Los Procesos de Exclusión Social Infantil y su Relación con la Práctica Docente en Contextos Prepandémicos y Pandémicos

Exclusion is a latent reality within early childhood education that has been widely studied from different theoretical perspectives and has been intensified by the social upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the practice of an educator is related to the exclusion processes that are generated in the daily life of students in a fourth-year group of Basic General Education, from a private educational unit in Quito, Ecuador. The analysis is based on the importance of the social function of a teacher in children's interaction and education itself. Thus, it is intended to motivate a reflection that contributes to solving the problem about the influence of a teaching practice that contributes to generating processes of student exclusion, which have been deepened by confinement and the effects of the pandemic on social inequalities. At the methodological level, the semi-structured interview and participant observation were applied as qualitative techniques. Among the findings, it is evident that children's social interaction is characterized by exclusion processes, directly influenced by a teaching practice nuanced by stereotypes, among which those related to gender issues stand out. At the same time, in recent times exclusion is considered due to issues associated with health issues. Thus, the main challenges to generate inclusion processes thanks to the promotion of an inclusive teaching practice are also analyzed, in a context conditioned by socialization barriers, caused by the restrictions of the pandemic.