special education under covid

The Covid-19 pandemic that erupted in early 2020 was an extreme event that led to unfamiliar scenarios in many life arenas including special education. Lockdowns and online learning have posed unprecedented challenges to the inclusion of students with disabilities. Through an examination of parents’ perceptions of inclusion, this study provides a sociological examination of inclusion during the Covid-19 pandemic and the differential effects that such a crisis has on different communities. A total of 124 parents of students with disabilities (61 Jews and 63 Arabs) completed questionnaires that included both open-ended and Likert-scale items. The research provides an opportunity to see how two populations in the same country, under the same special education legislation, rules and procedures quite differently experience the impact of Covid-19 on their children’s inclusion in mainstream education. The findings demonstrate a dissatisfaction with staff’s lack of commitment among Jewish parents and reports concerning technical difficulties in online learning among Arab parents. The different perceptions and evaluation of the educational services between Jewish and Arab parents reflect the differences between the populations in general, highlighting a communitarian nature of the Arab population in Israel, manifesting a poorer infrastructure in Arab villages as well as lower SES of Arab families, in addition to indicating to a more individualistic tendencies in Jewish society.

2020年初爆发的新冠疫情是一场极端公共卫生事件，为包括特殊教育在内的诸多生活领域带来了前所未有的陌生境遇。封锁防疫措施与在线学习模式，给残障学生的融合教育（inclusion）带来了严峻挑战。本研究通过调研残障学生家长对融合教育的认知，从社会学视角剖析了新冠疫情期间的融合教育现状，以及这场危机对不同群体造成的差异化影响。共计124名残障学生家长（其中犹太裔61名、阿拉伯裔63名）完成了包含开放式题目与李克特量表（Likert-scale）题项的调查问卷。借此，本研究得以观察同一国家内的两个群体——在适用相同的特殊教育立法、规则与流程的前提下——如何以截然不同的方式体验新冠疫情对子女融入普通教育的冲击。研究结果显示：犹太裔家长对教职员工缺乏投入度的现状表示不满，而阿拉伯裔家长则反馈了在线学习过程中的各类技术困境。犹太与阿拉伯裔家长对教育服务的认知与评价差异，整体上反映了两群体间的社会鸿沟：凸显了以色列阿拉伯群体的社群本位属性，具体体现为阿拉伯村庄基础设施更为薄弱、阿拉伯家庭社会经济地位（Socioeconomic Status，SES）更低，同时也反映出犹太社会更偏向个人主义的文化倾向。