Introduction: Social Needs, Emergency Policies and Solidaristic Attitudes throughout the Italian Education System: Sociological Research during the Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreak

The nine chapters in this book explore how the Italian education system responded to distance learning during the first wave of the pandemic. The impact of the hard lockdown on both teaching and learning revealed the inherent weaknesses of a system in which digital technology had only recently been introduced and highlighted the relevant inequalities in their access and use. While students, teachers and families adapted (albeit with difficulty) to the new learning and teaching routines, the institutions faced the challenge of ensuring quality and equality. By including various case studies and unedited sets of data collected in different areas of the country, the book offers up-to-date insights on the impact of the pandemic on the Italian school system and provides a broad introduction to the educational emergency from a sociological perspective. The volume ends with a post-commentary comparing the Italian case with the similar situation of school closure as it occurred in the United Kingdom.