The impact of distance learning on the social practices of schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic: reconstructing values of migrant children in Poland

ABSTRACT

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polish government decided to shut down all public and private institutions, including schools, from 12 March 2020. Since then, 4.58 million students from 24,000 schools have remained in their homes and practiced distance learning. Distance learning has greatly affected children’s social practices, including domestic, everyday, specialist, and cultural practices. This paper applies social practice theory, rooted in Schatzki’s ontological theory of practices, and Shove, Pantzar, and Watson’s structure of social practices to study the changes to migrant primary school children’s social practices during distance learning in Poland. The data are derived from a subsample of a larger qualitative study of the transnational transition processes of migrant children in Poland. This paper investigates how the COVID-19 lockdown and distance learning have prompted migrant primary school children to reflect on the transformation of traditional social practices and the value of school.

KEYWORDS:

• Distance learning
• social practices
• migrant children
• values

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the reviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts towards improving my manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Data on some immigrants in Poland holding a legal status, 1 January 2020.

2 The research was conducted in five languages, Polish, English, Ukrainian, Russian, and Turkish. All quotations were translated by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Center of Poland, PRELUDIUM 18 [grant number 2019/35/N/HS6/03682].

Notes on contributors

Anzhela Popyk

Anzhela Popyk is a PhD candidate at the University SWPS, Warsaw, and a Researcher at SWPS Youth Research Center. Her research focuses on transnational transitions and formation of sense of belonging among migrant children in Poland.