Home School Community Liaison Coordinators (HSCL) perspectives on supporting family wellbeing and learning during the Covid-19 school closures: critical needs and lessons learned

Abstract

Home School Community Liaison Coordinators (HSCLs) play an essential role in the Irish education system to address systemic educational disadvantage by supporting children and families. This paper focuses on the experiences of HSCLs during Covid-19 school closures in Ireland in 2020. Research questions focus on challenges and enablers for HSCLs in supporting families during the shutdown and the impact of a whole school response on remote learning. Findings highlight the pivotal role of HSCLs in supporting the wellbeing of children and families. This involves the identification of basic and learning-related needs and engagement in coordinating with the school community and external agencies to respond to those needs. In this study, addressing basic critical needs was identified as the prerequisite to supporting home learning. The internal organisation and strategy of individual schools promoting a whole school approach to wellbeing and home-schooling was highlighted as key to successful support mechanisms. Recommendations highlight the importance of establishing and provisioning appropriate communication approaches with families in order for HSCLs to fulfil their role. Crucial here was the benefit of real physical contact as well as digital means. This has clear implications for public health guidance for schools in adopting holistic approaches to support families.

Keywords:

• family learning
• digital literacy
• wellbeing
• Covid-19 school closures
• educational disadvantage

Research background and rationale

During the school closures of 2020, student and family wellbeing were a key concern for educators and researchers alike (Darmody, Smyth, and Russell 2020; Devitt et al. 2020). The studies conducted highlight the importance of schools as a vital community-based focal point collaborating with families for the continuity and adaptation of learning and wellbeing (Eivers, Worth, and Ghosh 2020; OECD 2020). This paper focuses on the experiences of Home School Community Liaison Coordinators (HSCL) supporting families from mid-March to July 2020 when schools in Ireland were closed.

Wellbeing, schools and the role of the HSCL

Taking a holistic definition of well-being as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO 2005), the Covid-19 pandemic has been hugely challenging for the wellbeing of individuals nationally and internationally (Darmody, Smyth, and Russell 2020). In Ireland, the vital role of schools in the promotion of wellbeing through a range of activities and approaches is a policy priority in normal times (DES 2018) but particularly during Covid-19 The DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme (DES 2017) aims to address systemic inequalities in the Irish education system in particular in areas of high deprivation and those at risk of educational disadvantage. There are a range of programmes and initiatives available to DEIS schools which focus on developing pupil’s wellbeing. The role of the HSCL within school structures is central to this, working at the interface between schools and homes to mitigate potential risk factors for wellbeing (Smyth et al. 2015). HSCLs are the point of intersection between schools and families, providing a connection between school and home and supporting children and the salient adults in their lives (Conaty 2002). The HSCL role also includes collaborating with outside agencies where necessary to best support children and families.

Mulkerrins (2007) reported that parents recognise the key bridging role of the HSCL between parents and teachers. This pivotal relationship has a positive impact on perceptions of schools as more open and welcoming places, leading to a happier school experience for both parents and children. Weir et al. (2018) found that the scheme resulted in parents feeling less threatened by school and teachers and has impacted on the interest and awareness of parents in their child’s education. Furthermore, research has shown how parent-school communications improved and a sense of community developed through HSCL programmes (Mulkerrins 2007; O’Brien 2004).

The Covid-19 pandemic and school closures exacerbated many risks to the well-being of children and families. Limited access to family supports provided through schools and their collaborations with relevant outside agencies, has had a significant impact on children and families who are at risk of social and educational disadvantage (Government of Ireland 2020). Weir et al. (2018) report that the aspect of HSCLs work that receives the largest time allocation is home visits, followed by informal and/or incidental meetings with parents. Pandemic restrictions and school closures have greatly impacted the work of HSCLS and have required them to transform their ways of working.

This study focuses on how HSCLs pivoted their work to sustain relationships and communication between families, school, and external organisations to address the emerging needs of children and families during the 2020 school closures. A selected small sample of HSCLs from urban and rural DEIS primary schools collaborated in this qualitative study to address the following research question:

How did HSCLs adapt their focus and strategies to support student wellbeing during the Covid-19 school closures?

Methodology

The study adopted a qualitative approach to address the research question. A sample of ten HSCLs (8 female and 2 male) were invited to participate. The participants in the study were from ten DEIS primary schools, eight band 1 (higher disadvantage) and two band 2 (lower disadvantage). The schools were located in both urban and rural areas of Leinster, Munster and Connacht. School sizes varied from 640 to 155 students. Most of the schools had multi-cultural school communities with one urban school and one rural reporting a mostly indigenous local population. One school had an Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre (EROC) in its community. Most of the schools were vertical schools with some under distinct management structures. Participants took part in in-depth semi-structured interviews online as an effective substitute for on-site consultations. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and member-checked by participants and a constant comparative method was used to analyse data in NVivo.

Findings and discussion

Addressing critical basic needs

The findings of this study identify the HSCL as a key actor within a whole school approach to supporting children and family wellbeing during school closures. All HSCLs reported that wellbeing was prioritized when schools closed to address the increased risks to children and families. Existing provision of support such as breakfast clubs, hot lunches, after school activities and family learning with parent groups was dependent on the school as the focal point for interventions. When the schools closed all these initiatives had to be re-imagined. Crucial to wellbeing was the provision of basic critical needs, such as housing, groceries, hot meals, heating, sanitation (masks and hand-sanitizer), etc. HSCLs stated unequivocally that those needs had to be met as a prerequisite to supporting learning needs (Maslow 1943):

Many families had no income and lost jobs, so we had to get basic support to these families in dire straits as soon as possible … There was a lot of need. Economically families suffered. Fathers would be in the building trade and mothers working part-time in shopping centres, etc. (Urban HSCL 6)

This incorporated a homogeneous cultural understanding of the needs that HSCLs had to navigate:

Cultural demands related to food that had to be met. Some families had special restrictions etc. (Urban HSCL 3)

HSCLs were in an informed position to identify, advise and help coordinate appropriate responses with relevant agencies and the school community. HSCLs emphasized the need to listen to and understand individual family needs and were critical of generic responses which might offer quick fix solutions:

Listen more to the lived experiences of families and develop realistic targets. Less grand statements and more understanding of the diverse needs. Not everyone lives in a cosy house or apartment. Some families are living in holes. (Urban HSCL 5)

Maintaining connections and contact

Sustaining connections with families through the closures was a key theme for all the HSCLs interviewed. The findings highlight how crucial and how difficult it was for HSCLs to maintain contact. HSCLs played a critical role in reaching out to families and letting them know that the school were there to support them. Adaptability to the limitations of the Covid context was key with a diversity of approaches reported by HSCLs to reach families including phone calls, texts, calling to the door, emailing and using school platforms such as Seesaw and Aladdin. Findings indicate that parents suffering from addiction, family difficulties, or living alone with children without greater family support were particularly vulnerable. The mechanisms initiated to address basic needs also fulfilled this crucial function of connecting with families. For example, deliveries at the school gate or to the family home ensured that contact was maintained. This was vital, especially for marginalized families and groups. These contacts allowed HSCLs to identify necessary supports for families through school closures:

Because of the shut-down we couldn’t meet in person and kids were not at school, so this was challenging. We combined emails with direct outreach from food delivery to keep in touch with families. This worked well in most cases. (Rural HSCL 2)

While using the wide range of communication channels at their disposal, HSCLs reported that online and distance support was no substitute for home visits as the role of the HSCL is so dependent on direct contact (Weir et al. 2018):

Home visits should be at least 50% of the HSCL work … The shutdown crippled the effectiveness of the HSCL support. (Urban HSCL 6)

In the absence of face-to-face contact, HSCLs note the importance of quickly establishing available and appropriate means of communication with families. This also presented significant challenges as the sudden school closures meant that not all necessary information (phone numbers, email details, platform logins) was available and significant work to establish these links was needed. A particular challenge related to how the public health travel restrictions impacted on HSCLs activity, depending on where they were living. HSCLs who lived in the locality of their school could still call to families, at a social distance, who needed support:

Being out in the community helped this approach. Keeping a social distance but being in contact to ask parents and children how they were doing. Sometimes kids would have a problem and I would contact the teacher to find a way to help. (Rural HSCL 4)

Those who lived outside the school locality reported that they were dependent on distance support mechanisms and feedback from staff living in the community. This was at times very frustrating and challenging as HSCLs could not use their established contact routine of ‘physical’ points of contact with parents. Despite the very different role they play within the school community, the HSCL role was not officially distinguished from that of teachers. They were not designated as essential or frontline workers and therefore were subject to travel restriction. Schools could and often did provide documentary support where movement was necessary but this ambiguity in relation to regulations was noted as a concern by some HSCLs in the study.

Findings emphasise how critical appropriate and smooth channels of communication to families were central to the role of the HSCL during school closures and that a range of barriers to this had to be addressed.

Digital divide

Given the importance of digital channels for communication, HSCLs highlight the complexity of addressing digital equity as this encompasses not only access to devices but also connectivity and proficiency with necessary platforms. HSCLs reported that the main digital constraints were access to devices, dependency on one device and data access, where many parents only had phone data bundles insufficient for the bandwidth demands of remote learning. Parents’ digital confidence was also highlighted. Many parents were overwhelmed in the early weeks of school closures and some parents were reported to be ‘running out of steam’. HSCLs reported that the first weeks of school closures were focused on facilitating parents to download apps, connect and understand how to use them. HSCLs highlighted the complexity of ensuring families were not only well resourced digitally but also appropriately provisioned on devices with logins, training and on-going support to use platforms. This was seen as crucial to addressing learning needs with families. One HSCL described the work involved in providing technical support and devices to families even where both devices and data had been donated:

We set them up on the school system which was a challenge in itself as we couldn’t meet up with technical people because of the shutdown. We set up Seesaw and other programmes like Chatterbox and tailored the apps on devices to the needs of the children. The school principal helped with all this. It was quite an achievement to get this done ourselves. The principal made up laminated forms with photo / image instructions on how to use and set up the tablets. This helped parents with literacy needs. Step by step instructions. The principal made a video of herself setting up a tablet … Massive work really. (Urban HSCL 8)

Findings clearly indicate that any digital divide must be addressed in a holistic manner that considers material resources as well as capacity building within the wider school community.

Coordination and collaboration within school structures

Findings highlight the complex role of the HSCL in managing the multiple relationships required to identify and address the needs of families, in cooperation with their school management structures. In particular a whole school approach was identified as key to successful support mechanisms during school closures. Participants noted that where schools had established structures, e.g. Care Team, wellbeing policies and well-established interventions, they had an important advantage, at least at the start of closures. In the crisis context of initial school closures, HSCLs emphasised that the development of a response strategy took time and was dependent on feedback from key staff. HSCLs reported that good collaboration between management teams was essential for an effective and unified whole school response. This holistic approach was overall positively received:

Parents were delighted to get a coordinated response from the school. There was a method and process to the approach. (Urban HSCL 10)

HSCLs reported that in schools that had duel management structures (Senior and Junior school) there were initial challenges to agree on a co-ordinated approach. This was also the case when HSCLs were responsible for supporting two independent schools with contrasting leadership styles. Lessons were taken on board and HSCLs reported that the lessons from the initial school closures were discussed and communicated to school management teams.

In addition to the school team, coordination with family support agencies and local community groups, as well as business groups in some cases, was essential to addressing the needs of children and families in the school community. The importance of this liaison role is exemplified in this instance of a school food delivery programme:

My job was in the middle coordinating with the schools, suppliers and delivery people. Quite complex. (Urban HSCL 3)

This complex role was carried out in the global context of a pandemic which had consequences on the study participants, as on all others living through the crisis, as parents, carers and/or people with underlying health conditions, impacting across their personal and professional lives.

Conclusions and recommendations

The findings of this study highlight the essential role of HSCL coordinators during school closures. They were the point of intersection of school, home and external organisations. In order to be effective in this role, clear and smooth communication channels both internally within school structures and externally to families and other agencies were critical. Schools that had established structures, policies and digital channels were at a distinct advantage, in particular at the start of school closures.

The importance of continued collaboration with those who are most at risk of educational disadvantage, those who are at points of transition in education, and students from vulnerable groups, was to the forefront of HSCL guidelines issued for the return to school in 2020 (TESS 2020). This paper highlights critical factors to address in undertaking this important role. In particular, the recommendations below distil some of the lessons of the first Covid-19 school closure. Clear and collaborative school structures to support children and families was identified as crucial (establishing care teams and integration with management structures). In their absence, it was highly challenging to maintain a coordinated response for families. Establishing smooth communication channels to families (including but not limited to online learning platforms) is essential and needs to be tackled in a holistic way. It was clear from the interviews that while the degree of digital integration varied greatly across schools, as a minimum all schools should collect and maintain up-to-date basic contact information for digital communication. As expected, the schools that had well established and flexible on-line learning platforms were able to adapt and tailor them to facilitate full-time home learning and communication more effectively. However, the discussion of digital resources for children and families highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to address digital resourcing. A simplistic view of access to devices and connectivity misses the critical need for capacity development in families to avail of the learning and communication affordances of devices. Therefore, future work to address the so-called digital divide must address not only resources, appropriate provisioning and connectivity but also digital literacy and proficiency with devices. Finally, the unique nature of the HSCL role requires consideration at a system level within public health guidance for schools. The critical importance of face-to-face (socially distanced) contact with vulnerable families must be appropriately acknowledged in order to allow HSCLs to operate efficiently and effectively within clear public health constraints.

This study’s findings will contribute to a better understanding of the supporting role of the HSCL in the provision of basic needs for families so that the higher needs associated with promoting self-actualisation can be sustained. The promotion of an adequately resourced innovative and culturally connected community-based education system is key to achieving these ambitions. Further research integrating the perspectives of principals, teachers, HSCLs and families is necessary to establish an evidence base of good practice for remote learning and communication.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the authors’ host institution. All participants provided informed consent and data protection requirements in confidentiality, storage and retention were adhered to.

Acknowledgements

This study is part of the Family Digital Literacy project funded by the Irish Research Council through COALESCE (grant number COALESCE/2019/102) and is in partnership with NALA (National Adult Literacy Agency).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Irish Research Council [grant number COALESCE/2019/102].

Notes on contributors

Colman Ross

Dr. Colman Ross is an Irish Research Council research fellow at the School of Education Trinity College, Dublin. After spending over twenty years in Viet Nam and SE Asia working on a diverse number of education development projects he returned to Ireland to contribute to the IRC funded project on Family digital literacy in partnership with NALA. He is a graduate of Trinity College and conducted his doctoral research on the impact of Adult Basic Education on family and community development.

Maria Kennedy

Maria Kennedy is a primary school teacher who is working as Home School Community Liaison in an urban DEIS 1 school. She is currently studying for the Doctorate in Education in the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests lie in the areas of educational disadvantage, parental engagement and family literacy. She is conducting her doctoral research on the contributions that parental engagement can provide in designing a range of literacy workshops.

Ann Devitt

Dr. Ann Devitt is a lecturer and researcher in language and literacy education at the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin. She is currently Director of Research at the School and Academic Director for Learnovate, the Enterprise Ireland funded research and innovation centre focused on educational technology which is hosted in TCD. Her research interests lie in the area of language teaching and learning and technology enhanced learning. She is currently Principal Investigator on an IRC funded project on Family Digital Literacy project in partnership with NALA.