy was registered on 21 February 2020, thrusting Italy into a state of emergency which quickly produced burdensome economic and social effects. In this contribution we choose to reflect on how social institutions, family and school have been reacting to the pandemic. We will try to analyse the main changes that occurred regarding educational and family institutions in Italy and Mexico, two countries that show numerous similarities with respect to both the inequalities present in families and the school learning process and their reactions to the crisis. In both countries the pandemic has demonstrated the great resilience of families, but there are also social, economic, cultural and educational inequalities that force us to deeply rethink the cultural and social development models of the two countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• family
• work–life balance
• education
• distance learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See C. Giaccardi, M. Magatti, Nella fine è l’inizio. In che mondo vivremo, Bologna, il Mulino, 2020 and A. Santambrogio, Ecologia sociale. La società dopo la pandemia, Milan, Mondadori, 2020.

2 There were two main characteristics of the pandemic: a health crisis caused by COVID-19 and an economic and social crisis resulting from the pandemic containment measures.

3 The fall in the employment rate was almost double among women compared to men (−1.3% against −0.7%) and higher for the under 35s (−1.8% against −0.8% of 35 to 49 year olds and −0.3% for over 50s) and foreigners, for whom the value of the indicator fell below that of Italians.

4 See the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 25 February 2020.

5 The research involved 3000 subjects between the ages of 18 and 85, representing the large segment of the Italian population with access to the Internet at least once a week, i.e. about 40 million people.

6 It must be remembered that the leave granted, even extended leave (30 days), was not very attentive to the gender balance (an incentive could have been foreseen for fathers). In addition, it was too limited for requirements and for the months of closure of services and schools in the context of the recovery of economic activities (Naldini, 2021b).

7 A significant feature of the Italian school system is the important role assigned by the system to homework and educational delegation through parental support, in addition to sparse full-time provisions. These elements, even in ordinary times, reinforce social inequalities in student learning. The pandemic crisis, with the forced use of online learning, seems to have reinforced this engine of inequality (Pavolini et al., 2021b).

8 In the education sector as a whole, 2020 began with the inherited cleaver of public spending cuts, following the austerity policies of the previous decade. Compared to a Western European landscape which had seen a lot of innovation and expanded public funding in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, in Italy in 2020 the system could have been defined as almost ‘frozen’ (Naldini & Saraceno, 2008).

9 The survey was carried out from 7 April to 5 May 2020 on a sample of 5133 Italian children under the age of 16 and their parents.

10 Distance learning was successful especially where the family supported the children. On the other hand, where the family was not able to do so, distance education failed (Pitzalis & Spanò, 2021).

11 For example, in the case of nursery or primary school the activities that traditionally produce a sense of school community with the participation of parents (e.g. Christmas celebrations, carnivals and children’s public performances) were often cancelled (Pitzalis & Spanò, 2021).

12 The pandemic broke out in a phase in which some national welfare systems, such as the Italian one, were still suffering from the long-term effects of the economic recession triggered by the financial crisis of 2008 and the austerity measures adopted to counter it.

13 In many OECD countries, fewer than half of rural areas have sufficiently fast, fixed broadband.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Bianchi

Francesca Bianchi is associate professor in Sociology at the University or Siena. She has taken part in several studies and researches concerning social and cultural transformations, continuing vocational training and guidance (with ISFOL Rome, Carlo Cattaneo Institute of Bologna, MTI of Boston). She has been involved, as Italian expert in social and education fields, in the European network COST 13 Working group n.4 ‘Youth employment/unemployment’, Action Changing labour market, welfare policies and citizenship. In recent years she has been particularly studying the social interaction and the new forms of sociality and participation in everyday life, taking part to several international conferences organized by ESPAnet, European Network for Housing Research. In 2015 she was visiting researcher in Tours, Unité de Recherche ‘Cités, TERritoires, Environnement et Sociétés’ (CITERES), François Rabelais University and in 2018 visiting professor in Paris Nanterre, Centre de Recherche sur l’Habitat (CRH), Laboratoire LAVUE. She published several books and articles on national and international reviews. She is member of the PROJEKT Laboratory in Design and Social Innovation at the University of Nîmes (http://projekt.unimes.fr/) and member of the Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (AIS) Vita quotidiana Scientific Council.

Maria Teresa de Jesús Martínez Núñez

María Teresa Jesús Martínez Núñez, he completed a Bachelor of Business Administration, Master of Administration and PhD in International Education. Certified by UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE-ITESM with distinction in the areas of: Design: planning and preparation; Practice: teaching and learning in action; Assessment: assessing progress and achievement y Evaluation: Improving teaching and learning. Certified by ITESM as an Implementer of the Problem-Based Learning Teaching Technique and as a redesign teacher. Diplomas in Leadership Plus and Senior Management. She has had a career within the University as Director of Curriculum Design and Development; Director of Operation and Academic Quality; Teacher of Master’s Degree and Doctorate in Educational Planning and Leadership and Master’s Degree in Teaching. She has participated as an instructor in active learning methods such as Problem Based Learning and others related to learning and teaching; in addition to publications in the area and consulting; an external visitor for accreditation in the Federation of Private Mexican Institutions of Higher Education. Responsible at the University of the Research chapter for the version III Accreditation Process before the Federation of Private Mexican Institutions of Higher Education with the result of Smooth and Flat Accreditation. She worked as Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies and is Director of the Doctorate in Educational Planning and Leadership in the Rectory of this House of Studies. She currently works as an educational counsellor and is a partner in the consulting firm of Los Carlos de Saltillo.

Estefanía Villarreal Nájera

Estefanía Villarreal Nájera, she completed a degree in Economics at the Autonomous University of Coahuila, did an academic exchange at the University of Vigo in Spain, Specialty in Labor Legal Relations and Master in Labor Law at the Autonomous University of the Northeast. She has worked in different government bodies in areas of evaluation and monitoring of indicators: Superior Audit of the State of Coahuila and Secretary of Labor of the Government of the State of Coahuila. Also as head of the Transparency Unit of the same Secretariat. She has participated as a face-to-face and virtual teacher at the undergraduate level in the subjects of economics, international economics, macroeconomics and microeconomics at the Autonomous University of the Northeast. She currently works as Deputy Director of Research and Employability in the Rectory of this House of Studies.

Olga Catalina Calderón Garza

Olga Catalina Calderón Garza, she completed his bachelor's degrees in Preschool Education, Special Education and a bachelor's degree in Basic Education in The Normal of Coahuila, she completed the Specialty in Resource Management and the Master's Degree in Education at the Autonomous University of the Northeast (UANE). She has worked in different positions for the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico, such as: Teacher, Technical-Pedagogical Advisor, School Principal, School Zone Supervisor. She has been a member of the national central groups of School Supervisors. She has participated as a face-to-face and virtual teacher at the bachelor's and master's level in the subjects of Pedagogy, Learning Theories, Didactics, Curriculum Design, Formative Evaluation at several Universities of Monclova, Coahuila. She has participated as a designer of National training courses, and as a trainer in different topics related to basic education in Mexico for more than 30 years. She currently serves as Deputy Director of Postgraduate at UANE Monclova.