The cohesion of schools as intercultural communities in the management of COVID-19 pandemic. Reflections, narratives, fears and hopes from the voices of teachers and children in England and Italy

This presentation engages with the voices of children and teachers presenting how the management of the pandemic:
-impacted on children’s learning experience
-affected the networks of social relationships and intercultural dialogue that have the classroom as their substratum
…as both countries were facing a dilemma whether to (i) keep schools open to secure minimal conditions of socialisation for children or (ii) closing schools to prioritise the containment of the pandemic.
Focus on emerging commonalities between the two contexts found that
- The classroom can be a community of dialogic practices where personal and cultural identities are constructed and negotiated (Baraldi et al., 2018) in conditions of superdiversity (Vertovec, 2007).
- The classroom has been recognised as a crucial context for integration of children with migrant background
However, for the first time in many decades, children across Europe, and globally, have been removed from their primary contexts of socialisation in a public health scramble to contain the pandemic, primarily through extended lockdowns.
The following 2 themes extracted from data will be shared and discussed;
Impact on children’s learning experience
-Children’s needs, aspirations and expectations
-Children’s participation and performance
Effect on the networks of social relationships and intercultural dialogue
-Peer Relationships
-Relationships with family
-Teachers' voices