When home turns into quarantine school – new demands on students with special educational needs, their parents and teachers during COVID-19 quarantine

The worldwide school lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major challenges for the school system. For teachers, parents and students the current situation proves to be extremely challenging. Teachers have had to adapt their instruction to distance learning at short notice (e.g. Reimers et al. 2020). Parents (who might be working from home and supporting their children at the same time or who might have lost their jobs) all of a sudden have had to take on a new pedagogical role (e.g. Wu et al. 2020). Finally, students themselves have faced many challenges: e.g. they do not have their usual workspace, they do not have face-to-face support from their teachers, they might be in difficult situations at home and they cannot interact with their peers as usual (OECD 2020a).

Within this situation, there are new specific challenges for students with special educational needs (SEN) who require special attention and individualised support from their teachers. Therefore, educational stakeholders need to develop strategies to minimise the potential risk of ‘losing’ students during ongoing and future school lockdowns on an institutional level (Harris 2020; König, Jäger-Biela, and Glutsch 2020). In this context, the OECD (2020a) highlights the importance of monitoring students’ educational commitment through their ‘attendance, behaviour and learning progress’, reducing challenges that may impede students’ commitment, e.g. by providing supporting resources such as digital devices as well as designing teaching and learning situations individually tailored to the individual needs of students. As several studies are investigating the general situation of educational stakeholders during homeschooling, the special issue will shed light to the inclusive education sector by including the voices of different representatives of inclusive education who are having a diagnosis of SEN themselves or who are concerned with students having SEN in relation to teaching and learning during the pandemic. Against the background of this special situation, opportunities and challenges considering the development and experience of students, parents and teachers in line with the homeschooling situation are to be examined. Additionally, implications and strategies for creating resilient educational systems and schools are to be examined to ensure that no student is left behind due to obstructive institutional conditions (OECD 2020b). In considering the context of the COVID-19 quarantine and the new educational demands, the Special Issue encompasses empirical as well as theoretical papers addressing a wide range of topics dealing with inclusive education during homeschooling. Thus, this Special Issue offers opportunities to reflect and discuss the urgent needs in the context of inclusive education that have arisen during these unprecedented times.

Overview of all articles of the special issue

Inclusive education is increasingly defined worldwide in terms of participation and belonging of all students to the same educational community (Slee 2019) where the connections between different actors (e.g. teachers, students and parents) and systems (e.g. schools and families) are flourishing. The multiple contributions presented in this Special Issue derive from different geographical areas displaying perspectives from three continents (Europe, America, Oceania) and eleven countries (Australia, Austria, England, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Scotland).

This international approach allows insights into the educational crisis management in a global way as within all papers the authors investigated and outlined how educational communities have been able to resiliently redesign themselves to meet the challenges posed by the global pandemic. When home turns into quarantine school, how does this shift affect educational communities, educational actors and inclusive practices? The diverse perspectives highlighted within the different contributions all together have a common goal: to point out the challenges faced to react adequately and provide sustainable solutions within the context of special and inclusive educational settings.

In this line, the first two papers consider students’ perspective and students’ voice in the current situation. Mælan et al. investigate possible differences in students’ perception (N = 1.755) of everyday school life in Norway by comparing data from 2018 (regular face-to-face schooling) with recent data collected during homeschooling in May 2020. Results indicate that student groups perceive less teacher support and report lower levels of self-efficacy.

Couper-Kenney and Riddell in their analysis of the Scottish Coronavirus Act (2020) assess the extent to which children’s rights have been prioritised in the midst of the global public health crisis associated with COVID-19 in terms of education and care services. Evidence is drawn from qualitative study of the experience of sixteen families in Scotland.

Three papers reflect on parents’ and families’ point of view. Pozas et al. offer a comparative analysis, exploring primary school students’ and parents’ educational chances and challenges during homeschooling in two countries: Mexico and Germany. Following a qualitative approach, the authors interviewed parents and students with a particular focus on implementing homeschooling, learning from home, digitalisation, differentiated practices, assessment and social distancing.

Nusser’s study uses National Educational Panel Study data to compare German secondary school students with and without SEN concerning their management of the lock down situation through the eyes of their parents (N = 1452). Parents of students with SEN or low achievement level do not report more challenges in the home learning situation, but some reported dissatisfaction with the support from the school and the amount of learning time.

Canning and Robinson focus on home as a safe space for families and children with special educational needs and disabilities including autism during the lockdown in an interview study. Eight English families were included into the study. They point out the effects that the lockdown had on the once safe space called home, which in fact are that parents experienced pressure to conform external demands and showed a feeling of failure.

Digital learning in Germany is the focus of Börnert-Ringleb et al.’s paper. Within a quantitative study the authors examine teachers’ implementation of digital learning situations regarding several potential predictors on teacher, school and student levels from teachers’ perspectives (N = 772). Strongest predictors for teachers’ use of digital learning phases were found to be teachers’ perception of self-efficacy and supportive measures by school leaders.

The contribution of Ng et al. instead, gives insights into approaches to physical education during remote teaching phases by updating the European standards in adapted physical activity (EUSAPA). By analysing data deriving from 125 teachers from different European countries (France, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and the United Kingdom), 13 new functions were added to EUSAPA in order to make physical education during remote teaching possible.

Kast et al. investigate Austrian teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs (N = 3.467 teachers) towards teaching at-risk students via home learning using case vignettes. They found that teachers have positive attitudes and the highest perceived self-efficacy towards students who have an outstanding success in school, whereas attitudes towards students with a low socio-economic background are more negative compared to their attitudes towards students with low language skills in the language of instruction (LLS) and students with special educational needs. However, lowest scores in terms of self-efficacy beliefs were found for teaching students with LLS.

Quenzer-Alfred et al. focus on the transition between German nursery and primary schools in times of the COVID-19-lockdown from teachers’ perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative pre-post-tests with a single group design on children and qualitative interviews of parents, children and professional staff were used to investigate the development of basic school skills of children with and without SEN in a socially marginalised area during the COVID-19 shutdown. Results reveal that neither teachers nor parents recognised nurseries as a place for early childhood education or considered consequences of the lockdown on child development.

Page et al. investigate the school connectedness of Australian students on theoretical and empirical levels by conducting a qualitative study based on semi-structured teacher interviews. Authors explore how school connectedness could be fostered online for students with SEN during COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion

The current global situation due to the pandemic is – among others – considered to be a pivotal challenge not only within the context of educational practise but also within the field of educational research. The aggravating circumstances are highlighting the need to redraw the boundaries of what can be considered as educational research as well its adequate implementation in this time of uncertainty. The circumstances due to the pandemic have brought major changes on how research can be conducted: survey periods, places and methodologies of doing research had to be adapted to what is possible in terms of the specific situation. This Special Issue also offers a glimpse into the solutions that have been explored in the field of special and inclusive education research to continue empirical data collection processes. The short time frame that has been followed in the publication process of the Special Issue can also be seen as a consequence of the need to be able to offer concrete solutions to all the educational stakeholders involved as well as to highlight some paths to follow in the research as the situation is ongoing. Moreover, the same considerations could be expressed for methodological choices proposed by authors in this Special Issue. Those should be read in the light of the present emergency situation that calls urgently for research. (Bozkurt et al. 2020)

The optimistic belief of the editors had been that by the time the Special Issue was published, the extraordinary situation would have e improved greatly but, sadly, that seems unlikely to be the case. Education systems continue to be strongly challenged by the global health situation; in some countries, a second round of school closures has been taking place. In the light of this, the proposed contributions can be considered as starting points to address a resilient design of educational activity at school and in educational contexts with a specific lens of inclusion that takes account not only of students with special educational needs but of all students in the classroom.

Due to the ongoing state of exception, this special issue represents a collected insight into inclusive education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the scope of the urgency of researching the current situation, the special issue was prepared in a rapid process. We appreciate the commitment and conscientious cooperation of the authors and reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.