Educational Inclusion of Vulnerable Children and Young People After Covid‐19

Abstract

Although the exact impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the inclusion of vulnerable children and young people—nationally and internationally—is unknown, historical failures to address the link between poverty and low educational outcomes have reversed any progress hitherto achieved. This thematic issue speaks to the challenges faced by, and promises of inclusion made to, children and young people in the most vulnerable circumstances: It brings together a set of articles that detail the challenges educators, educational institutions, and students faced during the pandemic, while also discussing innovative approaches to include pupils in mainstream education and help them make progress against the odds. The pandemic has been an opportunity for both learning and unlocking potentialities toward innovative solutions. Taking stock of these solutions is important in preparing and strengthening schools, educators, and students to face the post‐pandemic era that is dawning, for public education systems need not only be seen as sites of frustration and challenge, but also as sites of promise and possibility.

Same Old New Normal: The Ableist Fallacy of “Post-Pandemic” Work

“…Although epidemiologists and clinicians around the globe continue to urge extreme caution and continued efforts to flatten transmission curves, many communities have significantly relaxed or completely rescinded Covid-19 restrictions (Huang & Zeng, 2022). Scholars of disability justice and educational equity alike have stressed that this should be a time for bold thinking and intentional action to make learning environments inclusive and safe for the most vulnerable people in our communities via distance options (Themelis & Tuck, 2022).…”

Social Inclusion of Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds: New Strategic Approaches to Educational Counselling and Communication

“…The pandemic and all the issues it generates, including educational ones, represent, beyond all its negative connotations and effects, a special opportunity to generate innovative solutions (Themelis & Tuck, 2022). Both for school practices and for research on the topic, it is necessary to increase/expand and diversify counselling activities with students from disadvantaged backgrounds both in pre-university and university education (Fortes et al, 2022;Vostanis & Bell, 2020).…”

“…-Among the counselling and communication strategies nominated and presented in these studies, with applicability during the COVID period and with a proposal for post-COVID preservation, development, valorisation are the so-called innovative virtual strategies (Themelis & Tuck, 2022) (with application, rather, to the didactic process but which can also be transposed to the counselling process with disadvantaged categories of students): seminar and workshop programmes on zoom, podcast series in which -diversity and inclusion were also a priority in selecting and inviting speakers for the zoominars and guests for the podcast‖ (Vila-Concejo et al, 2022, p. 1), -creating communities through regular online seminars‖ (idem, p.6), diversifying communication media (Leonardelli, 2022) trained in counselling (according to the students' technical possibilities);…”

“…For example, the peace circles method (Parker & Bickmore, 2020) can be successfully used in group counselling to educate the ability to overcome conflict situations that may arise due to the students' very different backgrounds; -an effective post-COVID solution is crystallising, one which combines online and face-to-face approaches, not only for psychological reasons but also for technical ones, in order to ensure -that students are not ‗left behind' by a lack of access to particular formats‖ (Jones et al, 2021, p. 2). The studies propose sets of measures which combine different perspectives, allowing the expression of vulnerability and self, -that help to traverse the ‗us versus them'‖ (Leonardelli, 2022, p. 8); -a systemic, holistic, coherent and flexible approach to counselling (-we cannot act alone‖) is required (Vostanis & Bell, 2020, p. 392) (Fortes et al, 2022;Themelis & Tuck, 2022;Dawkins, 2021;Zain, 2021), in which counsellors work in partnership with schools/teachers (Yada et al, 2021), families (Lohndorf et al, 2021;Silva-Laya et al, 2020;Vinas -Forcade et al, 2019), with social workers (Linder et al, 2022), with the local community (Reiling et al, 2022;Silva-Laya et al, 2020), with other educational, national and international organizations, with employers and different stakeholders (Vostanis & Bell, 2020) to strengthen their competences -in a caring and collaborative context‖ (Jonsson & Goicolea, 2020).…”

‘New normal’ or continued ‘social distancing’? Preschool practitioners’ responses to poverty across post-lockdown England and the USA

“…For instance, Howard (2020: 21) contends, ‘alongside the suffering and dislocation’ of COVID, ‘a huge window of opportunity has opened to leverage the best of the present into a future that works for all’ – with a particular ‘centre around care which has been irrupting back into the mainstream of public and political life’. In a similar vein it is argued ‘the pandemic has been an opportunity for both learning and unlocking potentialities toward innovative solutions’ and will act as ‘a springboard for the coming together of school communities and educational stakeholders to achieve commonly upheld targets’ (Themelis and Tuck, 2022: 156), thus reducing othering and social distancing.…”