Connection, connectivity and choice: Learning during COVID‐19 restrictions across mainstream schools and Flexible Learning Programmes in Australia

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic and associated school closures may have constrained educational participation particularly for students in disadvantaged circumstances. We explore how 30 disadvantaged students in secondary school (14 mainstream/16 Flexible Learning Programme) from Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania experienced home learning during the first wave of COVID‐19, teasing out nuances across two educational models. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with these students, our analysis revealed three interconnected themes inflecting their learning: connection, connectivity and choice. Connection captures the desire for belonging and practices that facilitated meeting this desire during system‐wide disruptions to school routines and face‐to‐face learning. Connectivity captures the impact of digitally facilitated learning at home on students' ability to engage with curriculum content and with their learning community. Choice captures the availability of viable options to overcome barriers students encountered in their learning and possibilities to flexibly accommodate student preferences and learning needs. Students from Flexible Learning Programmes appeared generally better supported to exercise agency within the scope of their lived experience of home‐based learning. Findings indicate a need for strengthening student‐centred policy and practices aimed at leveraging the affordances of information technology, balancing self‐directed and structured learning and providing holistic support to enable meaningful student choice.

Children and youth in the age of COVID‐19

“… Empirical analyses of the impacts of COVID‐19 on children and youth (Allen et al, 2023; Dinku & Yap, 2022; Mundy et al, 2022; Prattley et al, 2022; Price et al, 2022; Tomaszewski et al, 2022; Townsend et al, 2022). Public policies and services : Evaluation and examination of how policies or service changes have enhanced or undermined children and youth's well‐being or education during the pandemic (Bessell & Vuckovic, 2022; Mardinli et al, 2022; Plage et al, 2022). …”

“…As has been noted throughout this editorial, implications of school closures for the learning and emotional well‐being of students and disadvantaged students have been a concern from the inception of school closures. In a series of semistructured interviews with 30 secondary school students in Queensland, Tasmania and NSW, Plage et al (2022) explore how students experienced home learning during the first wave of COVID‐19. School belonging and connection, the capacity to connect digitally to learning and curriculum and the flexibility to accommodate students’ preferences and needs were considered by students as important factors in facilitating their learning.…”

“…The rapid systematic review by Coles et al (2022) is notable for synthesising the relevant literature prior to the pandemic; however, there is a strong need for ongoing synthesis and reviews of lessons from the pandemic across all the areas reviewed. While this special issue does address some lessons for public policy and service delivery (Bessell & Vuckovic, 2022; Mardinli et al, 2022; Plage et al, 2022), the significant and rapid reform of health and social service delivery in moving to remote delivery over this period warrants further systematic examination.…”