COVID-19 and Educational Consequences for (Vulnerable) Children from the Perspectives of Educational Psychologists

Abstract

The COVID-19 represents an unprecedented global interruption of education that leaves us with an abundance of unanswered questions related to the consequences of the pandemic and of the lockdown and school closure for children. In the article, I argue that we have seen two different approaches to the pandemic in relation to education and to understanding children and vulnerable children. The first approach emphasizes how pre-existing vulnerabilities have been worsened and exacerbated. From this perspective, the pandemic has exposed and amplified existing educational inequalities and made tacit structures of power and control more visible. The second approach acknowledges the consequences of the pandemic, but it also considers the current crisis as an opportunity to build back better. From this perspective, we are urged to use the pandemic as an opportunity to rethink education in more equitable ways. Based on qualitative interviews with educational psychologists (EPs), this article sheds light on these two different approaches and on some of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding vulnerable children and educational inequalities from the perspectives of EPs.