Multidisciplinary support teams for inclusive education during emergency online teaching: experiences and practices on the pedagogical triangulations forum

In 2020, when COVID19 arrived in Portugal imposing the general lockdown, the "Pedagogical Triangulations – COVID19 school experiences: the journey" emerged to give voice to those who kept the educational system up and running, avoiding school and education disruption during the experience of online emergency teaching or school at distance (referred to as E@D). The initiative consisted of two activities: a) online forums “Pedagogical Triangulations COVID19 – school experiences: the journey”(1) for teachers (director, supervisors, coordinators…) through Zoom platform; and b) e-magazine Challenges [Desafios] – Trans_Formation Notebooks #32, “Pedagogical Triangulations – COVID19 school experiences: the journey – Memories, Stories and Students’ Time”(2) dedicated only to works produced by K-12 students. The online forums brought together educational actors around three objectives linked to pedagogical practices of inclusive differentiation in a logic of reflection – action – reflection. On May 26th, members of three different EMAEI (Multidisciplinary Support Team for Inclusive Education) were invited to testify of the effort to maintain the inclusion and equity of all students, ensuring that none are left behind. EMAEI are fundamental in school's daily life and at the time of confinement in 2020, their role was decisive to continue inclusion. Taking into account the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, many EMAEI went even further, as they faced increased challenges in order to maintain a broad reading of the students' contexts, integrating families and calling on partners to safeguard the educational process of those to whom the previous vulnerability aggravated the risk and disruption. Three axes emerged from the speeches of EMAEI members in the online forum Pedagogical Triangulations: 1) the teachers’ commitment to equity in the face of adversity and diversity, to culture, to the individual path of the student; 2) community involvement considering the learning needs of all students; 3) attention to the social and emotional dimension, to the maintenance of the relational proximity that supports the educational process. The child / youth is always at the center of the system, which, being educational, is not just about acquiring knowledge - it is the assumption that the curriculum must be present for the overall development of the individual in the different systems of life.