Between instrumental reason and applied social engineering: the Latin American educational response to Covid-19

The sudden arrival of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus showed the most visible face of Latin American societies, so marked by their ancestral rejection of the economic and commercial development models imposed by neoliberalism, and so historically aggrieved by local governments that have failed to respond to their legitimate aspirations for equality, inclusion and human development. In this contextual framework, education is subject to new contradictions, categorically exposed when it is demanded to maintain its status quo, without considering the precarious conditions of infrastructure and technological equipment with which the academic dynamics were developed at all educational levels. On this argumentative basis, an analysis is presented on the response of governments to the health contingency, particularly in their educational strategies, centered on the massive use of information and communication technologies, and three categories of analysis are considered: the institutional educational response to the pandemic, the role of teachers in the State's response to the crisis and the social perception of the implementation of educational strategies designed by governments; all of the above framed in the Latin American context.