Using Digital Technologies for School-Family Partnerships: A Case at a Brazilian Preschool During the Pandemic

Abstract

This paper presents a case of remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic with preschool students in Brazil. The sudden change from in-person to online instruction required innovative and creative ways to engage students and families in the learning process.  Digital resources and technologies facilitated communication, instruction, and the promotion of strong and enriching school-family partnerships. Reflections on the experience's outcomes were based on Freire’s (1987, 1989, 1996) concepts and perspectives on education, with a particular emphasis on the significance of context and collaboration. Both access and literacy in the use of digital technologies were sometimes barriers that had to be overcome. The proximity and partnership between school/educators and families brought invaluable gains that continued after the end of the remote teaching period. This new and complex pedagogical design and approach amplified the number of agents involved in the teaching-learning process of preschool students and pointed to transformations in the educational practices of the school where they were implemented. Among the changes brought by this experience is the families’ greater empathy and respect for educators as well as their lasting and increasing will to engage in their children’s education. This experience has also shifted the beliefs and practices of the educators involved as they not only learned new strategies but also kept on using many of them after students were back on site.