Connection before content: using multiple perspectives to examine student engagement during Covid-19 school closures in Ireland

Abstract

The impact of the Covid-19 school closures on children and young people has been significant, with research suggesting that it has disproportionately negatively affected students from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. With the move to remote schooling, the focus on ensuring classes continued to ‘cover the curriculum’ left little space for considering how students were engaging with learning, or the factors that influenced their engagement. This paper aims to examine the extent to which student-teacher relationships, and modes of online teaching and learning, impacted on student engagement during Covid-19 school closures in Irish second-level schools. Using data from two research studies, this paper provides insights into the teacher experience of school closures and a more focused view of the experiences of second-level students attending schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The findings highlight two things: firstly, that meaningful connection between teachers and students matters for student engagement in remote learning, particularly for students at risk of educational disadvantage. Secondly, where teachers use innovative teaching and learning methods and encourage the development of students’ key skills there is increased student engagement. This paper acts as a timely reminder of the importance of relationships in student engagement especially during periods of crisis.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• school closures
• engagement
• educational disadvantage
• socio-economic disadvantage

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aibhin Bray

Dr Aibhin Bray is lecturer and researcher in education and leader of the mathematics strands in the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin. She has worked in widening participation for a number of years and continues to act as Research Advisor for Trinity's widening participation programme: Trinity Access. In addition to mathematics education, her research focuses on the development of teaching and learning practices that positively influence engagement with education and support the development of key skills and competences.

Joanne Banks

Dr Joanne Banks is a lecturer and researcher in inclusive education at the School of Education in Trinity College Dublin. She has worked for over a decade in social research focussing on inclusive education, the school experiences of students with disabilities and educational inequality more generally. Her research focuses on inclusive education in policy and practice and examines system and school level practices that promote equity for all students. She has published widely on the school experiences of students with disabilities and those from socio-economically deprived backgrounds.

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.

Eilís Ní Chorcora

Eilís Ní Chorcora is the Coordinator of Research and Impact at Trinity Access, Trinity College Dublin. A qualified primary school teacher with a postgraduate degree in Psychology, she works to support people from areas of low progression to higher education to achieve their full educational potential. Her research interests are in the area of widening participation among students from under-represented backgrounds as well as child and adolescent health and wellbeing.