Digitalization and school inequalities in Argentina. Lessons learnt during the Pandemic

• In Event: Digital futures and schooling: between global debates and regional experiences

Proposal

The paper draws on some of the findings of a research project on secondary education in Argentina in 2020 and 2022, which examined the transformations of schooling conditions during COVID-19. It sought to identify the changes in schooling forms associated with the interruption of in-person activity, the use of digital technologies, and the emerging inequalities.
The research project included conducting a simple panel study (2020-2021) in conjunction with the Secretariat of Educational Evaluation and Information (SEIE) of the Ministry of Education of Argentina, which had done a survey in 2020 as part of the National Evaluation of the Pedagogical Continuity Process (ENPCP). This survey was administered to 1,880 school leaders and 6,747 secondary-level teachers. The SEEI built the sample for the 2020 survey; it took secondary schools from the universe registered in the Annual Survey (AS) 2019 as the unit of analysis. The school sample was random and stratified by jurisdiction, management sector —state-run or private— and setting.
According to the responses of the leadership teams in 2020, 78% of secondary schools used virtual platforms to organise their teaching activities. The remaining 22% reported that they did not use virtual environments. The situation presented differences by sector: 30% of state-run schools did not use virtual environments, compared to 5% of privately managed schools. 63% of school leaders reported that platforms created by schools were used, after developing institutional blogs or adaptations of products provided by companies. 13% said they used platforms provided by a private company; in the case of privately managed schools, 30% of school leaders reported this.
The educators’ responses indicated that 43%, mainly from state-run schools, did not do synchronous activities via Zoom, Meet or similar platforms in 2020, and this figure dropped 13 points in 2021 (30%). Distribution by management sector indicates that in 2020, 49% of state-run schoolteachers and 83% from the private sector did have synchronous meetings via Zoom or similar platforms; this percentage rose in 2021, when synchronous interactions remained more prevalent among private school teachers: 65% in state-run schools versus 88% in private schools.
The findings show that the suspension of face-to-face teaching led to a change in the context of transmission (Bernstein 2000): from the classroom and school building, with its ad hoc facilities, to the homes of students and teachers, with differing capabilities in terms of digital connectivity and the devices needed for teaching via a range of technologies (Graizer 2020). They also show that the introduction of digital technologies during the pandemic affected state-run and private schools in different ways, accentuating the inequalities in the school provision.

Authors

• Felicitas M Acosta, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento & NORRAG

• Oscar Luis Graizer, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento