Vulnerable learners in the age of COVID-19: A scoping review
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Vulnerable learners in the age of COVID‑19: A scoping review Catherine F. Drane1 · Lynette Vernon2 · Sarah O’Shea1 Received: 6 May 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This scoping review provides an overview of COVID-19 approaches to managing unanticipated school closures and available literature related to young people learning outside-of-school. A range of material has been drawn upon to highlight educational issues of this learning context, including psychosocial and emotional repercussions. Globally, while some countries opted for a mass school shut-down, many schools remained open for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This partial closure not only enabled learning in smaller targeted groups but also offered a safe sanctuary for those who needed a regulated and secure environment. In Australia, if full school closures were to be enforced over a long period, a significant proportion of students from more vulnerable backgrounds would likely experience persistent disadvantage through a range of barriers: long-term educational disengagement, digital exclusion, poor technology management, and increased psychosocial challenges. This scoping review combines research on technology availability and learning, with analysis of the long-term educational impacts of navigating the COVID-19 disruption. Keywords COVID-19 pandemic · Education · Vulnerable young people · Disadvantage · Scoping review
* Catherine F. Drane [email protected] Lynette Vernon [email protected] Sarah O’Shea [email protected] 1
National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, Curtin University, Kent Street, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
2
School of Education, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA, Australia
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C. F. Drane et al.
Introduction The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has created huge worldwide repercussions, impacting economies, health sectors, and education systems, as noted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO 2020a,b,c). To address the significant disruption to learning and educational environments, UNESCO (2020b) swiftly developed ten key recommendations to ensure that learning across the globe remained relatively uninterrupted during the COVID-19 crisis. These recommendations span the whole learning sphere, including the well-being and educational needs of learners, as well as the emotional health of educators and the need for common directions/guidelines for educational institutions. Nationally, the Australian federal government responded to calls for mass school closures by commissioning research to inform the community of the effects for vulnerable young people.1 The way in which various countries and educational systems responded to this global pandemic provided the impetus for this scoping review with particular reference to how mass school closures could impact our most vulnerable learners. The responses to the pandemic have been evolving and fluid; however, what has become clear is that the COV
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