Social vulnerability and digital exclusion in the context of remote teaching in public schools in Ituiutaba/MG

Abstract

The aim of this research was to reflect on emergency remote teaching in the context of the health
crisis caused by Covid-19 in terms of social vulnerability and its link with digital exclusion of students from three public schools in the municipality of Ituiutaba/MG in 2020 and 2021. The starting point was to highlight the existing social inequalities in Brazil as well as those related to the issue of access to technological inputs and the lack of knowledge about their pedagogical use which, in turn, leads to the invisibility of many students
who are excluded from the possibilities of using technologies. Considering this context, the study was based on the following guiding question: how has remote teaching contributed to the increase of digital exclusion of socially vulnerable students in public schools in the municipality of Ituiutaba/MG? To achieve the objective, a qualitative research with a bibliographic, documentary and empirical nature was conducted. The results indicate that remote education during the Covid-19 pandemic in the municipality of Ituiutaba/MG made the
problem of exclusion of vulnerable students even worse since most of them did not have access to internet network, had neither socioeconomic conditions to access digital technologies nor pedagogical knowledge to use them, facts that increased educational inequalities for this public.