The COVID-19 pandemic brought about rapid change in the way education was delivered in terms of online teaching and how this was managed by families in their homes. This study looks at the relationship between home (first space) and school (second space) and uses the concept of the 'third space' (Bhabha, H. [1994]. The Location of Culture, London: Routledge) to explore home-school links. Nine participants working in six local authorities in Scotland were questioned during the first lockdown in 2020 and then interviewed during the second national lockdown in 2021. Their responses were analysed in terms of the awareness they had of home funds of knowledge and the influence this had on their pedagogy online. The researchers investigated whether a third space had emerged and, if so, what the features of this hybrid space were. A key finding relates to the role of parents in the third space, in loco magister. In the first lockdown, glimpses of third space learning were visible in children's achievements online. In the second lockdown, however, parental concerns to preserve some semblance of orderly family life led to the colonisation of the spatio-temporal dimensions of online teaching, seeing the return to more transmissive teacher approaches and missed opportunities for children's learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for unprecedented change within education systems around the world. Teaching and learning which had traditionally taken place in school classrooms suddenly moved online. Teachers’ responses to the emergency changed not just pedagogy but who was teaching as well as when and where teaching took place. Bhabha’s ‘third space’ (1994) provides a way of re-imagining the new spaces (both physical and virtual) which were created in response to the pandemic. We report on data from two research studies in Scotland conducted in the 2020-21 academic year covering two lockdown (stay at home) periods: one comprising interviews with nine educators in Scotland; the other study using two rounds of focus groups with eleven early career teachers. Our research thus enquires into the lockdown practices of a range of teachers and managers across different local authorities in Scotland, exploring how they engaged learners using digital technologies during two national lockdowns. Across both studies, digital technology played a key role in how this third space was mediated and the findings show participants’ emotional highs and lows of working within this new space. It also shows teachers’ changing perceptions of children and families and how power relations evolved over the lockdown periods. Technology facilitated the emergency response, but questions remain as to what the legacy of this forced shift will be. This paper points to the importance of two-way communication between home and school and how third spaces using digital technologies could bring home and school funds of knowledge closer together.

Four researchers at the University of Aberdeen investigated the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown on teachers’ practice in Scotland. We analysed information collected from primary teachers, a deputy primary school head teacher, secondary teachers of Biology, English, Mathematics, a secondary school head teacher and two regional education officers on how teachers reacted, adapted and responded to the first nationwide lockdown in response to COVID-19 (n=10). Home (first space) and school (second space) are often viewed as separate contexts with clearly defined and impermeable boundaries, although children participate in both spaces (Pahl & Kelly, 2005). We sought to understand the ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1990) between school and home that was created through online and blended teaching and learning. Working in such a space has implications and consequences for the teachers who have to institute new routines using new technologies and think about teaching differently.