Interaction in online classes during Covid-19: the experiences of newly-arrived migrant students

ABSTRACT

Background

In order to continue educational provision during the Covid-19 pandemic, many education systems switched to some form of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in 2020. Research suggests that this may have disproportionately affected students from underprivileged communities. In this context, there is, therefore, a pressing need to consider how ERT may have impacted learners who are likely to be most affected by educational inequalities, including newly arrived migrant students (NAMS).

Purpose

As studies have highlighted the particular importance of interaction for effective distance learning, the research aimed to examine how NAMS in Flemish secondary schools experienced interaction with learning content, teachers and fellow students in online classes during ERT.

Methods

A total of six semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 23 NAMS from six secondary schools in Belgium. The interviews were centred on questions about participants’ experiences with online interaction and participation. All focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, after which transcriptions were coded and analysed qualitatively.

Findings

The analysis revealed that, during ERT, participants reported experiencing a higher amount of learner–content interaction, mainly consisting of self-study material and tasks. Participants also indicated a lack of learner–teacher interaction, which was attributed to the shortage of speaking opportunities and students’ decreased inclination to interact with instructors. In addition, most participants reportedly experienced few opportunities for learner–learner interaction during online classes.

Conclusions

Study findings provided insight into the NAMS’ experiences of being suddenly and unexpectedly compelled to be autonomous learners during ERT. Students’ reports suggest that the quality of learner–content interaction may have been compromised by limited learner–teacher interaction in the ERT situation. This draws attention more generally to the importance of interactive learning in the support of NAMS and the need for educators to be empowered to develop interactivity-rich remote learning environments.

KEYWORDS:

• distance learning
• interaction
• newly arrived migrant students (NAMS)
• secondary education
• emergency remote teaching (ERT)
• Covid-19

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all participants, teachers, and administrative staff for their collaboration.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. In terms of ‘effectiveness’, we are referring to the level to which educational goals are attained (Scheerens and Blömeke 2016).

2. In this context, reception education refers to separately organised reception education classes for NAMS aimed at (1) helping the students with the learning of Dutch and (2) reinforcing NAMS’ social integration process.

3. Reception education schools in this context are schools providing separately organised reception education classes for NAMS.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ghent University DOWA Research Fund.