University News Last updated 13 July 2021
A new international research project is exploring the effect school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children鈥檚 learning.
A new international research project is exploring the effect school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children鈥檚 learning.
Academics at 探花直播 are leading the research, which also involves The Big Issue, 探花直播 City of Sanctuary and other organisations across Europe.
The Collaborative, Community Mapping of Young People鈥檚 Learning Experiences During COVID-19 project 鈥� CO-MAP for short 鈥� is being carried out with partners across five European countries and is backed by 拢300k of funding from Erasmus+, the EU鈥檚 programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.
The project, which has just launched and which will take two years to complete, will bring together researchers, school teachers, young people and their families, community artists, charities, street newspapers, and other organisations from across the UK, Germany, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands.
Its aim is to explore how school closures during the pandemic affected young people鈥檚 experiences of teaching and learning across all five countries, comparing and contrasting responses to the closures in each and the impact on local communities.
Understanding how children and young people coped during the crisis is a critical aspect of the project and they will be given the opportunity to document their experiences though illustrated stories, which will be published in The Big Issue in the UK and similar street newspapers in the other countries involved.
Researchers will also be gathering accounts from parents and education practitioners as well as young people. Findings from each country will be used to inform future policy around potential school closures to better the experience of informal learning and home schooling for all.
CO-MAP project lead, Professor Alex Kendall from 探花直播, said:
The CO-MAP project will pay particular attention to how the pandemic has affected children living in difficult circumstances and already feeling marginalised, such as those experiencing financial strain or domestic abuse, and how COVID exacerbated existing problems such as mental health and wellbeing, diet and digital poverty.
Likewise, the project team will look at how the pandemic disproportionately affected other marginalised groups such as asylum seekers and refugees, building on previous research that 探花直播 carried out with refugee charity 探花直播 City of Sanctuary which aimed to reduce disparities in learning outcomes for these communities.
But the CO-MAP project is not solely focussed on the detrimental impact of school closures. It will also investigate and highlight how children adjusted to home schooling, what they achieved and learned throughout the pandemic, and the resilience they showed during this period of adversity.
Researchers also wish to draw attention to the efforts made by teachers to adapt their lessons and support their pupils, and present a positive picture of the help children were given by their parents and carers, family members, friends and the wider community.
Research Assistant for the CO-MAP project, Mary-Rose Puttick from 探花直播, explained:
Barbara Forbes, Coordinator at 探花直播 Schools of Sanctuary, part of 探花直播 City of Sanctuary, added:
鈥淭his project comes at just the right time as schools begin to count the cost of the last 15 months and reflect on how they coped while the vast majority of their pupils were confined to their homes.
鈥淲e know that our schools rose to this challenge so we鈥檙e looking forward to working with 探花直播 to learn from and promote what our schools did well and to acknowledge and attempt to overcome the obstacles they experienced.鈥�
Kepe R贸bert, Editor-in-Chief of Hungary鈥檚 Fed茅l N茅lk眉l newspaper, which is also supporting the CO-MAP project, said:
鈥淎s a result of the pandemic, young people in Hungary faced situations which before seemed so distant to them but which many marginalised minorities have regularly encountered such as exclusion and isolation. We are delighted to be involved in this international research project and to play our part in articulating the experiences of our vulnerable communities.鈥澨�